An Experience to Remember.

Aichi Syukutoku University

My experience at ASEP was wonderful through the presentations, my first home stay experienced in Asia, and visit to elementary school, I was deeply impacted.
During the presentations, I was impressed by how effectively high school students could make power point presentations. I think Japanese schools should also be teaching students PowerPoint from a young age. But more over, the international group set up impacted me more.
At ASEP, Japanese students were forced to work together with students from other countries. English was the common language group members used to communicate with each other.
However, for most Japanese students this was the first opportunity to use English as a means to achieve a goal. I noticed their English ability improve as well as their attitude. English was no longer a set of grammar rules it became alive; the way language should work. This made me reflect on English education systems in Asia.
In Taiwan, I saw the bilingual displays on the steps, English posters, high tech screens used to display song lyrics and home pages, all things unknown in Japanese junior high school, even though English education starts in 7th grade. In Taiwan, elementary school students are in touch with English every day. It’s not only vocabulary or grammar structures but its relevant to their daily lives. When the elementary school students interviewed me, they were not afraid to mispronounce words or make little mistakes as in Japan. The students had confidence and they sounded natural even though English was their second language.
Even in my host family I could feel that the English was not a barrier but a bridge. For example, when I went sight seeing with a group of host families and ASEP friends, the Taiwanese people were trying to speak in English to each other. If this were Japan, most likely the Japanese people would speak Japanese not English to each other. I respect my host family’s effort and motivation.
Through ASEP, the Taiwanese English education system has reflected well on Japanese teachers. I hope that in the future, Japan will utilize similar methods as those models set by Asian countries such as Korea or Thailand in teaching not only English but other subject as well.
Through this project I could see a lot of things, not only in the English education system but also in the relationships between teachers and students. On our way to Taiwan, we were delayed 12 hours in the airport. During that time, some of the teachers were teaching the students how to speak or use English. There was no black board, no tape or CDs. The teachers looked into their students eyes and checked their pronunciation face to face again and again. This teaching method was attractive. I learned how to get interested students interested in English.
I want to say thank you to my professors Mr. Ohno, and Mr. Kageto. I had chances to meet many teachers from Taiwan who always smiled and were friendly. I was able to network more widely not only internationally, but also with people from Japan.
I hope that in the future, this project will be known more widely and give many students the opportunity to experience culture shock from Asian people through home stay and preparing presentations in multi-cultural groups. ASEP will enable students to understand each other’s background in hope to build understanding and encourage people of different backgrounds to work together in the future to come.

I thank you.