Hey, my name is Luis Martinez, a psychology major at Arkansas Tech. I love listening and playing music, and skate around campus and town during my free time. I will be attending class at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies in Japan this semester. I hope to improve my Japanese in a setting where I am surrounded by the language and must use it. I chose Nagoya as they have an amazing community that is willing to help students learn Japanese at any level. I wasn’t sure which school to go to, but I heard that we already had a student currently at NUFS, so I started to do research about the school.
As the date of my flight approaches, I only feel excitement about seeing all that a new country has to offer. As much as I’ll miss home and Tech, I only look forward to the experience. I’m glad that I’ll be able to leave behind the countryside, I have always loved being in a in a more populated city. I will miss the many friends that I have made over the years. I’ll be doing my best to keep in contact with them while abroad.
The only ideology that I live by is to try everything at least once. I understand that where I am going there is bound to be things that I have not seen or considered. I would like to try to be open minded and understanding of other cultures.
One of the concerns that I have currently is of the academic programs. Earlier in the year we had to take a placement test and the results won’t be announce until I get to NUFS. Regardless of what class that I am put into I hope to learn as much as possible from both the curriculum and the instructors and students themselves. I’m not sure what to expect from the instructors, however I heard that NUFS had relatively new learning facilities.
With the research that I did looking into Nagoya, I’m expecting an industrial city filled with people and things to do in my free time. Considering that the University is for foreign studies I also expect there to be other foreign students to be together for the classes and dorms. I would think that students at NUFS are more likely to foreigners than others outside of the school. Even though I expect it to be welcoming, I’ll likely try to play it safe and quiet until I get accustomed to the school.
I look forward to the great foods, music, and novel experiences that I come across while in Japan.
The only thing I feel nervous about right now is the level of Japanese that I can speak. I don’t feel ready to have to use it every day as much as I use English.
I’ll be back to update this blog when I get into Japan.
