(no subject)
My Study through URSEP Program in the University of the Ryukyus (2004-2005)
Jon Todd
The United States of America
Michigan State University
1. Introduction
Well, Okinawa is definitely not how I expected it to be from the brochure… both scenically and culturally. I was pleased to see that the size of my room was quite acceptable, but I was devastated that we had no personal internet over the course of the year that we would be studying here. No, life at Ryudai is not perfect by a long shot. But life in Okinawa can truly be enjoyable if you have transportation, so I recommend finding some way to get a car (whether you split it among your friends or whatever, because Japanese people sure as heck won’t offer to involve you in their lives).
2, What I expected for URSEP and student life in Okinawa
I expected to come to a tropical paradise for 11 months. I thought I would be mixed right in with the Japanese people, and in no time I would be interacting with a whole new group of Japanese friends. Boy was I wrong. After 10 months, I still don’t have any friends that I can count on, and I still haven’t made anything other than acquaintances despite how much I have tried to make friends here. Okinawans are very nice people, don’t get me wrong… But they are not very comfortable with accepting new people into their every day lives. Most people here still live with their parents, and they have lived in the same area with the same friends for their entire life. Change is not widely accepted here. Children still stare at me in disbelief and High School students still find it the most amazing thing in the world that I understand the word “konnichiwa”. This sort of treatment would never happen in America.
What I expected of URSEP… well, I certainly expected Internet to be provided in the rooms we were assigned to. I mean, every other University provides internet for their students. The library is so inconvenient; you are almost always waiting 10-30 minutes for a computer when you need to use one. The International Student Center provided a ton of computers, BUT WHY!? Why would they buy COMPUTERS for public use instead of giving Internet to the students personally so we could use our own computers whenever we want? It is just a waste of money at minimal convenience for the students. There are many students with Laptop (NOTEBOOK) computers, but despite that, the administration chose to buy entirely new computers instead of just providing Internet in the Kaikan. Ryudai seems to do a lot of renovations and “art projects” for seemingly no reason. Just a waste of money… If money is spent on behalf of the students of the University, shouldn’t it be focused on how it could help the students the most? I think so… but, apparently the budget committee here does not. I guess I wasn’t expecting anything else of URSEP than to provide Internet, a place to live, and classes. Though the classes were different than in the brochure, and there was no internet… That should be re-evaluated.
3. What I have learned through URSEP and through student life in Okinawa
Life is hard here. Unless you make friends with people on the base, which, in my opinion, is impossible, you will not be able to get food from any western country. This means Europe and America. Anywhere that is not considered Asian, good luck finding the food that you are accustomed to eating. I came here with open arms accepting the food, but trust me when I say that after a few months of not being able to eat the things that have been readily available back at home, eating becomes an obstacle that is quite a feat to surpass (though this is coming from a person who has never really consumed more Asian food other than the stuff the local Chinese restaurant will batch up in a box for you). By the end of my stay here in Okinawa, I have found myself unable to eat more than one meal a day. Not because I think I’m fat, or want to be skinny… I just can’t take the food anymore. It’s all made of the same things: Rice, pork, and noodles. Of course there is bread too, and loads of all seafood; though I was surprised to see how sparingly they use fish over here. The point is, food has become a tremendous problem for me here, and I don’t think I will ever be able to complain about the food back at home again. (It’s funny; the guys all have a tendency to lose a ton of weight, but the girls gain a TON of weight. Go figure. If you compare pictures of your arrival to your departure, you will be questioning how these can be the same people, because the girls look like balloons and the guys … well they look about normal (except for me, I lost about 20 pounds because I just can’t eat here). (There are a few exceptions, naturally.))
Another thing I also learned is that Okinawa rains or has cloudy weather probably close to 90% of the year! That was something that I definitely did not expect. Typhoons are strong in the fall, it gets cold, muggy and rainy in the winter time, and it rains all spring. Say good-bye to that great feeling that spring gives you back home when coming here, because you most certainly won’t be attaining that emotion here. So far summer has been quite gorgeous; quite blazing hot, but quite gorgeous.
