Student Interview

Student Interview: Tan Lue Peng

Q. Why did you choose Japan to study abroad?
When I was considering Universities, I was thinking about what I wanted to do in the future. I thought it would be great to be able to work in the animation industry in the future. Since the Japanese animation industry is one of the best in the world, what better place to study than Japan if you want to enter the animation industry,?
Q. Why did you choose the English Track course at the Meiji School of Global Japanese Studies?
I`ve been studying in an international school throughout middle and high school. I wanted to go to a university with classes taught in English since I have had an English education throughout my life. I thought it would be more suitable. I chose Meiji`s English track because it has pop culture studies, which is related to what I want to do in the future.
Q. Please tell us what you are currently studying. What have you experienced through your campus life so far?
In the upcoming semester I will be entering the Satoh seminar which specializes in tourism. I have studied in different fields such as animation and manga culture, tourism and hospitality, Japanese social systems and Japanese history, and so on. The range is wide but the focus is on pop culture studies, and secondarily in other areas I am interested in. I choose whatever classes I am interested in, since it is one of the benefits of SGJS to be able to choose to study from different fields.
Regarding campus life I have participated in many events held by GJSSC (GJS student committee). They hold events on festival occasions like Christmas. I think those activities are a good place to meet new people.

Q. Tell us about your experience of living in Japan.
I have studied Japanese before coming to Meiji University so I felt that living in Japan has been a lot easier for me than other people, including my classmates who had not studied Japanese before. I also do have a brother that came to Japan before I did, so he is a lot more experienced and he could tell me a lot about living here. So I personally didn’t have many issues living here.
The food is really nice here. Transportation is very convenient although at times it is slightly expensive. Seasonal sports are accessible.
Travelling within Japan to get to know more about the culture and history of the places is very interesting. However there are many rules to get accustomed to such as what trash to take out for specific days and having to fill out a lot of paperwork for something that is quite simple most of the time. And buying furniture when renting an apartmentーfrom what I know in most other countries, when you rent a house it comes with furniture and you don’t have to buy your own. In Japan you have to get them all on your own so that is a bit troublesome.
Q. How are you currently studying Japanese?
I have achieved JLPT N1 last year so I am not actively studying Japanese in my free time. I have taken the School’s Japanese course last semester. I took advanced Japanese. Depending on my schedule for the upcoming semester I may take the upper advanced level that is provided by Meiji. I feel taking Japanese classes is good because it forces me to use Japanese for a certain amount of time every week. It is good practice especially since I will be joining an industry that is very Japanese-based so it would be better to make sure that my Japanese skills are up to standard.
Q. What are your plans for the future? What field or discipline do you want to work in?
Since I will be a third-year student soon I am currently looking for intern opportunities. I am looking to graduate early, so I will have to be one year ahead of schedule—which is why I am looking for internships now. I must do job hunting at the end of this year or the next year.
As mentioned in an answer to a previous question, I want to work in the animation industry as a producer or a director. It is my goal to enter an animation company that I admire. I may start off as a production assistant and work my way up to get to the spot that I want to be in.

A Day in the Life

0:00 – 8:20 sleep
8:20 – 8:40 wake up and prepare
9:00 – 17:00 eat breakfast I buy at Meidai Mart, and head to class
On the day I chose I had 4 periods, with a break from 12:30-13:00 during which I ate lunch.
17:00 – 17:30 chat with friends from 4th period
17:30 – 18:30 head home, work on assignments(I like to work on assignments when my memory is still fresh from the classes)
18:30 – 20:00 prepare dinner, eat
20:00 – 24:00 finish assignments for the day, then free time playing games

Time table in 1st year

Period	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
1st (Fall)		Hospitality Management Studies B	Pre-advanced Japanese (General)
2nd (Fall)			Pre-advanced Japanese (General)		Pre-advanced Japanese (General)
3rd (Fall)	Introduction to Global Japanese Studies			Speech & Presentation
4th (Fall)		Speech & Presentation	Manga Culture B	Animation Culture B	ICT Basic I
5th (Fall)

Period	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
1st (Spring)		Hospitality Management Studies A
1st (Fall)		Business Culture in Contemporary Japan B
2nd (Spring)	Introduction to Academic Studies and Career Development	Japanese Social Systems A
2nd (Fall)		Japanese Social Systems B	Comparative Culture B	Liberal Arts Studies B
3rd (Spring)		Tourism Management A		Advanced Japanese (Reading) I	Research Paper Writing
3rd (Fall)		Sociology B	Advanced Japanese (Reading) II	Media Arts B	Otaku Culture B
4th (Spring)		Research Paper Writing	Manga Culture A		Japanese History A
4th (Fall)		Advanced Japanese (Writing) II	Advanced Japanese (Speaking) II		Japanese History B
5th (Spring)		Advanced Japanese (Writing) I	Animation Culture A
5th (Fall)					Sports and Physical Excercise B

What considerations did you make when choosing your classes?
First of all, I want to choose classes that will help me realize my future in the industry I want to work in in the future. I have taken most pop culture classes already. For other classes I will take classes that I am interested in, then organize my schedule so classes don’t clash with each other.
I don’t mind taking first period classes but I don’t like taking fifth period classes. I did take a few in the previous semester, but when I have the choice I try to avoid the fifth period because I would have to stay in campus until late.

(2023.04.10)

School of Global Japanese Studies