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教育プログラム|連携事業
When I was young, an exchange student did a homestay at my house, so I have always wanted to see the world outside of Japan. Since my admission to APU, I have had a clear goal to study abroad as soon as possible, namely, in my 4th semester. To prepare for study abroad, I improved my reading and listening skills by reading English newspapers and textbooks and watching English lectures by famous people on the internet.
I decided to study at the University of Helsinki because it had a wide selection of attractive subjects like Education Systems, Gender Studies and Sociology. All of the classes were held in English. I always considered myself good at English until I found myself in an environment where being bilingual is par for the course and the discussions in major subjects are conducted in English. This changed my perspective. I started asking other my classmates for help when I was unsure, and after a while, I not only made new friends, my English improved.
I shared a dorm room with female students from the United States, Estonia and China. It really opened my eyes to the different sets of values that people have. I expected I would be used to this multicultural environment since I had lived in AP House, but even the littlest things, like cleaning habits, often reminded me of our different ways of living. In the first three months, there were times when I just endured some situations, but after a while, I was able to strike a balance between adapting to foreign cultures and my recognizing my personal comfort zone.
My interactions with the people of Finland made me come to appreciate their lifestyle—how they valued nature and spending time with family. Scandinavia has a shared set of values about the true meaning of wealth and what it means to be an 'advanced nation', and I would like to spread these ideas throughout Japan.
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