Learning classes in English from Japanese professors was interesting. Most of the time, their English was not very good. The only person with a real understanding of English here was the teacher for Public Speaking in English. In my opinion, his English is practically identical to the professors that teach in my University back home at MSU. Despite that fact, I was impressed that the Japanese professors were able to do the classes… even if most of the time there were many grammatical mistakes. Though, the overall feeling URSEP gave me, was to help Japanese people get better at English; not help foreign students get better at Japanese. Why would a person with no teaching ability, like Sasaki “sensei”, be hired to teach Japanese if URSEP really wanted foreign students to get better at Japanese? Ishihara-sensei is a wonderful teacher… perhaps one of the best I’ve had for Japanese; I will miss him.
The URSEP faculty is extremely kind; that is one thing that is very important to mention. All of the people working at the International Student Center are so nice, and you can tell that they really care about you. I mean, it’s not like they want to see you feeling sad and lonely because no one will help you with anything around here; who would? They always called me if I got a package delivered here instead of the Kaikan, and they are just generally very nice people.
I also learned so many things about people from every country but Japan, because we were stationed to live in an “International Exchange Building” as apposed to actually interacting with Japanese people. To be honest, I have used English 90% of the time I have been here, and Japanese 7% of the time, and French swear words the other 3% of the time. Suce ma bite, salope!
4. My future Plan in my country
I have been contemplating this very question quite nervously lately. Nervously, because I think that my experience here in Okinawa may have influenced me to give up on Japan altogether. I loved Japan before I came here. I loved Japanese history, I loved Japanese music, I loved Japanese video games, cars, animation, movies; the whole 9-yards. After coming here… I now still love all of those things, but I now have a bit of reluctance to think about living here. I came here expecting this to be the best year in my life, and it seems like the gyakuten (reverse) characteristics Japan/Okinawa seems to pride itself on to be as far from America and English as humanly possible, I don’t know if I could survive here any longer. There have been times where I wanted to give up and go home, but if my friends weren’t here calling me a wimp, I definitely would have. I don’t know if you have ever spent Christmas alone, and then spent New Year’s Eve alone and without food, because you didn’t know that all ATM machines close for the first three days of the new year or not. Well, that was what it was like for me. I e-mailed some of the few Japanese people I knew for help, and they all either ignored me, were traveling, or “off with their friends at a party right now”, and wished me a happy new year, despite the fact that I had no food, no money, nor other friends to bail me out. You tell me how that sounds to you, and tell me if you would ever like to experience something like that for yourself. This has been the worst experience of my life in terms of pain, patience, and sorrow. But, they say that what does not kill you can only make you stronger, right?
Oh wait, I still haven’t talked about the future plans in my country. Well, I have concluded many things of what I am not going to be doing, but haven’t really been able to pinpoint a future occupation yet. Perhaps I will give up my dream of making a career out of Japanese and focus more on business. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t be more confused right now about my future plans, and especially what I can do with Japanese right now. I know for sure that my level will not be high enough to translate documentation into Japanese or even FROM Japanese after one more year of studying; so I am really worried. I guess only time will tell.
5. Conclusion
I still find it unbelievable that I went through all that I went through over the course of this year, and came out of it with practically no progression in the Japanese language. I couldn’t be more disappointed with my life here… and to be honest, if I knew how things were here before coming, I probably would have stayed in America. But, like I said before, this was a very unique experience for me, and I don’t think I will ever be able to forget everything that happened to me over the course of the year. On the rare occasion that I was able to go do something with “friends”, it was amazing fun. I mean, when you are stuck in your room 99% of the time, that 1% of the time that you get to leave should be really great, right?! I seriously doubt I will ever come back to Okinawa after this year. If I had a car here, things would have been so much different that I probably wouldn’t want to leave right now if I actually did have a car here. Also, the only people with cars were other Asian people, and those Asian people were even less accommodating than the Japanese people. Those Asian people seemed to pride themselves in keeping as much distance as possible from social interaction with any Westerners… That is, unless they wanted to learn English. I swear, I will never be able to forgive some of the people here for treating me so badly, but as the French say “c’est la vie”.
