I first started my journey to Japan in my first year at TRU. I always knew I wanted to study abroad, but it wasn’t until I took JAPA 1110 Introduction to Japanese (view in transcripts) that I got my first taste of what that would be like. From this class, I continued to a zero-credit GSO-funded program in which a handful of TRU students got to take global skills courses and eventually travel abroad to Japan. This program was the true start for my or opportunities that came with it. the ITC department here at TRU gave offer students to volunteer their time to the ‘buddy program’ this program was one in which Japanese students cam from our partner university to learn english and Canadian culture. Us as buddies helped them learn english, showed them around Kamloops and bits of Canadian culture and became a support system for the students. This opportunity was not only a chance for us to really understand what it means to work interculturally, but also helped me understand that this was a great passion of mine.
When we arrived at our field school at Toyo University, we were surprisingly greeted by the same students we had been buddies with a year earlier. They showed us their language and culture, and some even took us to their hometowns. This experience was one that I can never forget; Japan truly left a mark in my heart.
