2023 Activity Report

March Activity Report

March 2024
Global Japan Office Coordinator
LIN Sumire

As we enter March, the days are becoming hot like summer. It looks like these warm days will continue, with temperatures reaching around 20℃. The Tamkang University school cultural festival started on Monday the 25th of March, and will continue for two weeks so the campus is filled with many different stalls. I planned to hold another movie viewing party, but it had to be cancelled due to technical issues. I hope that I can hold this event next month instead. Due to the announcement of the rescheduling, some students from the Japanese department came to visit the Global Japan Office. They seemed to be interested in reading Japanese books. I hope that more people will come to visit.

February Activity Report

February 2024
Global Japan Office Coordinator
LIN Sumire

The cold weather continued into February, and I couldn’t stop shivering. Classes finally started on February 19th, and I saw many students coming to university in the cold. Since it was the beginning of the term, everyone seemed to be very busy for various reasons, such as choosing classes, applying for report cards, and waiting in long lines at the reception desk for students who had not yet paid their tuition fees. As the cold wave continues and the temperature continued to drop to lows of 9 degrees Celsius, I am worried that some people may become unwell. Even in March, the temperature has only slightly improved, but it still drops to around 15℃ to 14℃ at night, so I hope everyone is taking measures to protect themselves against the cold. Perhaps because of the cold weather, but the Global Japan Office didn't have any visitors in February, so in March I would like to proactively spread the word about this office.

We also had some special guests in February. Professor Chunchen Lin and first-year master's students from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies came to visit us. I hope that this event has sparked a deeper interest in Taiwan for these students. Next month, I would like to plan another Japanese movie viewing party. It looks like it will be warmer in March, so I hope all students will make sure to take care of their health.

December Activity Report

December 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
LIN Sumire

December is here. The cold days have arrived, so I hope the change in temperature doesn’t make anyone sick. Winter seemed to have arrived late in Taiwan, as many days of over 20℃ persisted.

This month, students continued regularly visiting the Global Japan Office. It seems that one student is determined to go to Japan someday. It’s great that they are so interested in Japan. Recently, our office participated in a TUFS research project focusing on listening comprehension strategies. Many students participated in the research, so I’m sure the results will be excellent. The research project involved having students take notes while listening to Japanese news programs, and then transcribing the content of the news they just listened to. Then, they explained in Japanese as much as they could remember, and explained, to the best of their ability, which parts they didn’t understand and why. After that, they translated what they understood into Chinese, and explained which parts they couldn’t translate and why. This process took around 2 hours for each student. I could see that all the students were participating in the research very seriously. I hear that there will be another research project at the end of February, so I’m looking forward to that after the winter break.

November Activity Report

November 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
LIN Sumire

The very hot days are still continuing. Even though it is getting deeper and deeper into autumn, it doesn’t seem like it here in Taiwan. Lately, fewer students have been visiting the Global Japan Office. There seem to be events almost every week at the university at the moment, so everyone is busy. This month I held an anime viewing party for the students who visited the office. For some reason the connection was not very good, and the screen had some static – maybe because the large monitor we used was too old. The connection issues improved slightly, so I plan to hold a Ghibli viewing party next time. Recently, there has been a student visiting the office regularly who has been enthusiastically reading Japan travel books. The student can’t wait to visit Japan. In December, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies will hold a ‘Listening Comprehension Strategies’ research collaboration event. I expect this event will yield great research results.

October Activity Report

October 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
LIN Sumire

Even though we have entered Halloween season, the temperature is still not going down. The holiday rush has finally come to an end. On the 10th of October, there was a long weekend for the National Day holiday. Due to the various long weekends recently, some classes have been postponed to different days to make up for the lost class time. Many people go out during the holidays, so it is very crowded outside. Once the holidays had finished, the mid-term exams started getting closer. I get the feeling that some classes were rushed to make up for the lost time. Maybe because of this, students stopped visiting the office as the mid-term exams approached. Two weeks before the mid-term exams no one came to visit the office, so I decided to close the office during the week before the mid-term exams. However, I’m happy to say that more students have been attending the office for the first time since the start of this month. Everybody seems to be interested in the bookshelf, as it seems that there are many reference books. I will continue to lend out books from the office. I hope everyone’s test results are good.

September Activity Report

September 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
LIN Sumire

This month is the start of the academic year, so I was a little worried whether anyone would come to visit my office, but I was relieved to hear from the Japanese Language Department that there were some students who have been asking about the Global Japan Office. The office has only been open for three weeks, but I’m very happy that many students have been coming to visit the office. The academic year started a week later than usual this year, but I’m glad I have been able to participate in such a short time. Many Japanese Language Department students who visit the office always come to borrow books. It’s very heartwarming to see so many dedicated students come to the office to borrow books as references for their essays, or as preparation for the Japanese Language Examination (Nihongo Kentei) to enter graduate school in Japan.

This month is the middle of autumn so there is a three-day public holiday in Taiwan from the 29th of September celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. There is a culture of enjoying barbeques and mooncakes in this country, and many Tamkang University students plan to return to their family home to celebrate this holiday. I hope that we can all enjoy the Mid-Autumn Festival. In October, there is also the National Day public holiday, so I think lots of students will again return to their family home for this.

August Activity Report

31 August 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
LIN Sumire

It is still so hot every day, isn’t it? The 8th of August is Father’s Day in Taiwan. The pronunciation of 8 sounds like the character for ‘father’ which is why the date 8/8 is chosen as Father’s Day.

In other news, the end of August means the new semester will begin. In September, students will start coming to the university so I hope that they will also come to my office. There are so many books about Japan in the office, so I plan to actively lend out these books to any students who come to visit.

I announced the opening of our office in August, initially I announced it with irregular hours but from September I plan to open the office at certain regular times. I also stated that I plan to hold an event every week but in the case that no one attends the event, the event will be postponed, and the office will remain open as usual.

I’m excited to meet and exchange with the students in September.

July Activity Report

31 July 2023
Global Japan Office Coordinator
LIN Sumire

I hope that you are continuing to stay vigilant to avoid getting heat stroke in the midsummer rays of sunshine. This is my first time writing this report, so I hope that you read it with kindness as I continue to improve over time.

As it is summer vacation, most students have gone home so the university feels deserted. There have been times when I have not been able to enter the university building, but I am glad I could spend time working in the office during the vacation. I have been rummaging around trying to get a grasp of the office’s activities. I found some office documents that my predecessor kindly left for me, which will be a great help in guiding my work in this office. There are many books in the bookshelf and records of books which have been lent out – I can see that we have been acting like a library so I will continue this work when the students return. I can also see that we have been providing lots of announcements to students so I will follow in the footsteps of my predecessor and continue this work.

The one event I have participated in was the Global Community event. I was honored to meet so many people. It was a great experience to talk with the professors, journalists and exchange students who were gathered there.