Jon Todd
The United States of America
Michigan State University
1. Introduction
Well, Okinawa is definitely not how I expected it to be from the brochure… both scenically and culturally. I was pleased to see that the size of my room was quite acceptable, but I was devastated that we had no personal internet over the course of the year that we would be studying here. No, life at Ryudai is not perfect by a long shot. But life in Okinawa can truly be enjoyable if you have transportation, so I recommend finding some way to get a car (whether you split it among your friends or whatever, because Japanese people sure as heck won’t offer to involve you in their lives).
2, What I expected for URSEP and student life in Okinawa
I expected to come to a tropical paradise for 11 months. I thought I would be mixed right in with the Japanese people, and in no time I would be interacting with a whole new group of Japanese friends. Boy was I wrong. After 10 months, I still don’t have any friends that I can count on, and I still haven’t made anything other than acquaintances despite how much I have tried to make friends here. Okinawans are very nice people, don’t get me wrong… But they are not very comfortable with accepting new people into their every day lives. Most people here still live with their parents, and they have lived in the same area with the same friends for their entire life. Change is not widely accepted here. Children still stare at me in disbelief and High School students still find it the most amazing thing in the world that I understand the word “konnichiwa”. This sort of treatment would never happen in America.
What I expected of URSEP… well, I certainly expected Internet to be provided in the rooms we were assigned to. I mean, every other University provides internet for their students. The library is so inconvenient; you are almost always waiting 10-30 minutes for a computer when you need to use one. The International Student Center provided a ton of computers, BUT WHY!? Why would they buy COMPUTERS for public use instead of giving Internet to the students personally so we could use our own computers whenever we want? It is just a waste of money at minimal convenience for the students. There are many students with Laptop (NOTEBOOK) computers, but despite that, the administration chose to buy entirely new computers instead of just providing Internet in the Kaikan. Ryudai seems to do a lot of renovations and “art projects” for seemingly no reason. Just a waste of money… If money is spent on behalf of the students of the University, shouldn’t it be focused on how it could help the students the most? I think so… but, apparently the budget committee here does not. I guess I wasn’t expecting anything else of URSEP than to provide Internet, a place to live, and classes. Though the classes were different than in the brochure, and there was no internet… That should be re-evaluated.
3. What I have learned through URSEP and through student life in Okinawa
Life is hard here. Unless you make friends with people on the base, which, in my opinion, is impossible, you will not be able to get food from any western country. This means Europe and America. Anywhere that is not considered Asian, good luck finding the food that you are accustomed to eating. I came here with open arms accepting the food, but trust me when I say that after a few months of not being able to eat the things that have been readily available back at home, eating becomes an obstacle that is quite a feat to surpass (though this is coming from a person who has never really consumed more Asian food other than the stuff the local Chinese restaurant will batch up in a box for you). By the end of my stay here in Okinawa, I have found myself unable to eat more than one meal a day. Not because I think I’m fat, or want to be skinny… I just can’t take the food anymore. It’s all made of the same things: Rice, pork, and noodles. Of course there is bread too, and loads of all seafood; though I was surprised to see how sparingly they use fish over here. The point is, food has become a tremendous problem for me here, and I don’t think I will ever be able to complain about the food back at home again. (It’s funny; the guys all have a tendency to lose a ton of weight, but the girls gain a TON of weight. Go figure. If you compare pictures of your arrival to your departure, you will be questioning how these can be the same people, because the girls look like balloons and the guys … well they look about normal (except for me, I lost about 20 pounds because I just can’t eat here). (There are a few exceptions, naturally.))
Another thing I also learned is that Okinawa rains or has cloudy weather probably close to 90% of the year! That was something that I definitely did not expect. Typhoons are strong in the fall, it gets cold, muggy and rainy in the winter time, and it rains all spring. Say good-bye to that great feeling that spring gives you back home when coming here, because you most certainly won’t be attaining that emotion here. So far summer has been quite gorgeous; quite blazing hot, but quite gorgeous.
