During the time abroad so far, I haven’t felt I’m actually an outsider in Japan since everything is very similar to my own country: the way to take the train, my appearance, and the way people talk. I could easily get into society. This helps me learned that when people have similar culture and backgrounds, they are more likely to get into society easily. I don’t experience a lot of homesickness. I facetime with my family almost every day, and I spend more time with my friends and my best friend just came over to Japan during my Spring Break. We spent a great time together. I feel connected with my host culture since everything for me is similar to what I’ve experienced in my own country.
My language skill has improved a little. During the Spring Break, I always use Japanese when my friend and I arrived at hotels and restaurants since my friend doesn’t speak Japanese. It’s a little difficult to use my third language especially I’m not really fluent in Japanese, but it gets better as time goes.
The most impactful assignment I’ve had completed was an assignment for my management class. It allowed me to dig into my insight a lot and found out what my values and weaknesses were and developed a way to use my values and overcome my weaknesses. This would help me a lot in my future career and it also can help me to develop my self-discipline to help me to create good living habits.
I don’t agree with Curtis S. Chin. I think studying abroad provides students opportunities to spend a semester in a foreign country and get to know the language, culture, and people’s living style. Students can learn a lot in a foreign country and they could actually live in a country they really want to go to. Students could even have chances to get internship opportunities in those countries. They would learn how does it look like to work in another country and it would help them a lot for their future careers. Studying abroad should not be only for education but also for gaining experiences in foreign countries and get to know the culture and traditions.
My interactions are mostly based on shopping and transportations. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what people are talking about since I’ve only learned Japanese for two and a half years. I spend my time traveling around cities nearby Osaka and exercising. I like sightseeing in different places to get to know the history of Japan. I’ve been to Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Tokyo and Hakone. I like Kyoto the best because it was the capital of Japan before and a lot of history is in Kyoto and those ancient streets are beautiful.