Students Interact with Fuchu Citizens on the Theme of Babies Around the World
July 15, 2022
As part of their internship program, students of the Community Interpretation Research Seminar in the School of Language and Culture Studies participate in collaborative projects with citizens of Fuchu City and members of the Fuchu International Exchange Salon, focusing on various topics each year. Participants include foreign residents of Fuchu City and the projects provide an opportunity for everyone to consider the possibilities for harmonious multicultural coexistence.
This year's event, titled “Let’s Celebrate Together! Babies Around the World,” was held on July 8, 2022. The event opened with the students, speaking in simple Japanese, explaining how babies are named and celebrated in the various countries the students are studying, including China, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Germany among others. Since this year’s event was held online through Zoom, participants broke up into groups after the presentations to exchange opinions and their impressions. Many participants from outside TUFS attended the event, making for lively exchange.
In the fall semester, the theme will be “raising children,” and the students plan to create a guidebook on matters of daily life for foreigners.
Below are some comments from the participating students.
Ryoka Uekusa (3rd year, School of Language and Culture Studies)
It was more difficult than I had imagined to give a presentation in simple Japanese, and I prepared for it through many discussions. We had a long presentation time, but each of us tried to devise our own way of speaking so that the audience could enjoy the presentation until the end. Although some students had a hard time finding content suitable for the event topic, we received many compliments, and we are relieved that we were able to make it a meaningful event. We will reflect the feedback we received in our future efforts.
Ayumi Iizuka (3rd year, School of Language and Culture Studies)
During the month-long preparation, we faced many challenges, such as the lack of celebration culture in some countries and how to convey complicated content in concise and simple Japanese, but the seminar students gave each other advice and had many discussions. We hope that this year’s event on “baby celebrations around the world,” left the participants with warm and fuzzy feelings.
