Student Voice

As someone who went to the same school and had the same friends for years, I took a big leap by coming to Japan. New challenges lay ahead, such as the language barrier. When I first landed in Japan, I couldn’t read most of the labels and signs as they were all in kanji (Chinese characters). I remembered ordering a dish with the most beautiful kanji name although I had no idea what the food was. However, the daily Japanese courses has helped me in a lot of ways. Now, I began to gradually recognize and understand some kanji on the signboard that I used to not understand.

Living together in the dorm brings a lot of experiences. A lot of times, people knock on my door to offer me food, which is such a pleasant surprise. My friends and I also have dinner parties where we cook and share our national dishes. We share not only joyful moments, but also jittery ones. Living next to each other means doing assignments or cramming before exams together is possible. We support each other, thus we could finish all our tasks with smiling faces.

As for academic experience, I was surprised in the beginning because the classes were very lively. People liked to participate actively. This is very different from my country as most of the students are quiet and only answer questions when their names are called. At first, it took time for me to be used to this, but all those friendly Professors and friends help me to take part more often in class.

As Nagoya University is well known for its advancement in Chemistry, studying the subject here would definitely give me a lot of opportunities. For instance, Chemistry Science students have the opportunity to join one of ten laboratories available in the 4th year. Even though I am still a freshman, I look forward to taking part in real research projects in my final year. It must be interesting to carry out various experiments using Nagoya University’s cutting edge lab equipment.