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At Waseda University, many events and symposia to understand many different countries’ culture take place throughout the whole year. Especially, during Waseda International Weeks, running from October 21 to the end of November, over 60 events including special lectures by guests and opportunities to have a conversation with international students have been planned. During this special week, not only can Japanese students learn about other cultures, but international students can also enjoy and immerse themselves in Japanese language and culture or other cultures unfamiliar to them. The Intercultural Communication Center (ICC) at Waseda and organizes a wide variety of events to promote different culture exchange.

One such example is the ICC British Night which took place on November 6.

The British Night was started with a cheerful Celtic music performance by Waseda Celtic Music Circle.

Following the performance, exchange students from the University of Warwick gave an exciting presentation on the UK. The first part of the presentation introduced basic history and places to visit in the UK, for example, Birmingham, Manchester, Lake District, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. Some of these places may not be as popular or may be unfamiliar to Japanese people and, so it was informative for those who plan to travel outside London.

The second part of the presentation was on British food, which explained about not only famous fish and chips and afternoon tea, but also Sunday lunch, English breakfast and some desserts such as Victoria sponge, trifle, and apple crumble. Most of Japanese people might think British food is not as delicious or is too sweet, however, as explained in the presentation, there are many tasty foods in the UK. From my experience of studying in the UK as an exchange student, British food, which potatoes are often used, is very good. Sweets in the UK in particular are impressively delicious since they usually use plenty of butter and creams, unlike Japan.

Also, the student who presented mentioned about food as well: The UK is a good place to eat ethnic food such as Indian food, but not particularly Japanese food. There is a chain restaurant called Wagamama, but they serve Japanese food with an original twist, being far from authentic Japanese food.

The final part of the presentation was about campus life at the University of Warwick. He explained and the differences of university system in the UK and Japan. One thing that particularly amazed audience was that the attendance for lectures is not mandatory in the UK. In their system, one module consists of lectures and seminars and attendance for seminars is more important than lectures. Since they have a lecture recording system called Lecture Capture, they can listen to lectures at home.

As the best part of this event, professional musician Mr. Atsushi Yamane played the bagpipe in front of the audience and gave a presentation about Scottish culture. Since the distance between him and us was very close, the sound was dynamic and impressive. He played many songs including famous ones, such as, Scottish Brave, Amazing Grace, and Flower of Scotland.

People who took part in this event were not only Japanese students who would like to know British culture, but also men and women of all ages and different nationalities. In the café & British food tasting time, these people interacted and enjoyed Haggis, which is a traditional Scottish dish made of sheep’s pluck offered by Mr. Yamane.

Accompanied by warm tea with strong flavors and different flavored crisps, participants enjoyed conversations with exchange students and performers.

Some students tried to play the bagpipe with Mr. Yamane giving them advice.

I thought this event was highly recommendable for people who do not know about British and Scottish culture very well. Through the presentations by exchange students from the UK and the explanation as well as bagpipe performance of bagpipe by Mr. Atsushi Yamane, the audiences could learn the basics knowledge about British history, culture, food, and university culture. Though the presentations might have been too basic information for those who have already been to the UK and known the country well, but I think that they were still able to enjoy live music performance and conversation with people who have different backgrounds.

For those who participated in this event and want to know more about British, Irish, or Celtic culture and history, I would recommend taking lectures offered by the School of International Liberal Studies (SILS) and School of Humanities and Social Sciences. In SILS, there are lectures and seminars to learn British history, British literature, Celtic mythology, and Irish literature and you can learn about interesting stories you have never heard of.

You can check other events from here which part of the WASEDA International Weeks (https://www.waseda.jp/top/assets/uploads/2019/10/WASEDA-International-Weeks-2019-events1029update.pdf) or university’s official website or ICC’s official website. Don’t miss out the chance to learn about interesting culture and meet new people!

*This article was written and contributed by the following student.

Student Contributor
Minami Nakanishi (4th Year Student)
School of International Liberal Studies