2023 Activity Report

January Activity Report

January 2024
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

The semester that began in September just ended after the final examinations at the start of January. There will be a long winter break until after the Chinese New Year at the end of February. Last year, many students returned home to spend time with their family. This year there are no travel restrictions, so I get the feeling that many students are planning to travel. There are also some students who are planning to visit Japan for the first time with their friends. Many third-year students are also taking advantage of the winter break to participate in internships. In some cases, they may have to work every weekday except for the weeklong Chinese New Year holiday. I hope everyone can have a good experience on their trips or at their internships.

Fourth-year students are focusing on writing their graduation thesis. It seems that some students are studying at home, and the Global Japan Office’s “Japanese Corner” chat group continues to receive requests for Japanese language study advice throughout the winter break.

In 2023, several speech contests sponsored by various organizations were held in China. Some students from Shanghai International Studies University also participated and were able to achieve good results in all contests. This must be the result of studying daily.

I will continue to support each student in 2024, so that they can each play an active role in their area of expertise.

December Activity Report

December 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

December started off with unseasonably warm days, but by mid-December it suddenly became uncharacteristically cold for Shanghai, including morning snow! In the northeast of China, transportation networks have been affected by heavy snow during this cold snap.

The exam period of the university will be held at the beginning of January. It’s not long until winter break starts. I hope that everyone takes care of themselves, and that your results reflect your hard work this semester.

Japanese Cultural Experience Session

Around this time every year we hold a Japanese Cultural Experience Session aimed at first year students. This year, the event was held on Friday, the 1st of December, at the Japanese style room in the Japanese Culture Economic College building. With support from the senior students, the students tried on yukatas, learnt about tea ceremony, and tasted green tea and sweets. The students were very interested in the yukata and tea ceremony after seeing them in anime and manga. The students took lots of photos and had a great time.

Introductory Japanese Class

At Shanghai International Studies University, there is an introductory level course that introduces Japanese language and culture, called Tagengo Plus (Multilingual Plus). The course is aimed at students whose major is not Japanese, and is held once a week for 2.5 hours, over 10 sessions. Many students participate each week, even though the class is held late in the evening (6pm-8:30pm) after undergraduate classes.

On the last day of class, Thursday the 7th of December, everyone in the class had to introduce themselves in Japanese. The students skillfully used the phrases they had learnt to introduce their hometown, family, hobbies, and favourite foods. There was even a student who said, ‘I plan to travel to Japan during the winter break’. I hope students will have an opportunity to use what they learnt in this class.

（Photo 1: Introductory Japanese Class）

November Activity Report

November 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

The warm days have continued into November. The pleasant temperature is nice but almost every day is reaching over 20°C, so I think it would be nice if the weather became a little cooler.

There are many events in November, and many students are busy with interpreting volunteer activities at various events outside of the university. I think extracurricular activities are great experiences for the students, so I hope they can try to attend as many as possible.

Online Exchange Class

On the 2nd of November, there was an online exchange class held with students from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. TUFS students and Shanghai International Studies University student volunteers participated in a Global Liberal Arts Program class, “Teaching Japanese 1 - Japan in the World A”, held by Professor Ryuko Taniguchi. After the first introductions, the TUFS students asked the SISU students, in Japanese, about their student life, curriculum, and classes, and the SISU students answered and talked about their student life in Japanese. One SISU student who participated said, “I haven’t had many chances to speak to Japanese people, so this was a good experience. I thought I could listen to and write Japanese well, but today I was frustrated because I could not say what I wanted to express very well. I want to keep trying!”. Students from TUFS made comments, such as, “It is interesting that even though we are both ‘Foreign Studies Universities’, the student life and school atmospheres seem very different” and “I was surprised at how fluent the SISU students’ Japanese pronunciation was”. I’m glad that this was such a great experience for both universities.

Japanese Corner

On Friday, the 24th of November, the second ‘Japanese Corner’ event for this semester was held. The theme for this event was ‘Psychology Tests’. The students enjoyed doing the Japanese psychology tests that they had found, and discussing whether they thought that the results were accurate or not.

October Activity Report

October 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

It is beginning to feel like Autumn as we move into October, but this year still feels warmer than usual. Pleasant days with nice weather continue. At the start of October, there is a week-long holiday celebrating the National Day of China. This is the first year since the COVID-19 restrictions have been eased, so many students are enjoying the break by going out, travelling, or returning to their family homes.

