Senpai Speaks Report #7 from Noah
In “Senpai Speaks” we will be featuring a “Senpai” (An elder person or a person with seniority. In this case, students who are already studying in a Japanese university)
Meet Noah from Indonesia, currently a third-year student at Kwansei Gakuin University in Hyogo Prefecture. Being a person who is always eager for new challenges, Noah constantly makes choices that are a bit ambitious, but manages to push through. Here is his story of how he came to study at a Japanese language school in Osaka, then enrolling in one of the top private universities in western Japan.
Why Japan?
Noah’s first trip to Japan was when he visited for a family trip in his first year of high school. At the time he was not yet interested in Japan as his study destination. He just found the overall experience in Japan pleasing — a clean & tidy country, with an “orderly” kind of vibe. He did always think that he would like to study abroad for university. “I am a person who likes to experience new things — very curious to experience many things. So I thought I should embrace the opportunity of university education as a chance to experience something new.” Having gone to a “National Plus” high school (schools that offer curriculum beyond what is required by the government, often providing extensive subjects taught in English) in Indonesia, it was not entirely uncommon for students graduating his school to go on to higher education in other countries. However, he says not too many people from his school chose to go to Japanese universities, and even when they do, it was usually to programs that offer courses taught in English. “I think I am the only one from my class that is studying in a Japanese university in Japanese.”
Noah started studying Japanese when he was in high school, but in the beginning, it wasn’t for the purpose of getting into a Japanese university.
“My friend started to study Japanese and that got me interested in learning the language — it started out with seeing my friend watch Japanese anime without subtitles, and I was kind of impressed by that. So I started learning Japanese so that I could also watch Japanese content without subtitles.” He was able to find someone who had studied Japanese at an university in Indonesia to tutor him at home. In the process of learning Japanese, he had the opportunity to go on a one-month study abroad to a Japanese language school during his 2nd year of high school. It was this experience that lead him to think Japan was the country he wanted to go to for university.
“I had a chance to really see Japan, not just as a tourist, but as someone living there, and thought this country is a good match for me. From there on, I started to seriously consider Japanese universities”. He explains what it was about Japan that lead him to this decision.
“This is a bit vague, but I liked the overall lifestyle in Japan,” Noah explains. “For example, in Jakarta, where I am from, the traffic situation is quite awful… but in Japan, the public transformation system is so convenient.” He seemed to have felt comfortable in the overall “tidiness” of Japanese lifestyle and culture. “I liked how everyone stands in line neatly (at train stations), keeping an appropriate distance from each other — and the convenience stores are so…convenient.” He also told us of another aspect of life in Japan that appealed to him which was unusual for us to hear. “I also liked the laundromats — I thought they were cool. I’d never seen laundromats in Jakarta. I think maybe I like things that are convenient and efficient (laugh)”.
By the end of his second year of high school, Noah had made up his mind to go to Japan for university. “It was the end of my second year of high school. My friends were starting to gather information on universities they want to apply to, but I wasn’t even looking at information on Indonesian universities. Japan was my only choice.”
As it was not too uncommon for students of his school to seek higher education in countries outside of Indonesia, there were other students that went on to Japanese universities as well, but all were to undergraduate programs that are offered in English. We asked him why he chose to study in Japanese university programs that are taught in Japanese — which meant he had to give a considerable amount of time and effort toward learning the language before beginning his undergraduate work.
“While I was doing the short-term study abroad, I talked to an Indonesian guide that I met there. They said that if I was going to study in Japan, I would regret not studying in Japanese.” He agreed with them, thinking he could get an English education anywhere else. With his unwavering determination to study in Japan after graduation, Noah applied to enroll in the Japanese language school in Osaka he had spent one month studying at previously.
Coming to Japan
Noah was due to start starting his 18-month Japanese language program at the language school in Osaka in June of 2020, but could not start his studies on campus until later that year, due to Covid travel restrictions. He took online lessons for a while, before joining his classmates in Osaka. When asked of any concerns or worries he had upon coming to live in Osaka by himself in the school dormitories, he says lightly, “No… I think it’s just my personality, but I didn’t worry that much.” But he does recall having trouble with the language in the beginning.
