Wil
CJL (Center of Japanese Language)
Living abroad can be challenging for many people, including me, especially because of the language barrier. When I first came to Japan, I already had a basic foundation in Japanese, but I soon realized that my speaking ability was still quite limited. That was why I decided to practice Japanese with native speakers to improve my Japanese speaking skills.
I first learned about the ICC Language Exchange Program through Waseda University’s social media and emails. As soon as I received the registration email, I signed up immediately. Since I can speak both Indonesian and English, I hoped to find a partner who wanted to exchange Japanese for one of those languages. After the matching process, I was paired with a Japanese student who wanted to improve his English.
My partner is a student in the School of Human Sciences. For several weeks, we met online because he was busy with his club activities and part-time job, while I also had a lot of homework from CJL. At first, I was worried about whether I would be able to communicate with him, since I had very little experience speaking with native Japanese speakers. However, during our first online meeting, our conversation flowed naturally, and I gradually became more confident. We talked about our daily lives, university life, hobbies, languages, and many other topics.
After that, we continued meeting online regularly. After the semester ended, since we had more available time, we finally decided to meet in person. We talked about many things, and I learned that he is currently preparing for an English proficiency test because he believes it will help with his future job hunting. It was truly a wonderful and valuable experience, and I am very grateful because, besides improving my Japanese speaking skills, I was also able to make a new friend through ICC.
