by H.T.H.
The hardest aspect of learning Japanese for me is learning how to speak it. As a native Chinese speaker who already has a great advantage in learning Japanese, knowing how to pronounce and use it in real-world contexts is a completely different matter. Moreover, being locked in my own country means that I currently have no environment to speak Japanese. However, as I was wondering about ways to improve my Japanese language skills, I came across ICC on Twitter and began one of my most fascinating experiences at the Waseda Zoom campus.
ICC Japanese Chat Club（にほんごペラペラクラブ） was one of the reasons that I decided to join ICC events. The word ペラペラ (Pera Pera) is used to describe someone fluent in speaking a language, so when I heard the name of the event, I knew exactly that this was the speaking opportunity I was looking for. I was able to play games and discuss Japanese culture with students from all around the world. I can still remember my drawing in the “Draw and Guess” game; the petals of the flowers I drew are until this day the most hideous thing that I have seen….
The Chinese lunch event also was quite a lot of fun for me. I was able to not only practice my Japanese, but also share my experience in Mandarin. It is also great to see local students expressing their ideas in Mandarin; one Japanese student even told us that he is learning Mandarin to approach his crush!
Aside from those events, ICC also provides a helpful program called “Language and Cultural Exchange Program” that matches up students who are interested in learning each other’s languages. I was lucky to be paired with a law school senpai who has the most perfect Mandarin accent I have ever heard from a Mandarin learner. Every time we have a Zoom meeting, I feel like I am the one who should be signing up for Mandarin pronunciation lessons…. What is even more surprising is that my senpai is also well-versed in Chinese history and culture. He can recite all five races in Sun Yat-Sen’s “Five Races Under One Union,” and he can also summarize the current political situation between the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan in Mandarin. I am amazed by his depth of knowledge on international affairs, and, as we met more frequently, we began to share even more information about one another’s lives, which has helped me understand more about the Japanese way of thinking. I hope that ICC will offer more language exchange events like this to give international students who are unable to enter Japan more opportunities to learn about Waseda and her outstanding students.
These experiences in the ICC have been wonderful for me, and as someone who has experienced zero campus life so far, I would like to proudly encourage all international students abroad to attend ICC events and feel what it is like to be a Waseda student!