Japanese Corner

On the 20th of October (Friday), the first ‘Japanese Corner’ event of this semester was held. The Japanese Corner is very popular every time it is held because we play games using Japanese and discuss topics in Japanese. This time, over 20 students attended. Three students from TUFS, who are currently on exchange at SISU, also participated. The topic for this session was ‘Gourmet’. The topics of conversation were endless, from restaurants around the university to delicious meals from the regions of China. Since China is so large, many Chinese students weren’t aware of some of the meals from different parts of the country. Because of this, students were able to not only practice Japanese, but also to learn about their own country. Here is what one student had to say: “I learnt so much from everyone discussing the various meals and snacks from all the regions of China. It was also very fun to recommend meals and restaurants from our own countries with the Japanese students. It was also interesting to teach the Japanese exchange students how to pronounce the names of Chinese dishes and tell them about the origins of these names. The Japanese Corner event is very useful for increasing our language skills and learning from each other.”

Everyone was very interested to hear one Japanese exchange student talking about a Chinese restaurant chain that is becoming popular in Japan. After the event, one Japanese exchange student said, “We are all around the same age, so it is fun to talk to everyone.” At SISU, the international students and Chinese students study on different campuses so there are not many chances for students to interact. I plan to hold the Japanese Corner event once a month for the foreseeable future. I hope Japanese exchange students will also be able to attend future Japanese Corner events.

September Activity Report

September 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

The weather started to cool down at the end of August, but it has become extremely hot since from the start of September. Students have been sweating through lessons in classrooms without air conditioning. The heat after the summer vacation has made it hard to focus for some students, but the start of the new academic year has renewed their determination to study hard this year.

Classes

In the conversation class for second year students, we talked about what they eat for their daily meals. Most university students in China, including students at Shanghai International Studies University, live in university dormitories. Cooking is prohibited in the dormitories, so students must rely on the university cafeteria or local restaurants for their meals. The students discussed their various habits, such as “I usually eat at the cafeteria”, “I go to restaurants with friends on the weekend”, “I often eat at local restaurants, but I eat at the cafeteria if I don’t have time”, and “The cafeteria is crowded so I often get food delivered from local restaurants”. The conversation also led to sharing recommendations for delicious restaurants around the university, such as “That bakery is delicious” and “That restaurant has good Japanese food”.

Studying abroad in Japan

Students who studied abroad in Japan last semester have returned to the Shanghai campus. All the students said they were so glad that they were able to study abroad, and that they had an excellent experience in Japan. Even more students will be studying abroad in Japan this semester. I hope that they will learn a lot during their stay in Japan.

August Activity Report

August 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

The hot weather continues in Japan. Shanghai is usually just as hot and humid - if not more so - than Japan, but this summer felt cooler than usual. This week marks the end of August, and although the weather was rainy, there were about three consecutive days where the temperature did not exceed 30 degrees. It is getting a little cool at night, so it is starting to feel like autumn.

I asked students in our ‘Japanese Chat’ WeChat group how they spent their summer vacation. Some said that they went back to their family home to relax, some travelled within China, and some travelled to Japan to see the Gion Festival in Kyoto. It’s been so long since I could hear students say that they went on a trip to Japan. I’m glad that we can travel freely again.

The ‘National Sasakawa Undergraduate Essay Contest’ will be held in September. This involves submitting an essay of around 5000 characters in Japanese about a topic of interest. Two students from Shanghai International Studies University will be entering this year. Both students have thoroughly researched their topic of interest and they have both come to me for advice over the summer vacation. Even though there were a few mistakes in their Japanese expressions, I was impressed by their ability to write solid sentences regarding their topics.

I am looking forward to seeing the students again in September – I’m sure they will have grown and matured over the summer vacation.

July Activity Report

July 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

This year, because of the Chinese calendar, the summer vacation started earlier than usual at the end of June. However, even though it is the summer vacation, there were still students in the Japan Economics Institute. There are lots of students who will stay at the university to study for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) on the 2nd of July. Once the JLPT is done, they can finally enjoy the summer vacation. The students will enjoy their summer vacation as much as they can by returning to their family home or by travelling around.

During the summer vacation, I have been supporting students mostly online. The students have been joining the Japanese Chat Group where we choose a theme to talk about in Japanese every week. One week the theme was ‘Japanese restaurants near the university’. Recently in Shanghai there have been several Japanese restaurants opening up. Even around the university there are various Japanese restaurants such as a Japanese style izakaya and a sukiyaki restaurant. Strictly speaking, this is not Japanese cuisine, but there is also a Japanese style curry rice restaurant. According to the students, this restaurant adds chocolate to the curry which led to the students asking if it was normal to put chocolate in curry and getting excited about discussing what their own secret ingredients are when they make curry.

