Blog 4: Intercultural Competency

Blog 4: Intercultural Competency

·       I want to get involved a number of ways when I am at Nanzan. There is the Japan Plaza, where I get to practice my Japanese with Japanese students, and there is also the Coffee Hour, where the host students will plan different events for the exchange students. Other than those two opportunities, I'm not sure what other opportunities are available on campus. I would love to be a part of a language exchange, or see if there are some clubs I could be involved in. I will get to live with a Japanese student and two other exchange students in an apartment.

Living like a local means integrating yourself into the community and almost kind of blending into the crowd. Yes, I am from a very different culture, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't respect their culture and their values. I will be the minority there, so I will have to try my best to learn about the dos and do nots of Japanese culture. I don't want to be the tourist who makes a fool of herself everywhere she goes. I'm going to try my best to get myself out there in the community by seeing what opportunities are available and getting involved in local events and festivals.

My day-to-day life might look like this:
Getting up, showering, studying/eating, going to class, eating again, going to class, eating dinner, studying and going out with friends/exploring by myself.
I really want to gain lifelong friends through this experience! It's going to be an awesome journey taking classes at Nanzan and taking different field trips around Japan! As an ESL teacher, this will definitely help my understanding of Japanese culture if I ever teach Japanese students.
I've tried my best to research cultural differences as much as possible, and I will cope the best I can if I have trouble dealing with the adjustments.