New Colombo Plan Reflections
Since January, I have undertaken study, internships and language training in the Asia-Pacific as a New Colombo Plan Scholar. The New Colombo Plan (NCP) Scholarship Program supports young Australians in studying and undertaking internships in the Asia-Pacific region in order to lift knowledge of the Asia-Pacific in Australia. Over the course of my NCP program, I have documented my experiences and recorded my advice to future scholarship applicants through my Medium stories (https://medium.com/@julianvidalNCP). After my NCP program finishes on 31 January, I will return to Australia to finish my studies at the University of Sydney and support the NCP as the University of Sydney’s New Colombo Plan Alumni Ambassador 2018–2019. I am ambivalent about leaving Japan, whose culture of respect, natural beauty and way of life I have come to love over the past year. I am also excited to return home to Australia after more than a year abroad.
My NCP Program has unlocked opportunities that I could only have dreamed of one year ago. I have had the opportunity to participate in internships with and gain insight from some of the biggest names in global industry and tech, including Uber, Mitsubishi Corporation and PwC Japan. Through these internships, as well as invitations to events hosted by the Australian Embassy in Japan, I have been able to build relationships with key stakeholders in the Australian-Japanese bilateral relationship. A Japanese language major, the NCP has enabled me to study Japanese intensively in-country for one year. I am now comfortable operating in a Japanese language environment and am excited to further develop my Japanese language skills until the end of my NCP program. After three years of study, I finally feel confident writing the Jōyō kanji (the 2136 Sino-Japanese characters approved for standard use by the Japanese Ministry of Education). Last week, I finally finished learning the 2200 kanji contained in James W. Heisig’s famous book, ‘Remembering the Kanji’, which includes the Jōyō kanji and other commonly used characters.
The generous funding that the NCP provides its scholars has enabled me to live, study and work in Japan for over one year. During this period, I have been lucky enough to develop profound personal relationships that have not only enriched my experience abroad but changed my view on human relationships altogether. Meeting my girlfriend Junna at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo this March was probably the single best thing that happened to me on my NCP program. Like all NCP scholars in Japan, I had been invited to attend the Embassy’s International Women’s Day event on 9 March and attended after a day of Japanese language training. Junna attended the event as an intern of the Australian and New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan, which co-hosted the event. She had just spent a year studying abroad at the University of Wollongong in Australia and was interested in further developing Australia’s relationship with Japan. We were introduced by a mutual friend at the dinner buffet at the event, and we have pretty well been together ever since. Over the last ten months, we have helped one another learn our target languages (English and Japanese, respectively) and supported one another in overcoming challenges such as the notorious job-hunting experience in Japan (Junna) and the study abroad experience (Julian). We have also had a lot of fun. Recent highlights include a holiday to Okinawa, a tropical island paradise that has been called the Hawaii of Japan; a weekend enjoying the Izu peninsula’s famous onsen (hot springs); and an expedition to the museum dedicated to the famous Ghibli animation studio. Junna and I look forward to continuing our relationship after I return to Australia because, as Junna says, ‘If the relationship matters, the distance doesn’t’.
My NCP experience has been overwhelmingly positive, but there have been challenges as well. Having spent more than a year abroad without a trip home, I have often had to tackle challenges alone when I would otherwise have had my family and close friends to support me. In trying to navigate visa restrictions and internship issues, I have bruised my head on bureaucratic walls in government and business. I have been forced to leave my host country where visa issues have persisted. Sometimes I simply missed having a familiar cultural and linguistic environment to orient myself. Having spoken in depth with other NCP scholars, I know that I am not the only one to have felt overwhelm, loneliness, estrangement and discrimination abroad. Even in a country as well known for respect as Japan is, insidious stereotypes and biases towards foreigners tend to colour many interactions with locals. I imagine that this in some way mirrors the stereotyping and marginalisation suffered by migrants and minority groups in Australia.
Although challenges surface abroad, the resilience to overcome them often does as well. Despite my initial lack of a support network overseas, I have been lucky to have formed relationships that I cherish as much as those I have at home. My relationship with Junna aside, I feel that now have friends and family overseas. It is with great gratitude that I acknowledge the support they have given me (particularly my host family in Osaka — thanks Akiko, Ramon and Naoto!).
My experiences on my New Colombo Plan journey have firmed my conviction that we can overcome cultural and linguistic barriers if we just listen to one another. Through sincere and passionate dialogue, I think that we can help to avoid misunderstandings, mistrust and embitterment. I believe that we can learn to respect one another’s viewpoints, to understand one another and to recognise that we are probably not as different as we first thought.
I am proud and honoured to have been given the opportunity to participate in the New Colombo Plan Scholarship Program. The Program represents an avenue of personal growth for scholars and an astute investment into Australia’s future. It will be a key means to help young Australians develop fluency in Asian languages and cultures, and ultimately, to improve Australia’s engagement with its Asian neighbours. Although my scholarship program is coming to an end, I look forward to supporting the New Colombo Plan in years to come.
Thanks for reading,
Julian