“Come to think of it now, I couldn’t speak Japanese at all back them. Well, the Japanese we learn in textbooks is “hyoujun-go” (*standard Japanese), right? But I came to live in Osaka so…I had a bit of trouble (understanding the Osaka dialect).”
He recalls having the most trouble in his part-time job at a restaurant. “I heard one of my friends had started working part-time only about 1 month after coming to Japan, so that got me inspired and I applied for a job.” He started working in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant chain and recalls having a lot of trouble in the beginning. “This restaurant was especially tricky because for some reason they call out all of the orders to the kitchen in Chinese (rather than the Japanese names that are written in the menus and are used to order by the customers). I didn’t even know the names of the dishes in Japanese, so to have to learn them in Chinese also was… (a little difficult).” He recalls another mishap regarding his job. “It was I think the 3rd day of New Year’s (*In Japan, January 1–3 is called “sanganichi” and is considered period of celebration for the New Year. Schools and most business are closed during this time.), I took a day shift at the restaurant. I didn’t think it would be that busy because it was a day shift, but it turned out that there was a big shrine near the place. There was a huge turnout for ‘hatsu-moude’ (*the act of paying respect to shrines and temples at the beginning of the year) and we were so understaffed! I didn’t know about the shrine, so that was a big surprise.”
Of his early days in Japan, he also recalls feeling a bit intimidated when having to go to the local municipal offices to hand in various papers. “It’s definitely better to go with friends. Going alone is intimidating.” He says it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone that speaks Japanese, or someone who knows their way around. “Even if no one knows what they’re doing, it still feels better have friends by your side when you are making a blunder.”
Applying to University
Noah says he did a lot of research on his own in deciding which university to apply to. He also spoke to a “senpai” student who came to the language school to tutor students on EJU preparation. They were students at Kwansei Gakuin University, so he had an opportunity to hear about the school firsthand. He had always been interested in environmental studies, so he searched for schools with programs in that field. “(In Kwansei Gakuin university) there was a course that combined science and environmental studies, both of which where things I was interested in. So I thought ‘this is what I want to study’”.
The screening process for the Department of Applied Chemistry for Environment was based on EJU scores and other documents, without on-site exams or interviews. “Many of the science programs I looked at were like that- screening by document” says Noah. He did need EJU scores for not only Japanese, but for math and science as well. He was ready for that, having had advice from the teachers at the language school to prepare ahead.
On Kwansei Gakuin University
Currently on his third year, Noah finds his life at Kwansei Gakuin satisfying. He had to move from a relatively urban area in Osaka to a more rural area in Hyogo, but he says the move was not that difficult. “It’s only about an hour from Osaka, so it’s not that far to go back and see my friends there.” He says the move itself went smoothly as he was able to talk to “senpai” students on how to prepare for the move, and where to call in advance for assistance.
He told us about a class that left on impression on him at Kwansei Gakuin. “It was a class to learn about start-up businesses. An alumni of Kwansei Gakuin that is doing quite successfully came to speak to us, and told us about a lot of things. That was interesting because I hadn’t heard success stories of Kwansei Gakuin graduates before, and it was good to know that there are graduates that are doing so well”.
Post-graduate plans and advice to “kohai” students
Noah tells us he wishes to go on to post-graduate studies after he finishes his degree at Kwansei Gakuin. He says of his plans; “I am up for a new challenge again, so I am thinking of finding a program in Australia”. He seems enthusiastic in pursuing his interest in organic chemistry in a brand-new environment.
If there was one advice he could give to students who are considering studying in Japan, Noah says this is the one; “You should really make an effort to study Japanese”. When asked if he feels his studies were not enough, he says “What I mean is, for example, based on JLPT, the highest level is N1. Most people consider N1 level to be the maximum and study aiming for that, but there is actually so much more above N1 level in real life. In Japanese, the number of characters that form one word is very few. Because of that, there are many words that sound the same but mean different things. So for instance if someone said ‘Where is XXXXX?’ (and that word had multiple meanings that sounded the same) I would have to think a minute about what they mean.”
Thank you Noah, for the insightful advice! The idea that “there is so much more to learn after N1” may seem exhausting to people who have just started learning the language, but some of these things will come to you gradually once you start living and learning in Japan, so please do not feel discouraged, readers!
Again, we would like to say Thanks to Noah for sharing his story with us!
