Professors and Words of Caution

November 7, 2016

At Oberlin University, there is an on-campus international student center that provides support for international students in the Reconnaissance Japan program at Oberlin. I have visited this office multiple times for a variety of reasons, such as understanding the procedures for applying for health insurance, gathering the necessary paperwork for opening a Japanese bank account, and asking how to get involved in extracurricular activities. All of my concerns have been attended to, thankfully.

However, bluntly speaking, it was a bit frustrating trying to get help with important things such as getting health insurance and purchasing a SIM card for your cell phone because of the fact that there were few staff members who were able to speak English fluently enough to explain how to do those things. Of course, I understand that the purpose of studying abroad is to immerse yourself in the culture and learn the language and not depend on your native language. However, when it comes to important and stressful matters such as applying for health insurance or opening a bank account, I think that there should be a little more support for those kinds of situations.

Luckily, my host family and my professors have helped me a lot since I got here, and they’ve made my first experience abroad more enjoyable and relaxing. My most interesting professor here would definitely be Mrs. Yamashita because of her sassy attitude and jokes. She is very strict when it comes to things like tardiness and slacking off. If a student is late or repeatedly forgets to bring their homework, she makes that student participate more often in class to ensure that next time the student doesn’t do it again. (Since most foreign-language students are timid when it comes to speaking in front of the entire class, more participation is basically like a punishment.)

Her forced-participation punishment is definitely working, though; ever since one of my classmates had walked in late and forgotten his homework on the same day, everybody has shown up to class on time with their homework. Despite her strictness, Mrs. Yamashita does have a sense of humor. She makes up funny stories to help us better remember certain vocabulary words and grammar points. She also occasionally tells interesting tidbits and fun facts about Japanese culture, which I appreciate, since it makes the class even more exciting.

Written By

Yvette Ortiz

Hello! My name is Yvette, and I am a fifth-year student here at Northeastern. For my final semester as an undergrad, I decided to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. One of the main reasons I chose to go abroad was my desire to push myself out of my comfort zone, and I figured traveling alone to a foreign country where my native language is rarely used would be a pretty effective way of doing that. Aside from improving my Japanese, my main study-abroad goal is to not be afraid of making mistakes. Since I will be immersed in a completely different culture, I will receive ample opportunities to initiate conversations with native Japanese speakers. I’ll probably make tons of mistakes, but that's okay, because that's what normally happens when you're learning a foreign language while living in a foreign country.