Joshua Liebman
School of International Liberal Studies
Exchange student from Florida State University (USA)
If you’ve never done something like this before, you might wonder how such a diverse group of people, who speak so many different languages can play a game that requires so much communication like football. I certainly did. It turns out that sharing a mutual passion with one another allows for enough communication. Through passing the ball, the occasional phrase in Japanese or English (sometimes French and Spanish too) and celebrating after goals, all of us got to know each other and work as a team regardless of background or language.
It started on an overcast day at the Higashi Fushimi Soccer Field which the Waseda University Association Football (Soccer) Club was so nice to share with us. Instantly I met another participant at the train station and we have since become friends. We all checked in, got an introduction from some of the Soccer Club team members, and then got to doing warm-ups in our designated teams. Luckily, the ICC came up with bingo card icebreakers to get to know everyone regardless of what team you were on or the language you spoke. I think I met at least 80% of the people there, which is a lot. The Soccer Club team members were so nice, and again, although there was quite the language barrier, our love for football and the things we did on the pitch bridged the gap.
It’s a bit difficult to join sports clubs as an exchange student, and, although my Japanese level is okay, I certainly never learned what people say during a football match from my textbooks, so just getting the opportunity to meet so many cool people and spend an afternoon in friendly competition was such a great experience. I think if there is anything that can show the true benefit of events like this, it’s the fact that after we finished our competition (and then got to use the field for an hour for free), myself and six other people – five of whom I had just met – got together and went out to dinner at a nearby steak restaurant. Some of us were from Japan, from Iceland, from France, and from the United States. Thank you to ICC for this event and I hope to do something like this again!
Photo by ICC
