Seminar I in 2015-Self-introductions

Seminar I – 2015

Name: Yuiko 
Hometown: Tomisato, Chiba
Places visited: USA (LA, Boston), Hong Kong, Italy, Poland, Austria


 Hello. I am writing this self-introduction from Poland. I am an exchange student at the University of Warsaw. I have just finished the semester. I really would like to stay here longer because Warsaw is a historical and beautiful city, and it is a great city for studying, but I also look forward to going back to Japan. My university life in Japan is also exciting, and I am very glad to be a member of Ichiyama-Zemi. Actually, I did not go to high school because I used to be a ballet dancer till I had a serious injury, so for this reason, I feel that my time at JIU is precious and it is the beginning of my second life. I will study as much as I can until graduation.

Name: Minoru
Hometown: Sousa (匝瑳) city, Chiba Prefecture, Japan
Places visited: The U.S., Hong Kong, Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland

I think everyone has “a key word for self-introduction.” In my case, it is “Czech” because I’m one of the first students who took every Czech language course at JIU and I will study at JIU’s sister University in the Czech Republic later this year. In fact, when I started to take Czech IA, I didn’t have a good reason for taking this class. But the more I learned about Czech, the more interested I became. Then finally, I could get a chance to study in that country. I’ve been involved with Czech and also with Czech Republic as a member of the V4* group. Sometimes I lead the  “European music group of JIU.” We are mainly sharing European songs and dance amongst ourselves. We will hold a small concert at the next JIU Festival, but unfortunately, I won’t be able to participate. I’ll be in the Czech Republic as an exchange student from September to January. So I’m looking forward to seeing you at the JIU Festival in “2016”!!

*V4=Visegrad 4 is an alliance of four central European countries- Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.


Name: Yurika 
Home Town: Ibaraki
Places visited: America, Thailand and Spain

I love to laugh and smile. I think that smiling is a symbol of peace. I also like to street dance. Dancing doesn’t use any spoken language but we can “speak” by using our bodies. Dance is a great way to communicate with everyone. We can act out our own feelings through dance. I went to America to study on an exchange program for two months. I think that communicating with other people and expressing your own mind are two very important things for a person. I need to practice speaking my opinion.

Name: Hugo
Places visited: Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, The Netherlands

I was born in Hong Kong and moved to Canada when I was 17. The first vocabulary I learnt when I first moved to Canada was “discrimination.” I was the only Asian student in my high school. All other Canadian students liked to bully me such as teasing and imitating my weird English. Meanwhile, I used to have tons of quarrels with some of my homestay families. I realize that all these incidents were in a sense what one calls “discrimination” - an academic vocabulary that describes a black sheep is disgusting and nasty in the group of white sheep.
However, I am thankful for I had been suffering in all these difficulties in this period of time. Indeed, I was suffocated by all these sufferings; however, in a way they forced me to be independent quickly. On the other hand, I had obtained and understood a lot of principles of life such as how to deal with a group of people whose background is totally different from mine.
With carrying this principle, I moved to Hawaii in 2012 and made a lot of friends. All my companies are my buddies and I won’t forget them in the rest of my life. Now, as a foreign student in Japan, I would like to utilize my diplomacy in order to be a successful person in Japan.
I am addicted to the Japanese cuisine. The way that Japanese people cook the Takoyaki shocked me when I was a child. “How incredible and amazing is the Japanese cuisine?”, this idea jumped into my head suddenly by the time I tasted my first Takoyaki ball in my childhood. Undoubtedly I am now drenched in all this fascinating Japanese cuisine. Therefore, I can say that luckily I am now in Japan and being able to accomplish the goal of my childhood - to experience the Japanese cuisine.


Name: Leo
Hometown: Tokyo (birthplace is Hokkaido)
Places visited: Hong Kong, U.S, Italy, France, Spain, Canada, UK,          Germany, Bahamas, Australia

In the future, I want to be an international sign language interpreter, because my parents are deaf.  I can use Japanese sign language. I'm studying English sign language in order to be an international sign language interpreter.