Shanghai is a great place to feel ‘Japan’ all around you – I hope you can feel ‘Japan’ around you too in your summer vacation.

June Activity Report

June 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

This year, the summer vacation starts earlier due to calendar arrangements, and the final exams will begin in mid-June. Students kept focusing on studying, bearing the muggish summer weather while showing a sense of tension. In the previous semester, infection prevention measures for COVID-19 were still going, and classes were held online temporarily, but this semester, all of that stopped, and all lessons were conducted offline. So, when students kept moving more and more, even the atmosphere seemed slightly exhausted. Still, when there were no movement restrictions, even being students, many had plans to travel during the summer vacation. Among them were those who "will go to Japan during the summer vacation" while also hearing other students say it is their first time to travel to Japan since 2019. With the removal of COVID-19 prevention measures such as airport tests, traveling abroad has become easier, and I hope the movement between Japan and China becomes more active.

Graduation Ceremony

Before the final exams, there were graduation ceremonies inside the university. On the same day, graduating students were taking commemorative photos here and there. Everyone seemed happy, which also made me feel good. I wish all students, whether going to job hunting or graduate school, will have a bright future.

May Activity Report

May 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

In the first week of May, there is a consecutive holiday known as the "Labor Festival," similar to Japan's Golden Week. It provides a moment to catch my breath since the beginning of the new semester in late February. Less than half of the current semester will remain when the holiday is over. I will devote even more effort to studying as I prepare for the end-of-term exams and the summer JLPT (the Japanese Language Proficiency Test).

Online Exchange Lesson

On May 18th, an online exchange lesson was held with students from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. This lesson marked the third year an online exchange lesson took place. Students enrolled in the World Liberal Arts course "Teaching Japanese I: Japan in the World A" (taught by Professor Ryuko Taniguchi) at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies participated, along with volunteering students from Shanghai International Studies University. After the initial explanation, the students were divided into separate rooms and started with self-introductions and then discussions in Japanese. The theme of the conversation was "reasons behind differences and similarities between student life in China and Japan." All the groups actively discussed student life, curriculums, and classes. One of the participating second-year students from Shanghai International Studies University said, "Although it was my first time talking with Japanese university students, I was delighted that my Japanese was understood. It gave me confidence."

(Photo1_Online Exchange Lesson)

Japanese-Style Festival

This festival is similar to a cultural festival and organized mainly by second-year students of the Japanese Culture and Economics Graduate School. It could not occur last year due to the impact of Covid-19, but this year marked its long-awaited coming-back. The event offered various activities to enjoy Japanese culture, including a corner to experience the Yukata (traditional summer garment) and a food corner serving onigiri and nori rolls. The participants were not only students of the Japanese language, but students from different schools at Shanghai International Studies University could enjoy themselves as customers.

(Photo2_Japanese-Style Festival)

April Activity Report

April 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
TAKADA Mayu

In spring, cherry blossoms are blooming in Shanghai. Someiyoshino is the most planted cherry tree in Japan, but many different kinds of cherry trees are planted here. I feel that double-flowered cherry trees are more popular here than in Japan. After the petals of cherry blossoms fall from the trees, in late April, temperatures will rise drastically, and it will be as hot as summer during the daytime. Cherry trees are now covered with green leaves, and now it look like early summer.

Tagengo + (Multilingual Plus)

In April, we started to offer an introductory level course called Tagengo+ (Multilingual Plus) on Japanese language and culture. Although the course is for students who do not specialize in Japanese language, more than 20 students applied, indicating the high popularity of the Japanese language program. On the first day, we practiced how to write hiragana. Everyone did very well writing hiragana probably because there are many Japanese restaurants in Shanghai and Japanese letters can be seen often in the city, or perhaps it is because hiraganas are similar to Chinese characters.

Japanese Corner

On Friday April 21st, we held the second Japanese language corner in this semester. Japanese International students also joined this time, the students seemed to have a great time. The theme was “Celebration.” The students were split up into three groups and talked in Japanese about “birthday celebrations,” “celebration of being accepted to a university,” and so on. One of them said, “I have decided to study abroad in Japan next semester, and celebrated.” Rather than celebrating it, they seemed to be having a lot of fun talking about studying in Japan, such as which university they will go to and what they will do.