Two People with Main Roles
Mr. Yu Ogawa, Fourth year student in the School of Science and Engineering

Our duty is to introduce our partners' home countries to elementary, junior high school, and senior high school students during their classes. What in the world would my role be in that process? This was the question I was asking myself as I began preparations after applying to the ICC Outreach program. Having my partner, who was an International Student (IS), perform the main role as I took on the supporting role of interpreter seemed to be the easiest approach. However, as we talked together for a while during our preliminary preparations, we arrived at the conclusion that we should develop some sort of strategy with which we would both be able to perform a main role and contribute in a similar way during the actual event. Together we would exchange questions and explanations, and through this complementary exchange of knowledge, not only would I learn something about my partner's country, but I would also discover something new about my own country that I hadn't noticed before.

After much preparation, the day finally came for us to appear in front of a class at a local school. Up till now, I had never had the chance to think about things from the perspective of children and young students, and so I wasn't sure whether or not they would be interested in the class that we had planned for them. Without warning, concern and anxiety began to course through my system. What if we don't connect with them, and they don't get into the material at all? But the kids listened with great enthusiasm, nodded their heads, and would occasionally even ask questions. My concern vanished and before I knew it I was laughing right along with the students and enjoying the class as much as they were.

My partner and I are two people with two very different backgrounds. However, instead of deciding individual roles and dividing up responsibilities between the two of us, we worked together and both played leading roles. I believe that the fun and sense of accomplishment I felt from creating this class was directly connected to this methodology. If I had taken on a supporting role from the very beginning, my partner and I would have probably not have had such a fulfilling experience. And even though this program was supposedly aimed towards the students, my partner and I developed a much deeper interest in the other's country, as well as our own. Waseda boasts the largest number of foreign students of any college in Japan. I was fortunate enough be given a leading role in this program. The program provides an environment rich in international aspects and diversity, and I believe that it gives students of the same generation a chance to improve themselves and grow as people by learning from others. I would definitely like more Waseda students to become involved in this outreach program.

*This outreach program is an interactive instructional tool used in order to promote intercultural understanding. Foreign students pair up with Japanese students and visit places of education such as local/regional elementary, junior high, and senior high schools in order to discuss their own countries' culture and society. They then engage the children in an exchange of opinions, creating a motivating environment for them to look toward the rest of the world. The program also supports the development of the ability to understand other cultures.