Haruka
Hometown : Chiba prefecture, Chiba City
Birthplace : Hokkaido
Place visited : California, Hong Kong, Hungary, Hawaii

I'm very curious, and I'm a positive person. I have experienced many things and learned about Japanese and American societies. And I never once regretted things. I believe that failure is the way to success. I've ever been to a few countries. Then I learned differences to Japanese culture. And I really want to keep learning more. Finally I want to make use of my experience in my future career.

Name: Renato
Hometown: Victoria, BC Canada
Places visited: Japan, United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea,          Philippines, Singapore

Hi everyone! I’m currently a 3rd year student at JIU majoring in International Exchange, but when I was still a student at Camosun College I majored in Psychology.  After coming to Japan in 2013 as an international student, I decided that I wanted to transfer into and graduate from this school. Now I’m working pretty hard towards graduation and once I finish, I’m hoping to pursue my dream as an English teacher in Japan. I enjoy travelling quite a lot, so hopefully before I graduate I can explore more of Japan outside of just Chiba and Tokyo! Thanks for reading! Hope to enjoy a good year with everyone!

Name: Koichiro
Hometown: Miyagi prefecture
Places Visited: Hong Kong, the U.S and Poland

Hi everyone, I am interested in learning how to communicate in English. I am outgoing and I really like to communicate with people. My hobbies are swimming and surfing. In high school I was part of the swimming club and I’ve been in swimming competitively for 15 years. I also took part in the National Swimming Competition in Japan and I came in second place.
I have travelled to Hong Kong, Poland and the US (where I studied English) to sightsee and learn about each of their own cultures. In the US, I was accepted into the Walt Disney Internship where I had a lot of great experiences. During the internship I had 5 roommates who came from: France, Spain, and the Netherlands. They were really nice and interesting people.  When I first met them I asked one of my roommates
“Where are you from?”
He said. “I am from the Netherlands.”
At that time I didn’t know where the Netherlands was. I knew the Japanese name, but I didn’t know what it was in English. That’s why I thought, “Oh, you are from Neverland?!?  Are you Peter Pan?  That’s why you came to Walt Disney World. I got it”. These are the kinds of jokes I like (Please don’t tell anybody about that. Actually I really didn’t know about the Netherlands.  In Japan we use “Holland” more often. It was embarrassing. Ha-ha.) Thank you. See you soon!!


Name: Misa
Hometown: Chiba
Places Visited: America (twice), Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore

Hi, everyone. I was born in Ishikawa prefecture, but I live in Chiba. When I was a high school student, I went to Korea and Singapore. I’ve been to Hong Kong and America since I entered this university. I studied in California for about 6 months. I am an energetic outgoing person. I love going out and meeting people. I love shopping and showy clothes and sparkling things. In the future, I want to live and work in Los Angeles. I love the people, the climate and everything including the food there. If you are of the same opinion, please come to the JIU festival and talk with me.
  
Name: Kamiyu
Hometown: Tokyo
Places Visited: Malaysia, Philippines, the US, Thailand

I used to hate English before entering JIU. However, I came here and I have met many people, visited new places, and had wonderful experiences. It helped change my life. I am going to America from this summer. I am looking forward to meeting new friends and trying new things. Nowadays, I like English so JIU is one of the important places for me. I smile when I come to JIU. My world would be boring without that. I’m certain you will surely end up smiling if you come to JIU.
Thank you.

Name: Mizuki
Hometown: Akita City
Places visited: Hong Kong, Spain, America (Hawaii), Switzerland, France, Germany

I started to like English when I was a high school student. My hometown is Akita, but I went to high school in Nagoya because of the brass band club. And my club was invited to join the military music festival in Europe. There were a lot of foreigners there and we talked in English every day. It was my first time to go abroad, and communicate with foreigners but I enjoyed myself a lot. And then I came to like English and decided to study abroad. Now, I was able to achieve my dream at JIU. I studied in Hawaii for eight months, and learned many things not only English. So if you are interested, you can ask me anything about Hawaii.

