What is Monthly Wase? It is a monthly update, specifically reviewing the courses I attended. This would be focused on the curriculum for others to consider in the future.
This is a regular series I am doing within the TOKYO BOUND blog.
Apart from the usual classes, within Waseda, there are indeed other avenues of support or opportunities to practise speaking Japanese and make new friends!
I list three different support channels and students usually find what best suits them!
Nihongo Support 日本語サポー
ICC Events
Circles
Nihongo Support 日本語サポー
nihongo support banner on the first floor of the school
For me, the most helpful resource has been the Nihongo Support department that’s part of the school. They are made of post-graduates (if I’m not mistaken) non-Japanese people who studied the language. It’s usually easier to clarify with non-Japanese people because they understand the mindset and questions you might have. I started around Week 3 of school, and they do check in on your goals and if you have achieved it after every four weeks.
Within Nihongo Support, they also have ad hoc speaking activities for foreign students to practise.
It is through this support sessions I received the suggestion to start writing a diary or 日記.
ICC Events
Waseda University’s Intercultural Communication Center (ICC) looks after international exposure and also the international students’ student life. They organise a lot of events to bring exposure to different cultures, for students to make friends of different nationalities, and for foreign students to have exposure to Japanese culture. From my understanding, a lot of international students do attend these to make friends as well.
I personally attended a few like にほんごペラペラクラブ 10月/ Japanese Chat Club October and ICCキャンパス・フォト・アドベンチャー（2023秋）/ICC Campus Photo Adventure (Fall 2023) just so that I can know the school compounds better.
my first session at the japanese chat club
The Japanese Chat Club has a great structure of having three foreign students, and two local students to speak about a given topic. Initially, it was a very tough session, but as the weeks went by, it did get better. Thankfully, all the local student helpers were eager and patient in our learning of the language.
Circles
In Singapore, we call it Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) or for some other schools, after school activities. In Japan, they seem to call it Circles サークル. I happened to find out about the recruitment drive through ICC itself and was only interested in the Art Circle (絵画会).
From speaking with other students, it is a great way to make friends with the locals given that for us who study the language full-time, we won’t have any other opportunities to make local Japanese friends. For sports, it might be easier to make friends given that there’s a lot more non-verbal cues to be used.
my first session with the art circle
For myself, I attended the Art Session once and sadly did not attend again. At that time, I felt scared to make friends given the language barrier, but I subsequently realised that the students themselves were probably as unconfident in English as I was in Japanese.
Supporting one of our classmates’ work
I do have a friend who continued attending throughout the semester as it gave her peace. She eventually also managed to display her pieces at their end-of-year showcase!