下のスクリプトは事前提出されたものですので、ビデオの音声とは一部異なる場合があります。

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Dreams of Travel vs. Reality: Students Helping Students

Tokuyama National College of Technology

Hello, everybody! We are from Tokuyama Kosen. I’m Shohei Hamasaki.

I’m Sari Nakami.

I’m Hatsuki Kakuno.

Today, we are going to present a program that we originated to help the students at our Kosen become global engineers. What is a global engineer, Sari?

It can be defined as one who has the ability to communicate and work with people of diverse backgrounds, using English as a communication tool. Possessing a wide knowledge of engineering, and the practical skills to use that knowledge in resolving contemporary global problems.

For convenience, let us refer to global engineers as G.E.’s in this presentation.

Have you ever thought you want to work abroad as a G.E?

Definitely, yes.

Yes, of course.

All of us have been abroad. The purpose of our going was not only to improve our English skills but also to experience what it might be like to be a G.E. Before we went abroad, we thought, “If we go abroad, we will be able to master English easily and become global engineers automatically.” So, confidently we left Japan without much preparation.

Naturally, we all had unpleasant experiences. We weren’t able to improve our English so much. We weren’t able to become G.E.’s overnight, either. Our hardships became the basis for this program. Now, we will talk about what the hardships made us learn and start.

I went to New Zealand two years ago to study English at a language school attached to a polytechnic institute for one month. I often had trouble with my English and always regretted my lack of preparation. After coming back to Japan, I realized two things. First, it is difficult to improve your English even in English-speaking countries without hard work in Japan. Second, I want to share my experiences with anyone who is planning to study abroad.

I need to say that before leaving Japan, we were all given some guidance by our teachers. However, it proved to be inadequate. If only we had had the chance to listen to the experiences of the students who went before us, we could have better prepared. This sense of regret led us to launch a program to help students who will study abroad.

We held two workshops; in April and in June this year. In the workshops, we talked to the students about what they should do before going abroad, told our personal anecdotes, and shared how we tried to overcome our hardships. Of course, we didn’t neglect to tell them about our pleasant experiences, too.

Let’s take some time now to share some slides from our workshops.

I went to America two years ago and stayed in an American home for 10 months. At first, I barely understood what people around me were saying. A few weeks after my arrival, a student from Vietnam visited my host home. I was extremely embarrassed because he laughed at my English level in front of my host family. It was painful. Don’t let this happen to you! I must encourage you to study English as hard as you can before going abroad.
I talked about the need for gaining adequate vocabulary in your specialty. One day, I met a man at school majoring in architecture like me. We chatted for a while; so far, so good. However, when the topic shifted to architecture, I couldn’t express my ideas in English at all. I was shocked.

Oh my goodness.

My lack of English vocabulary in the field was the problem. Acquire a good English vocabulary in your specialty, and it will make your experience a happy one.

I went to an Australian university last year to do research for three months. I joined the university racing team and started my research. One day, when my teammates and I were trying to adjust the engine of a racing car, I was asked to increase the engine speed to 16,000. I followed the instruction. But suddenly, fire came out of the muffler.

Wow, what happened?

I was really upset. Actually, I misheard the number and increased the engine speed to 60,000. I implore you to boost your listening comprehension in English as much as possible.

Fortunately, we enjoyed uplifting experiences, too. We received many accolades for our excellent knowledge in math and programming. So, keep on studying these subjects hard in Japan so that you can have the confidence to be relaxed and outstanding in at least one field.
Though we only began this program this year, it has already made a positive impact. Let’s take a look. About forty students participated in each workshop. Thirty students among them attended both workshops. Twenty of them studied abroad this year. Five went to Australia for their research practicum and 15 to New Zealand to study English at a language school.

When the twenty students returned to Japan, we carried out a survey of their experiences. Here are the results. All of the twenty students said that the workshops were helpful. Nineteen of them said they had similar experiences to ours. Only one said nothing similar occurred. Twelve said they prepared by studying English harder and eight said they didn’t. Among the 12 who prepared well, 11 said the preparation was beneficial to their stay. Only one said it wasn’t beneficial. It is interesting to note that all the 8 students who didn’t follow our advice regretted it.

This program is only in its formation stage. But we can say with confidence that the above results indicate its value. Better still, we are excited to report among the 20 students who studied abroad this year, 10 indicated that they would be happy to help us with this program.

With more and more like-minded peers joining us, we would like to develop this workshop to the next stage; from a simple beginning to a valuable progressive effort of the students, by the students, for the students.

We believe the educational goal of Kosen is to educate the students to be the future global engineers acting as leaders in the world. We hope to network with you to achieve our common goal.

In closing, we hope to hear from you if you would appreciate our help in establishing your own campus program of a similar nature. Also, we want your feedback to improve our program.