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 3^rd 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 4times (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 映. It means shining and standing, nice. And my mother really likes movies. 映' 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!