Studying abroad\u00a0can\u00a0be challenging for\u00a0many\u00a0people,\u00a0and building new\u00a0friendships can be just as difficult, especially for\u00a0someone like me\u00a0who is not\u00a0very\u00a0outgoing. When I saw the announcement\u00a0for\u00a0this program last autumn, I applied\u00a0without\u00a0hesitation\u00a0because\u00a0it\u00a0offered\u00a0a\u00a0valuable opportunity to\u00a0meet new\u00a0people\u00a0in a comfortable and structured setting. Another attractive aspect of the program was the language exchange\u00a0component. Since I am a native Thai speaker, I was able to share my language with my partner, while also having the chance to practice and improve my\u00a0Japanese\u00a0through regular interaction.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One\u00a0interesting\u00a0aspect\u00a0of\u00a0this program is that it is open not only\u00a0to\u00a0students\u00a0but also\u00a0to faculty and\u00a0staff,\u00a0which allows participants to meet people from a wide range of backgrounds\u00a0and experiences.\u00a0In my case, I\u00a0was\u00a0matched with\u00a0an associate professor from the School of Education. At first, I felt a bit nervous\u00a0because\u00a0I was not sure\u00a0what\u00a0the atmosphere would\u00a0be\u00a0like\u00a0or how I\u00a0should\u00a0interact with a faculty member as a student.\u00a0However,\u00a0my concern quickly disappeared,\u00a0as\u00a0our conversations turned out to be\u00a0very\u00a0enjoyable. We\u00a0talked about many different topics mostly in Japanese,\u00a0ranging from my life\u00a0in Japan\u00a0to his experience\u00a0as\u00a0an exchange student in Thailand.\u00a0Our\u00a0meetings were mostly informal in his office, and\u00a0we\u00a0were\u00a0free to\u00a0choose any topic we wanted\u00a0to discuss, which made the conversations\u00a0feel natural and comfortable.\u00a0Moreover, he sometimes\u00a0even shared\u00a0snacks\u00a0with me during our meetings.\u00a0We\u00a0usually\u00a0met\u00a0every two weeks unless either of us had other commitments, and\u00a0I\u00a0always\u00a0looked\u00a0forward to\u00a0our\u00a0next meeting.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Although the program\u00a0officially ended\u00a0in January, our connection\u00a0has continued even after the program.\u00a0During our\u00a0last meeting, we\u00a0talked\u00a0about\u00a0meeting\u00a0again\u00a0in the next semester,\u00a0and\u00a0I\u00a0am\u00a0planning\u00a0to bring some souvenirs from Thailand the\u00a0next time we meet.\u00a0This experience made me realize that the program is not only about language exchange, but also about building meaningful and lasting relationships.\u00a0I can\u00a0confidently\u00a0say that I am\u00a0very glad\u00a0I decided\u00a0to apply\u00a0when\u00a0I\u00a0first\u00a0saw the announcement. For those\u00a0who\u00a0are looking for a\u00a0memorable experience, meeting\u00a0new people\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0comfortable\u00a0setting,\u00a0or\u00a0improving\u00a0their\u00a0language skills through real communication, I strongly recommend this program.\u00a0In fact,\u00a0I\u00a0am\u00a0planning\u00a0to apply\u00a0again next\u00a0semester,\u00a0and I look forward to\u00a0making more\u00a0valuable connections\u00a0in the future.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arm GSAPS Studying abroad\u00a0can\u00a0be challenging for\u00a0many\u00a0people,\u00a0and building new\u00a0friendships can be just as diff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,97],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-41420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","category-other-en","tag-event-report-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41420"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41441,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41420\/revisions\/41441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}