The World Cafe, an event where international students introduce words to other students, has launched at the Surugadai Campus.
On June 17, Spanish Cafe, the first session, was held. Vargas Miranda Milton Roberto (Roberto) and Narvaez Aguinad Karla Berali (Karla) from El Salvador, Central America, second-year students of the Graduate School of Governance Studies, Professional Graduate School, introduced the participants to the culture and language of their home country. About 40 students participated in the session, indicating a high level of interest. International students from Mexico also came to support them.
First, Karla introduced the participants to the rich nature and culture of El Salvador using slides, and the participants watched eagerly. Next, Roberto taught the participants various Spanish expressions using a text that he had prepared. The cheerful voices of the participants repeating Roberto’s pronunciation echoed around the International Lounge.
Participants said, “I could feel the fun atmosphere of Spanish,” and, “I want to use the expressions I learned today to make friends with international students,” for example. The two lecturers commented, “I am glad that many people are interested in Spanish. It was fun to share our culture with other students,” (Karla) and, “I enjoyed interacting with the participating students. I was uplifted by my interaction with them,” (Roberto).
By the way, in El Salvador, it is said that there is a lot of positive press coverage of Japan and people are very interested in Japan. For Roberto and Karla, who have wanted to come to Japan for a long time, the cleanliness of the streets and the way things are done effectively as well as the kind response to others seem to be the beauty of Japan. The two commented, “Many international students want to interact with Japanese people,” and, “We wish we could interact with them more.”
The World Cafe will feature Ukrainian on June 24 and Finnish on July 1.
