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Broaden Your Mind Abroad!

NAKAYAMA, Hayate (Yuge National College of Maritime Technology)

As you might know, our country expects Kosen students to develop the skills to compete in the global arena. To develop such skills, it is useful to have practical English ability and broaden our minds abroad.

Alarmingly enough, a study by the Ministry of Education showed that the number of Japanese students choosing to study abroad was in decline. In 2004, 83,000 students went abroad to study. In 2010, there were only 58,000. In particular, visits to the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand and Australia have been on a considerable decline.

The main reason for this trend is perhaps the tendency of young people to think inwardly. This idea comes from the belief that we can live happily in our own region and therefore don't need to go abroad. Kosen students shouldn't be encouraged to develop this attitude. I, myself, fell into this inward way of thinking before. But, thanks to my father's encouragement, I experienced a short stay of 10 days in Australia last spring vacation and was able to break free from my inward looking way of thinking.

I chose to visit Australia because of its low cost and safety. It cost me only 50,000 yen for the round-trip flight because I used a budget airline. I visited Brisbane and the Gold Coast, famous for high class resorts. Yet, by staying with a host family, the trip cost me very little.

My host family was very warm-hearted, especially the eldest son, Casper. We became good friends. Casper's nickname was “Nut Shot”. If you want to know what that means, you can find out on You Tube. He was very likable and showed me many “Nut-Shot” films. I was confused by the films. But, I tried to avoid uncomfortable silences and just said “crazy” or “terrible” again and again. Thanks to Casper, I developed communication skills in embarrassing contexts.

While in Australia, I needed to speak English to survive every day. When I visited McDonalds, I couldn't understand the tellers because they spoke very fast. Anyway, I ordered, but what I got was different from what I had ordered. It took me more than 10 minutes to explain that I had received the wrong order. The next time I visited McDonalds I found that they could easily understand my pronunciation of cheese burger. From then on, I ordered only cheese burgers. I must have eaten more than 10 cheese burgers over the following days. If you ever visit McDonalds outside Japan, try to order something other than cheese burgers.

During the short stay, I also visited a local elementary school and introduced Japanese traditional toys to the Australian children. They were most interested in Japanese rubber-made balloons. Can you imagine why? The balloons look like soap bubbles. But, unlike soap bubbles, they don't pop when you touch them. When I was introducing origami to the children, they gave me question after question, like a machine gun. I couldn't understand much of what they said. Still, they were able to make origami after watching my demonstration. Playing together, despite our lack of communication, we were able to become good friends.

On the last day of my visit, I taught them a dance by the famous Japanese band, “Golden Bomber”. We danced together and achieved so much unity, it was impossible to describe with words. I thought how cooperative Australians were when having fun together. I could touch their hearts, both young and old. I was impressed by the Australians' positive attitude and effort to communicate. I realized that communication was impossible without this positive attitude.

My short stay in Australia gave me a lot of confidence and broadened my mind. I made a lot of friends, too. I want to keep in touch with them and improve my English a lot more.

Many Kosen students may feel hesitant about going abroad to study. It may be difficult to stay as long as a month. But, 10 days, like I did, is not so hard. You may think there is no benefit to such a short stay. However, just think of it as a trial run for a longer stay. It will broaden your view of the world and motivate you to learn English, too. Besides this, it's a lot of fun. I highly recommend that all Kosen students have a short stay overseas.