Learning classes in English from Japanese professors was interesting. Most of the time, their English was not very good. The only person with a real understanding of English here was the teacher for Public Speaking in English. In my opinion, his English is practically identical to the professors that teach in my University back home at MSU. Despite that fact, I was impressed that the Japanese professors were able to do the classes… even if most of the time there were many grammatical mistakes. Though, the overall feeling URSEP gave me, was to help Japanese people get better at English; not help foreign students get better at Japanese. Why would a person with no teaching ability, like Sasaki “sensei”, be hired to teach Japanese if URSEP really wanted foreign students to get better at Japanese? Ishihara-sensei is a wonderful teacher… perhaps one of the best I’ve had for Japanese; I will miss him.
The URSEP faculty is extremely kind; that is one thing that is very important to mention. All of the people working at the International Student Center are so nice, and you can tell that they really care about you. I mean, it’s not like they want to see you feeling sad and lonely because no one will help you with anything around here; who would? They always called me if I got a package delivered here instead of the Kaikan, and they are just generally very nice people.
I also learned so many things about people from every country but Japan, because we were stationed to live in an “International Exchange Building” as apposed to actually interacting with Japanese people. To be honest, I have used English 90% of the time I have been here, and Japanese 7% of the time, and French swear words the other 3% of the time. Suce ma bite, salope!
4. My future Plan in my country
I have been contemplating this very question quite nervously lately. Nervously, because I think that my experience here in Okinawa may have influenced me to give up on Japan altogether. I loved Japan before I came here. I loved Japanese history, I loved Japanese music, I loved Japanese video games, cars, animation, movies; the whole 9-yards. After coming here… I now still love all of those things, but I now have a bit of reluctance to think about living here. I came here expecting this to be the best year in my life, and it seems like the gyakuten (reverse) characteristics Japan/Okinawa seems to pride itself on to be as far from America and English as humanly possible, I don’t know if I could survive here any longer. There have been times where I wanted to give up and go home, but if my friends weren’t here calling me a wimp, I definitely would have. I don’t know if you have ever spent Christmas alone, and then spent New Year’s Eve alone and without food, because you didn’t know that all ATM machines close for the first three days of the new year or not. Well, that was what it was like for me. I e-mailed some of the few Japanese people I knew for help, and they all either ignored me, were traveling, or “off with their friends at a party right now”, and wished me a happy new year, despite the fact that I had no food, no money, nor other friends to bail me out. You tell me how that sounds to you, and tell me if you would ever like to experience something like that for yourself. This has been the worst experience of my life in terms of pain, patience, and sorrow. But, they say that what does not kill you can only make you stronger, right?
Oh wait, I still haven’t talked about the future plans in my country. Well, I have concluded many things of what I am not going to be doing, but haven’t really been able to pinpoint a future occupation yet. Perhaps I will give up my dream of making a career out of Japanese and focus more on business. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t be more confused right now about my future plans, and especially what I can do with Japanese right now. I know for sure that my level will not be high enough to translate documentation into Japanese or even FROM Japanese after one more year of studying; so I am really worried. I guess only time will tell.
5. Conclusion
I still find it unbelievable that I went through all that I went through over the course of this year, and came out of it with practically no progression in the Japanese language. I couldn’t be more disappointed with my life here… and to be honest, if I knew how things were here before coming, I probably would have stayed in America. But, like I said before, this was a very unique experience for me, and I don’t think I will ever be able to forget everything that happened to me over the course of the year. On the rare occasion that I was able to go do something with “friends”, it was amazing fun. I mean, when you are stuck in your room 99% of the time, that 1% of the time that you get to leave should be really great, right?! I seriously doubt I will ever come back to Okinawa after this year. If I had a car here, things would have been so much different that I probably wouldn’t want to leave right now if I actually did have a car here. Also, the only people with cars were other Asian people, and those Asian people were even less accommodating than the Japanese people. Those Asian people seemed to pride themselves in keeping as much distance as possible from social interaction with any Westerners… That is, unless they wanted to learn English. I swear, I will never be able to forgive some of the people here for treating me so badly, but as the French say “c’est la vie”.