TUFS Students Provide Language Support at International Goodwill Basketball Event

May 23, 2019

From Monday the 25th until Wednesday the 27th of March, four TUFS students volunteered as language supporters at the “B.League U15 Challenge Cup 2019 ～U15 Japan-South Korea-Australia Basketball Competition” held at the Arena Tachikawa Tachihi.

Comments from two of the volunteers:

Ms. Sakura Ohashi (School of Language and Culture Studies, English language/Northwest European Studies, second year)
It was my first time volunteering as a language supporter, so I was very nervous. However, because basketball is a familiar sport to me, and since the Australian coach, players and their families were so friendly, this experience was both an enjoyable and valuable one. All four of us usually worked together to interpret the interviews, and even though I understood the questions and answers in each language, it was difficult to translate them accurately. One time I got the chance to interpret on my own, as one of the Japanese coaches wanted to be introduced to the Australian coach and suddenly asked me to interpret, so I had to face my fear of interpreting on my own, and the challenge of providing suitable and easy to understand translations. Through this experience I learnt about the general job of an interpreter, and the differences between Japanese, Korean and Australian basketball, which became good motivations for my language studies. From now on I want to actively volunteer at sports-related events.

Ms. Mioko Kawamoto (School of International and Area Studies, North American Area/English Language Studies, International Relations Course, third year)
This volunteer experience was very fulfilling, as I got to use English a lot.
In particular, I think acting as an interpreter between the U15 players when they talked to each other after their matches was a good experience, as I was able to help the players become friends with players from different countries.