As part of the Short-Term Study Abroad Program under the Agreement on Inter-University Students Exchange (also known as the East Asia Short-Term Study Abroad Program), Kyoto University students participated in this year's summer school program (English course) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) from 28 June through 4 August 2015.
Basically, it has been difficult for KU students to participate in this course because it usually takes place during KU's spring semester. However, generous understanding and cooperation on the part of teaching staff enabled three students to take part in the course this year. This summer school included: lectures in English on business, economics, international relations and other academic disciplines; Chinese language classes; and tours of Hong Kong as an off-campus activity. Participating KU students studied alongside not only local students but also other international students from the US, Europe, Australia, and Asia, and were able to deepen mutual understanding with those students.
The report by the participating students shows that they learned about various types of value systems in an exceptionally international environment, and that they were able to review the environments in which they had been born and raised from newly obtained perspectives. It is expected that the participating students will continue to develop the insights derived from their experiences in this program.
Report from a participating student
Ko Mizushima
Group leader for Chinese University of Hong Kong Summer School
(English course)
Fourth-year, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University
(Report presented at a debriefing held on Friday 7 August 2015)
This year's summer school program (English course) hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, including the classes we took, our everyday activities and how we spent our holidays were as follows.
Three Kyoto University students -- one from the Faculty of Agriculture and two from the Faculty of Economics -- took part in this 38-day (including two travel days) summer school program. The university offered a variety of classes, such as various levels of Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese language, lectures in English about Business, Chinese Medicine, Engineering, Environmental Studies, and Humanities and Social Science. Students could choose two classes to take. I took a Mandarin Chinese grammar course and a beginner-level Mandarin speaking course. Because the university was originally established as an institution for teaching Chinese language, its teaching method was so highly developed that I was able to make great progress in my listening and speaking skills. Although I started at beginner level, by the end of the course I was able to communicate in Chinese at everyday conversation level. I heard that, in the other lectures, participants studied the subject through communicating with other students in making group presentations and holding discussions.
Outside of classes, participants were free to spend their time as they wished. We stayed in a dormitory on the campus with two or three roommates. We established some general rules, such as when to go to bed and what time to get up, which ensured that we had no problems and no one was inconvenienced. I was fortunate in that one of my roommates was from Australia, which gave me plenty of opportunities to practice my English conversation.
Every Saturday, I joined university-organized excursions to well-known Hong Kong tourist attractions. On Sundays and days off, I visited Macau and Shenzhen, went hiking in the mountains, and went to beaches with some friends.
One of the best features of this course was its timing. We were able to interact with a number of students from Europe and the US, as well as local students, because this program took place during the long summer holiday seasons in those countries. Compared to many of Kyoto University's Short-Term Study Abroad Programs, which are held during the long holiday season in Japan when students at many of the overseas host universities are busy studying in the middle of their academic terms and tend to have little time to interact with short-term international students, this summer program gave us more opportunities to mingle, exchanging ideas and making friends with students from around the world -- particularly with roommates from other countries. In the course of the program, we learned a great deal about different cultures through students of various nationalities and we had some interesting experiences. We were exposed to a variety of languages and cultures throughout the stay: Many Hong Kong residents speak not only Cantonese, which is the official language, but also Mandarin and English. In Shenzhen, people speak Mandarin, and in Macau, Cantonese and Portuguese. Thus, I believe that this summer school is especially valuable for students who seek to study language and to experience cross-cultural exchange. I strongly recommend this program to anyone who may be interested.
University campus viewed from the dormitory room
With a roommate in front of the university building
Hiking along the Dragon's Back
Group photo with classmates
Short-Term Study Abroad Program under the Agreement on Inter-University Student Exchange (also known as the East Asia Short-Term Study Abroad Program)
Each academic year, Kyoto University sponsors seven groups as part of the Short-Term Study Abroad Program under the Agreement on Inter-University Student Exchange, in order to provide students from Kyoto with opportunities to take part in exchanges with students in other countries, become more globally-minded, and to improve foreign language proficiency. In principle, tuition is free, and participating Kyoto University students have the same status as visiting exchange students. During 2015, the program was supported by the ASEAN-focused "Re-Inventing Japan Project", the JASSO (Japan Student Service Organization) Scholarship Program in important policy frameworks, and the Kyoto University Global Frontier Project for Young Researchers (the "John Mung Program").
