MLO 5: Cultural Internalization and Language Immersion
5.1. Students demonstrate that they have actively immersed themselves in authentic Japanese cultural and linguistic environments and have internalized the language and cultural experience, from which they have developed a personal understanding and new perspectives of the community.
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to study abroad at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies for an academic year. During my year abroad, I accomplished many of my personal goals: I made new friends from around the world, I was able to navigate around Nagoya on a solo trip, I joined an idol group fan club and participated in some of the group's fan events. I am a naturally shy person when I am in an area that I do not know very well so living in an international dorm made making friends much easier. While I may be open to hanging out with a group, there are times when I would like to travel by myself - which is why I challenged myself to travel around the Nagoya area alone. However, what I am most proud of is how I was able to achieve a fan club membership for one of my favorite idol groups.
It was not as easy as some blog posts had told me, mainly because of how much kanji I was required to read in order to apply for the membership. After a good thirty minutes of reading while using the Rikai kun extension on Google Chrome, I was able to sign up for the fan club in time and purchase a ticket to the group's fan meeting on Christmas Day. I was also able to go to their hi touch event and their summer concert. Through each experience, I was able to use the Japanese I had learned from my studies at NUFS with some of the fan club members I befriended, which made the experiences that much more amazing.
Although I was able to cross a few goals off of my list, there were still some activities that I was unable to do while studying in Japan. Some of the activities I could not do include: visiting Tokyo Tower, going to Tokyo Disneyland/Disney Sea, eat Kobe beef, and travel to Okinawa. The primary reason why I could not do any of these was the lack of time and money. If I can save up vacation days and budget my spending, I may be able to cross at least one of these things off my list during my next trip to Japan.
Some of the things I adjusted to while studying abroad include paying every bill with cash and walking uphill to school every morning. In America, I would often use my card to pay for my stuff - it made it easier to not carry a huge wallet. Living in Japan, however, I needed to get used to carrying cash on me at all times so I invested in a simple wallet from Daiso. As for walking uphill to school every morning, when I lived on campus at CSUMB, I would always walk to my classes; however, these classes were usually in the afternoon, which meant that I was able to sleep in if I could. In order to make the adjustment to morning classes, I set a few alarms on my phone, allowing me to wake up in the morning. The biggest help, by far, for making these adjustments was when I purchased a phone case that doubled as a wallet. It saved me space and time.
It was not as easy as some blog posts had told me, mainly because of how much kanji I was required to read in order to apply for the membership. After a good thirty minutes of reading while using the Rikai kun extension on Google Chrome, I was able to sign up for the fan club in time and purchase a ticket to the group's fan meeting on Christmas Day. I was also able to go to their hi touch event and their summer concert. Through each experience, I was able to use the Japanese I had learned from my studies at NUFS with some of the fan club members I befriended, which made the experiences that much more amazing.
Although I was able to cross a few goals off of my list, there were still some activities that I was unable to do while studying in Japan. Some of the activities I could not do include: visiting Tokyo Tower, going to Tokyo Disneyland/Disney Sea, eat Kobe beef, and travel to Okinawa. The primary reason why I could not do any of these was the lack of time and money. If I can save up vacation days and budget my spending, I may be able to cross at least one of these things off my list during my next trip to Japan.
Some of the things I adjusted to while studying abroad include paying every bill with cash and walking uphill to school every morning. In America, I would often use my card to pay for my stuff - it made it easier to not carry a huge wallet. Living in Japan, however, I needed to get used to carrying cash on me at all times so I invested in a simple wallet from Daiso. As for walking uphill to school every morning, when I lived on campus at CSUMB, I would always walk to my classes; however, these classes were usually in the afternoon, which meant that I was able to sleep in if I could. In order to make the adjustment to morning classes, I set a few alarms on my phone, allowing me to wake up in the morning. The biggest help, by far, for making these adjustments was when I purchased a phone case that doubled as a wallet. It saved me space and time.
Classes that fulfill this MLO:
To meet this MLO's requirement, I took JAPN 420: Maximizing Study Abroad and I studied abroad for a year at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies from August 2015 to July 2016. To read about my experiences, click on the NUFS button. To see some of my experiences, click on the LESCANT button.
To meet this MLO's requirement, I took JAPN 420: Maximizing Study Abroad and I studied abroad for a year at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies from August 2015 to July 2016. To read about my experiences, click on the NUFS button. To see some of my experiences, click on the LESCANT button.