Japanese University and College Educational Information

Life in Japan- Voices from students study in Japan

Hello everyone, I’m very happy to have this chance to share my overseas study life experience in Japan with you. I hope that what I’m going to say will do a little help to you!

I am a 23-year-old overseas student from China and now I am studying on my post graduate degree in Tokyo. I came to Japan 2 years ago as an exchange student from a foreign studies university in China. Actually, I was majored in Japanese studies so I think I have already been familiar with the Japanese culture before I came here. Of course, that made me feel that I was lucky, because I didn’t have to get shocked by a lot of “first time” when I started a new life in a different culture. I had already read much of them on the text books and magazines. However, after I came to Japan and started adapting to the new environment, I found that things in the text books were not always as useful as you thought. And the most typical example which I want say is “Language”.

Maybe you are doing quite good on your Japanese study now. Maybe you can remember all the words and texts in your books or get a high score in the examinations easily. If things are just going on as what I said, then I have to clap for you because that’s really great and I’m sure these will do a lot of good to you. But on the other hand, only by these high scores, you could never think there will be no language problem after you arrive in Japan. Trust me, I was studying Japanese as a professional in a famous foreign studies university and I was also called one of the top class students. I’m not showing off, but to be frank, I thought I was not bad. However, even a “person” like me was absolutely shocked by the language evironment. When I first arrived in Japan, I often found that the Japanese people around me were talking so excitedly but I could hardly get their meanings. That’s because their talks were always fast and unclear, besides, the young people have their own fashion words and expressions which could be far beyond our text levels. When they asked me something, there was nothing I could answer but “Yes” because I even didn’t catch up with the question. I really felt shameful at that moment and I even didn’t want to talk about that I was majored in Japanese. Finally, I deeply felt that the “text book foreign language” is quite far from the “practical foreign language”. You could never get smooth communications with others or explain yourself clearly if you only know what you’ve learned from school.

It is obviously that being deaf and dumb is a really really tough thing. After I realized this, I began search for every chance to practise my listening and speaking skills. Such as taking part in the university activities, being a volunteer of the city’s international communication activities or making some native friends. I tried to make good use of every chance to listen or talk to the native speakers. I found that most of the Japanese are very kind, they will be happy to help you with your language studies. When I was left by myself, I usually chose watching the TV shows. I didn’t care what the contents are. I just watched it, listened and tried to understand what they were talking about. Nowadays, the Japanese animation has spread all over the world, many young people are crazy about it, me included. I found that it’s quite good for your listening and pronunciation to watch these animations and it’s won’t be boring because you are studying during relaxing. If you like them as well, then I would like to congraduate you because you’ve already got a lot of great and practical study contents. Of course, I believe the Japanese dramas and movies could also be useful.

With all these daily training, I found I’ve made a great progress on my practical Japanese study. Although I can not say my Japanese is good enough because I still make funny mistakes or fail to communicate with others sometimes now. I can feel a great sense of achievement when I did something successfully, such as getting a scholarship, contracting for a removement, applying for the internet through telephone, and so on…You may think these things are not worth mentioning now, but I’m sure that you’ll find it’s hard to do these things without the ability of so called “practical foreign language” after you come here.

I will be really sorry if I’ve made it sounds terrible to live or study in Japan for the newcomers and those who are planning to come. The other thing I have to say is that most of the teachers in universities are very kind. They always speak fluently and clearly during in the class, some of them would even help you with your lessons and Japanese study privately, so you don’t need to worry about the school life. You can catch up with the native students quickly as long as you put every effort to your studies. Remember that, read every book the teacher has recommended, write every report carefully instead of the meaningless copy. Then you’ll make great progress both in your school lesson and your foreign language ability.

I will apologize if I ‘ve said something just makes you feel boring. Maybe I should have told you something more interesting like my getting lost in the Shinjuku Station when I first came to Japan, or some life guidance like how to buy some cheaper things in the supermarket. But I think you can get these kinds of life skills from any other overseas student, after all these things have already become the common sense for living abroad. And what I have said above were all my personal experience. I’ve suffered the communication problems which was really terrible, so I hope that all of you can avoid them more easily after my advice.

No matter who you are and where you are from, when you decide to start a brand new life in Japan, please ask yourself first, if you have already been prepared for a tough war against the endless language study.

Believe in yourself and do the best you can! Wish all of you have a wonderful life in Japan!

Xuran, from Tokyo