Daniele Iamunno
University of Turin, Italy

I am Daniele Iamunno, an Italian student from Turin University. My field of study is Japanese language and culture, so participating at this Summer Class was something I honestly considered deeply important for my academic formation.

It has been a great experience for me to join the Saitama University’s Summer Class because it was the first time I had contacts with Japanese in such an atmosphere. The class was fully recorded and available online, that helped me and other European students to deal with the difficult time zone. I chose to join three courses: Animation Studies, Contemporary Art of Asia and Japan and Exploring Urban History of Japan, which gave me a lot of interesting and useful contents about Japan and Japanese culture. The professors were always available for questions and necessities and my perception is really positive because they transmitted me their love for the subjects. The lessons were in English, but I could also train my Japanese with Japanese students who invited me to have an online conversation. Unfortunately, since my busy schedule was full, I was not able to participate to other videocalls, it would have been funny because Japanese students were happy to communicate with overseas students like me.

I am glad of this experience because I got closer to Japanese academic world, which is one of my aims, and I hope that this contact with Saitama University, which is well organized and high-qualified, will be useful for my future applications in the Japanese world.