Learning Model | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Service Learning Program: learning the importance of language

After completing my first year at APU, I participated in a three-month Service Learning Program offered by Old Dominion University (ODU) in Virginia, USA. This program combines language learning and service-learning (this took place through an ‘externship’, or professional shadowing, which was somewhat similar to volunteering).

I decided to take part in the program because I wanted to find out how much my English language abilities had grown after one year of studying at APU, and I wanted to test my abilities in an English-speaking country. I also thought it would be valuable to have some overseas work experience prior to job hunting.

During the first half of the program, I attended English language classes at a language school with students coming to learn English from all over the world. Grammar had always been my forte, so I did well on the placement test, and I was placed into the advanced class. However, I struggled to keep up with the other students when it came to speaking and listening. At one point, I even asked to be placed into a lower level. Then, one of my American teachers encouraged me by saying, "Be confident!". They told me that I would improve over time by interacting with my language partner and the local students. In the end, I stuck with the class, and I had a great performance in the debate competition, which was one of our final tasks.

In the second half of the program, I participated in a month-long externship at a local radio station called "iHeartMedia". One representative from the company became my mentor. I went to a different department each day and was able to observe and even try out a lot of different tasks. Specifically, it was very exciting when I actually accompanied the sales staff or saw the radio recording and editing work up close. Although my mentor was very busy as a representative of the company, he picked me up by car every day and asked me a lot of questions about Japan. I was really happy that he spoke to me so earnestly.

One American national trait is that they express their opinions clearly, and I think that had an effect on me. Afterwards, there were things I was able to do because I made my voice heard, such as work in my first-choice department. I learned not to be afraid of speaking my mind. Also, because my mentor spoke to me regardless of my nationality or my position as an extern, I decided that I wanted to view others without prejudice.

Domestic Exchange Program at Ritsumeikan University

In the fall semester of my third year, I went on exchange for six months to the College of Social Sciences at the Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa (Kyoto) campus. I wanted to study media and culture at another university and had originally planned to go to the United Kingdom on overseas exchange. However, when I looked into the details of APU's domestic exchange programs, I realized that, instead of going overseas, I could study culture and media in Japan at Ritsumeikan University while simultaneously improving my Japanese language proficiency. This also helped me decide that I wanted to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom after finishing at APU.

All of the classes at Ritsumeikan University were held in Japanese, which was a bit of a struggle, but the Ritsumeikan University writing support really helped me. Once I got accustomed to studying there, I joined a program where I received a language partner, and we consistently taught each other Japanese and English. I also made friends with the members of a student group that provided support to exchange students. I hung out with fellow APU students who were on the same exchange program, and I learned a lot about the Kansai region throughout my stay in Kyoto, too. In the end, I was glad I went on exchange in Japan. If I had gone overseas, my Japanese language abilities would not have improved nearly as much.

Moreover, studying at Ritsumeikan University afforded me a chance to look at APU more objectively. I realized that, because of the truly international environment at APU, APU domestic students are used to having international students around, which is not the case with Japanese students at other universities.

The SEND Program: deciding my goals

In the summer of my second year, I participated in an educational internship on the SEND Program. I went to a junior high school in Loei, a province of Thailand, to teach Japanese. I worked in a team with two other APU students, but during the first week, we often clashed with each other, since we had totally different opinions. I was interested in how we could motivate students to study Japanese, while the other team members were more interested in creating class materials and increasing students’ proficiency levels. For those reasons, we sometimes had to teach classes even though we weren’t fully prepared. However, we understood that we were working as interns, and we were responsible for our work. After discussing the situation amongst ourselves, the three of us shared our goals and established a cooperative framework in which we were able to work together and support each other.

Since this was a short one-month program, and we were teaching total beginners who did not even know the Japanese alphabet, we decided that our goal was for students to remember general greetings and useful Japanese phrases for daily life, such as oishii, the Japanese word for ‘delicious’. Through these classes, we wanted to inspire students to take an interest in Japan. We hoped that, during that one-month period, we would be able to motivate them to study Japanese in the future.

Thai junior high school students are easy to understand. If they weren’t interested in the class, they wouldn’t pay attention. If they thought the class was interesting, they would listen very carefully. The students’ interest in Japanese and desire to learn would change depending on what we did in class. With this in mind, we did everything we could to make the class more engaging, such as writing Japanese, English, and Thai on the vocabulary cards we used in class, so that even students who were still learning English could understand and participate.

Working with other people on the SEND Program showed me how my actions could influence and motivate others, which drew me to study human resource management. I would study human resource management when I went on exchange to Hanyang University, but this experience made me want to explore it even further.

Creating my own comfort zone on the Overseas Exchange Program

In the spring of my senior year, I went on overseas exchange to Hanyang University in Korea, where I studied human resource management. I worked hard on my English skills before coming on this program, so I was able to adapt to English classes very smoothly. However, there were no other Japanese people nearby, and when I went into town, it was an all-Korean language environment. Since I came to South Korea without studying Korean at all, at first, I felt stressed out by the unfamiliar environment. To resolve this issue, I participated in international exchange events with other exchange students and Korean students, where I was able to talk about the things that were bothering me and learn a bit of Korean. This helped a lot to reduce my stress levels. I began to think of that environment, where I was the only Japanese person, as an advantage. Throughout my exchange, I asked myself whether I was truly taking advantage of this environment and how I was growing as a person. Thanks to this experience, I’m confident that, no matter where I go, I’ll be okay.