2020.12.10 Thu

On December 2 and 9, the International Centre held the third sessions of the "Online NIHONGO Chat Room" for international students from our partner universities and Gakushuin students who have signed up with the Centre as volunteers. In response to the spread of COVID-19, Gakushuin University suspended accepting exchange students from overseas who were scheduled to start their programs here at Gakushuin this past September. In lieu of the face-to-face exchange programs, we organized the Chat Room to give both international and Gakushuin students an opportunity to interact with each other.

A total of 23 students (9 international students and 14 Japanese volunteers) participated online from home in the two sessions. The theme was "Language(s) I'm interested in." The participants seemed to successfully share their thoughts and feelings about "Language" with each other.

Many participants responded to the post-survey that they were satisfied with the event. Below are some of their comments.

"We had so much fun in this exchange. I wish we had more time. The discussion about 'My favorite words' was particularly interesting." "I enjoyed learning the common features and differences between Japanese and a foreign language I'm not familiar with."

We are still in a situation that prohibits us from going abroad or having a face-to-face interaction. Under these difficult conditions, the participating students had an excellent opportunity for both Japanese and international students to enjoy international exchange and learning.

The next sessions are scheduled on January 20 and 27, 2021.