Exchange Student in Japan
Being an exchange student in Japan is considered as a life-changing experience for me. It’s like a great prize I’ve been given. My whole experience so far has been abosolutely wonderful. Studying abroad is not a general education. It taught me life and gave me a lot experinces. Having a year during exchange allowed me to think out of the box and think deeply about what I desire to achieve in the future.
Moreover, I’ve learnt many new things such as Japanese language which has improved very fast as time has gone, solving problem skill, or receiving an education in another teaching style which is completely different from my home. I’m very thankful for everything. However, there were some problems and obstacles happened to me. I was experienced a bit of home sickness because it was my first time living really far from home so it was very hard at first. But I got recovered very quickly because I had nice friends and Kyoto people are very nice and welcoming. And other problems that I wasn’t expected before.
After I retuned home, I wish that I could use what I’ve learnt from this exchange program to fulfill and to lead my life to a better position.
Accomplishment of Objectives
1. Objectives and Significance: Describe the objectives and significance of the overseas study you implemented.
First, I would like to have an opportunity to learn new languages apart from English which could be a special skill in the future. I believed that being in a language society that we want to learn will improve language skills in real life rather than studying in Thailand. As I was being surrounded by Japapese language every day including speaking and listening in the right context. Language learning took place very quickly under these environments.
As the result, I am be able to communicate in Japanese even I’m not so fluently but it has improved much more than I expected. The second is I think that studying abroad would help me to open up the new worldview that I never had before both inside and outside classrooms. Studying in Japan gave me an experience with different education systems. There was an opportunity to choose courses that are not taught in Thailand and I got a very good education by studying in particular subjects with professors who have different teaching styles which are totally different from my home university.
This allows me to study more effectively in the new way and extend my ideas and attitutes. Third, I would like to have an opportunity to make friends with people all around the would who speak different languages and have different backgrounds so we could learn something new and exchange ideas, attitudes to each other because culture is more than just a language but include lifestyle, belief, values and habits of people in the society. I learnt how to communicate in new more ways. Not only speaking but also using body-languages and gesture in order to express my own opinions and to interact with people who have different background to understand others clearly.
And these have been developing my interpersonal skills. I feel like I could communicate easily with anybody right now. The last is I expected to improve myself to be more mature and more stronger. As when I was in Thailand, my parent always give me supports whenever I need help so that I want to practice to rely on myself and I want to try seeing things differently. Plus, I got a chance to discover new strengths and face new challenges including solving problems under unfamiliar situations. Finally, I returned home with a wider perspective and I’ve became more open-minded, confident in myself and choices I’ve made.
Future Perspectives
Describe briefly whether you could achieve your goals as they were initially planned. Also, explain clearly how to utilize the accomplishments of this opportunity, such as scholarly paper, dissertation or presentation at a conference.
As I’ve gained so many experiences and life-long knowledge from this exchange program, I wish these experiences could help me achieve my future goals which are the future career and I want to further my study abroad. When I was in Japan, I’ve seen the interesting study style and saw how other students do presentations in class. Therefore, I’ve got many interesting ideas and that was really attract me to continue my studies abroad because I think there’re so many things that I haven’t explored yet. Moreover, It helped me working on my dissertation more efficiently since I’ve talked to many professors in Kyoto university and they gave me a lot of suggestions about doing a dissertation.
