Kyudai News No27 page 20/28

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Kyudai News No27

Kaoru: I’m studying science, but I’m alsointerested in the arts, so it was great. TheKIKAN Education seminars gave us thechance to listen to other students’ visionsfor the future and I discovered thateveryone’s views vary.Nonoka: The most interesting KIKANEducation class for me was JapaneseCulture and Affairs. There are equalnumbers of Japanese and internationalstudents in this class, working in groups ofsix or seven to gain a deeper understandingof other cultures while communicating witheach other. The topic in each lesson differsand we started off just by introducingourselves; then, as the weeks went by, wehad lessons where we spent an houroutside, playing tag and other children’sgames from each country. At the end of thecourse, the assignment was to ask questionsabout each other’s countries that we feltuncomfortable asking. For example, therewere questions like “I have the impressionthat many South Korean women arestrong-willed, but are they really like that?”and “What about the relationship betweenKorea and Japan?” The final assignmentwas for all of us to get together to dosomething in our spare time. It was a reallyenjoyable class, because we weren’tfocusing solely on the good points of eachcountry, but having fun while looking atmore sensitive or complicated matters aswell. I’ve also made more friends.In addition, although I’m in the School ofLetters, I also had the chance to take amathematics class. Although it’s amathematics class, philosophy and historyalso come up, and I was fascinated todiscover that mathematics and philosophyare linked. I don’t think I’d have realizedthat if I’d taken only arts classes.Are you members of any student clubs orsocieties?Mingi: I’m a member of the KyushuUniversity International FriendshipAssociation (KUIFA). It’s a society topromote friendship between internationalstudents and Japanese people throughcross-cultural exchange. We do things likecooking and going camping together.Yujie: I’m in the Kyushu UniversityForeign Students Association (KUFSA).Unlike KUIFA, KUFSA is a society forinternational students only, so all of themembers are foreign nationals. KUFSAholds sports tournaments and talent shows.We also went on a trip to a hot spring inOita.Kaoru: Nonoka’s the manager of thestudent yachting club and I’m in thelacrosse club. We have activities four daysa week from 5 until about 7.30 p.m. and it’sa really nice feeling when the others say“welcome home” when I get back from ahard training session. Once I start playingin tournaments, I’d like to ask the others tocome and watch.I suppose there must be times when youcome home late after club activities, but doyou all eat together.Nonoka: It varies: sometimes we’ll eatseparately and sometimes together. Theother day, having talked the previous dayabout making cheese fondue, we made andate fondue together at 11 at night.Kaoru: I had a training session, so theothers were kind enough to wait for me toget back.What would you say is the best thing aboutliving together?Yujie: Not being lonely. (Everyone agrees)When I caught a cold and had a fever, theothers made me grated apple in the middleof the night and generally looked after me. Iwas so happy. Thanks, everyone!Nonoka: I’m a bit embarrassed, but... Ihave to say, I really enjoy the meals we eattogether.Kaoru: It was my birthday the other dayand the others were kind enough toorganize a celebration for me.Nonoka: The two international studentsmade a cake and we all shouted“Congratulations!” when it got to midnight.The two international students always takethe lead in making preparations before anevent. It goes without saying that I’m glad Iopted to share a room, but I’m particularlyglad that I was sharing with these girls.Do you interact with students in otherrooms in Dormitory Ⅲ?Nonoka: We sometimes get together in oneof the rooms and hold a tempura party.We’ve had up to ten people in this room attimes.Kaoru: Once, we got together with anotherfriend from Dormitory Ⅲ and the five of uswent hiking to Futamigaura. It took abouttwo hours just to go one way, but it wasgreat fun. A local man we met on themountain trail was kind enough to give ussome mandarin oranges. Futamigaura’sreally nice ? I’d definitely recommend it.Nonoka: The people around here are verykind, which is part of the appeal.Are there any other spots in Fukuoka thatyou’d recommend?Yujie: There are many lovely spots nearthe sea, like Shimoyamato, FutamigauraThanks to the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Learning ofSocial Issues Courses and the KIKAN Education seminars,we developed the ability to ask difficult questionsabout each other’s countriesIt’s a nice feeling when the others say“welcome home” when I get back19