{"id":1450,"date":"2018-04-03T16:44:28","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T07:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2019-01-15T16:48:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T07:48:21","slug":"student-volunteer-activities-at-the-pyeongchang-winter-olympic-games-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/news-en\/2018\/04\/03\/1450\/","title":{"rendered":"Student volunteer activities at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The power of sports through intercommunion<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Voice of a participating student<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Waseda University sent six student volunteers in February 2018 to the 23rd Winter Olympics held in PyeongChang, South Korea. The students, who received pre-service training in autumn last year and on-site training early February this year, conducted volunteer activities at various venues during the Games held from February 9 until February 25. Ayumi Shoji, a third-year student at the School of Political Science and Economic, who is back from the event, speaks about her experiences there.<\/p>\n

Profile:<\/p>\n

Ayumi Shoji, 3rd year at the School of Political Science and Economic, Waseda University<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Experiencing the power of sports that promotes international exchange<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I want to see the Games with my own eyes<\/u><\/strong><\/h4>\n

I joined the student volunteering program for the Winter Olympic Games held in PyeongChang, South Korea from February 9 until February 25, 2018. I was into basketball and swimming when I was in junior and senior high school. I love playing sports and watching them. I was interested in international exchange partly because I am studying international relationship. I participated in the program, wishing to be part of the Olympic Games, which promotes sports and international exchange.<\/p>\n

I volunteered at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre. Outside the center, I worked as a guide for visitors who go to event sites on a mountain top, and at the information center inside, I took turns to provide tourist guide information and answer questions and inquiries from visitors.<\/p>\n

Intercommunion beyond languages and national boarders<\/u><\/strong><\/h4>\n

I was at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre, where Alpine skiing competitions were held. As I was given an hour of rest after an hour of work, I was able to see athletes skiing toward the finish line. Live games are totally different from on-air games. I was surprised at their skiing speed; they came and went away in a blink.<\/p>\n

I was really moved and felt the power of sports when I saw a crowd of spectators cheering wildly for athletes who skied well while cheering up athletes who did their best, irrespective of their nationalities. I was also impressed when I saw the scene where supporters of athletes from different countries that competed were taking pictures together after the games.<\/p>\n

I speak little Korean. When on-site directions were given in Korean, other student volunteers kindly translated them into English, so I was able to work smoothly. I think I was able to communicate well with Korean spectators beyond the language barrier; some of the people I helped spoke to me after games and some said to me, \u201cWell done.\u201d A little language with smile and gesture will help build good relationship. I was also glad when visitors from Europe said hello to me in Korean.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are things that you can experience only through the Games<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I want to work in an international environment in the future, so it was a valuable experience in my life moving forward that I was able to experience volunteer activities at the Olympic Games. Students have a lot of time to spare and can have a lot of experiences that might change their perspective. The Olympic Games will provide great opportunities for such experiences. I would like students to participate in volunteer activities for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games if they can. I am looking forward to seeing the Games to enjoy differences between the atmosphere of the PyeongChang Games and that of the Tokyo Games.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The power of sports through intercommunion Voice of a participating student Waseda University sent six student […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[94,81,71,93,70],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-general-en","tag-global-en","tag-sports-en","tag-student-en","tag-student-activities-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/tokyo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}