Throughout July 14th to October 11st, 16 students from the class of ”Non-universal Languages and Humanity and Social Science”(FAS class) embarked on a trip to Japan. Being part of the 2019 NKU “Students Accompanied by Teachers” Initiative, they were on the journey to Japan, a piece of island surrounding by water and known for its commitment to craftsmanship. Within this month, they paid a visit to Tohoku University Japan and Kokugakuin University. They benefited a lot from this school exchanges, appreciating the beauty of languages and cultural diversity in the bilingual context. In the meantime, Bearing in mind the task of promoting Chinese traditional culture, they actively participated in the practice of every kind for revealing the Nankai Image and Chinese civilization.
Tohoku University Japan is where Luxun had ever studied. Following the footprint of Luxun, they started their short-term overseas life in Japan, where they were trained with other Japanese students. The rapid sppech rate was a big challenge for the senior students who had just acquired Japanese for one year. Never daunted by challenges, the NKU student Yao Zilong spoke out his heart, ”Though it is hard to understand in the beginning, we are not meant to give up at all because we uphold the spirit of NKU—be bold to face the challenges.” In the end, their hard work made it possible. After this visit, they realized that language environment is essential to the study of languages and great efforts should be made to create as enabling environment for high efficiency of language learning. In Kokugakuin University, the teacher designed for them a complete teaching program with 8 students in each class. Owing to the tireless efforts of the teachers, students have remarkably enhanced their linguistic skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities and developed a growing interest in Japanese.
Apart from the study of languages, language learners should get a good command of the culture embodied in the language. For this purpose, they participated in the experience activities of diverse Japanese cultures. For instance, they in bathrobe joined the tea ceremony at a homestay in the countryside, enjoying the ordinary people’s life and exploring the Japanese culture. Moreover, they visited the Fujiko F Fujio Museum in Kawasaki city and watched the baseball game to appreciate the spiritual and cultural life of the contemporary Japanese. After the activities, they were not only impressed by the hospitability and kindness of the Japanese, but also by the priority President Xi Jinping has given to enhancing humanity and broadening their horizon. Peng Juwei thoughtfully said, “ I think before what matters is the lessons we take instead of the humanity or international outlook. But the experience of overseas study makes me realize the significance of the latter.”
2019 witnessed the China-Japan Youth Exchanges Promotion Year, when students actively engaged in discussions with some friends from Japan through various forms such as welcome party and in return developed friendship with their counterparts. Qu Tianyi joyfully said, “In the welcome Party, I made a friend with a Japanese Miss and we made a promise to stay in contact through WeChat, and if possible, to go on a trip together.” Besides, each group gave a representation to introduce the China and Chinese culture, which aroused the increasing interests of Japanese students in it. And they all hoped to pay a visit to China.
The friendship between China and Japan has long been established. Recent years has witnessed the growing economic and cultural exchanges of both sides and increasing people-to-people contact. After the experience activity, they all stated that they will work harder to enhance their language proficiency for making the contribution to the Sino-Japanese friendship.