Name: Mayu
Hometown: Yamanashi
Places Visited: America 4 times (Idaho, California, Iowa, Florida),         Hong Kong and Canada

I have participated in a few programs since I entered Josai International University. I am really having fun talking and learning about their countries, cultures, and lots of new things with people from all over the world. I also like to share and tell them about Japanese culture, so I am taking Teaching Methodology of Japanese. If you have the same interests or had some international experiences, I would love to talk with you.

Name: Upon
Hometown: Guangxi
Places Visited: Japan, Vietnam

I am Upon. I am a tough girl--tough meaning independent and strong. My experience had made me become a tough girl. In order to receive better education I had to leave home after finishing primary school. I learned to take care of myself and become a better person in the following 10 years. My parents want me to be a tough girl. So when I make a choice they don't say "I agree" or "I disagree" but they just tell me what may happen and I should take responsibilities for the results of my actions no matter if they are bad or good. Most of the time I am loyal to my heart not following my brain… so in high school I choose to be a science student and study hard for 4 years but I still failed the National College Entrance Exam. Even though my hard work didn't pay off the experience made me stronger. I am not clever but I am tough. I changed from the science field to art and humanities. So now when I face two roads and one is flat one and one is tough, I will choose the latter. This thought changed my life and I chose to study in Japan. I chose to enter our seminar because I believe this is the tough road and it will be colorful and amazing.

Name: Zhang Yongqing 
Hometown: Henan, China
Places Visited: Japan
If you want, you can call me Sunny--that's my English name. I'm 22 years old, and I was a professional model at the age of 16. At that time, I almost gave up my education and dreamed to be famous. I learned many things about modeling, and took part in many model competitions. But the more I learned about being a model, the more afraid I felt. Because I finally realized that model is a temporary job. That is only for younger people. And once I get older, I will lose everything. So I changed my mind and I continued my education. Now, I have another dream. I hope to be able to speak Japanese and English better in two years, and I will do my best to achieve that.

Name: Hayuru
Hometown: Miyagi
Places visited: Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, America (mainland and Hawaii),     Hungary

My name is Hayuru-- it's a difficult name. My mother gave me this name. The reason is because my family name is Sato. Sato is the most common name in Japan. My parents thought I needed a rare name.  Hayuru's Chinese character is . It means shining and standing, nice. And my mother really likes movies. ' is the character used for movies.  I'm from Sendai city and I like 牛タン (beef tongue) and strawberries from Miyagi very much.  My family and I are 楽天イーグルス fans.
I had never been to foreign countries before entering JIU. In my first year, I went to Hong Kong City University and UC Riverside with Professor Ichiyama, and I also went to Hungary. In my second year, I started 日本語教員養成課程 classes, I taught Japanese in Taiwan and Hawaii. And I went to the California State University, Long Beach. I have been able to go to many countries and I have become “bigger” mentally and physically! I look forward to meeting you.

Name: Haruka G
Home Town:  Miyagi Prefecture
Places Visited: Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Philippines
Hello, everyone. This seminar has two “Harukas”, so I put “G” for my name.
I went to Australia and New Zealand when I was a junior high school student to go sightseeing and learn English with my school friends. It was my first homestay experience, and at that time I couldn’t speak English very well, so it was so hard for me to share my opinions. And since I entered university, I have been to Malaysia to study English and exchange cultures. This was my first time to go to an Asian country, and I really became more interested into Asian things. And I have been to Philippines to study for 7 months. I entered Ateneo de Manila University. There I studied development studies and English. 
I take Japanese teaching methodology as a minor. I realized Japanese is a difficult language, so I need to study more about Japanese and I would like to share Japanese culture with more people.


Name: Kenji Iwaki
Hometown: Tokyo
Places visited: Hong Kong, Spain, Korea, Philippines

I was born in the Philippines and I lived there until age 10.  After that I came to Japan.  I'm a Japanese and Philippine mix. And also I can speak English, Japanese and the Philippine language. I joined the Hong Kong and Spain programs at JIU last year. As for English, I tried to go study abroad but I couldn’t go.
I like watching and playing sport--especially I love volleyball and basketball. In the university I joined the volleyball club. And I like traveling, too. If I get enough time and money I’d like to go to Hawaii and France.  I also love talking with everybody—even the people I meet for the first time.  So talk to me!









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