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| The International Student Center |
It has been almost 3 years, but I still remember very clearly my first days at Kyushu University.
I had come as a research student and was eager to start my research as soon as possible. I thought I already knew Japanese, but I was quite surprised to realize I could hardly understand what anybody was saying around me.
As my level of Japanese language was not high enough to allow me to take regular courses, I started Japanese language reading comprehension classes at the International Student Center of Kyushu University.
The level of the courses was high and I had to work hard to keep up with my other foreign student classmates. After 6 months when I finished, again, I was sure I could do as well as anybody else in the regular courses. So I took part, for the first time, in one regular course.
More than half of my classmates were foreign students too and I felt, for a moment, relieved until one of them started to make a presentation on the theme of the day. I had one handout of the presentation in front of me and I was listening at the same time to the explanation, but still, to the end, I felt that I had not understood one single word.... And it was then that I began to wonder whether I myself was ever going to be able to read and speak Japanese that fluently. But I told myself, if another foreign student can do it, I could do it, too! It has been almost 3 years since that day. I am still learning Japanese, but now I do not feel that I know the language anymore. On the contrary, the more I learn about it, the more difficult it seems, and the more interesting. And I always have other foreign students around me who (unknowingly) become my models.
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| Before entering Kyudai as a regular student, an international student usually takes Japanese language courses. Sometimes Japanese students join the classes so that international students can learn Japanese in a friendly atmosphere, as shown above. |
I do have Japanese friends and classmates, and my professors are always ready to help me and explain anything I might ask, but I could never hope to speak Japanese as they do.
Finding so many other foreign students here at the university was the best thing I could hope for. I could compare myself to them, try to reach their level and then be better, try to improve my understanding of Japan and Japanese language and also improve theirs, through my research.
Now I am a second year Master degree student and I am doing comparative research on Japanese and Romanian onomatopoeia and mimetic words. For my graduation thesis, I have made a Japanese- Romanian Onomatopoeia Dictionary that I am hoping to improve, together with a more comprehensive study of these words, when I became a Doctor degree student.
I know my coming to Kyushu University has changed my life and will change my future career. And I hope my being here will make a difference for other foreign students who come every year and especially for those back home, in my country, who do not have the chance to come, but are as willing to learn and know about Japan and Japanese language as we are here.