About my personal experience

Hi, I’m Erica Marcon from the group 17伝統行事. I would like to talk about my personal experience with the Virtual Study Abroad Exchange project.

Like many others, I had planned to go on a cultural and study exchange in Japan last year, but for known reasons I couldn’t do that. Choosing to partake in this project, I was able to have a similar experience, so I’m very glad for this opportunity. Meeting and getting to know the students from Japan, I was able to discover new things about Japanese culture and people, things that you can’t just study in a book. Of course, in doing this, I also managed to improve my Japanese. I was able to learn new words and to improve my hearing and speaking skills. But, most importantly, I could improve my communication skills overall.

I was one of the 責任者 of my group. Because I am a shy person, at first, I was a little afraid and anxious of the responsibility that was put on me, but, in the end, I think I managed to do just fine. Of course, that is also thanks to the collaboration and help from the other team members.

It was very fun to talk and work together with the other team members. Helping each others, sharing ideas and opinions and discovering new things and different point of views were the best part of this project, in my opinion. The topics chosen for discussion aren’t usually present in daily conversations, so it was very interesting. It was also fascinating reading the weekly posts in this blog and to seeing the conclusion of all the groups’ research. I found most of the posts to be inspiring and eye-opening: they really made me think.

In conclusion, I’m very grateful for this opportunity and experience, because it really helped me grow in many ways. In fact, thanks to this project, I was able to acquire some skills that I believe will be essential for my future.