Karabanova Daria

Daria

Novosibirsk State University, Russian

   I first heard about Summer Program of SU from my groupmates at my home university even in the winter of 2018. I heard that there will be English lessons, but I’ll be able to study at a real Japanese University and, moreover, live in homestay. As soon as I found out about it I started making necessary documents for the trip. I dreamed about visiting to Japan from my childhood and when I had a chance to live in a Japanese family for a month I was very excited.

  At Saitama University I took two courses: Japanese for beginners and one more is Contemporary Visual Art and Design in Asia and Japan with Professor Zara-Papp Zilia. In Japanese language classes we tried to speak only Japanese because we had to listen to teachers who are native-speakers and they explained grammar to us almost without using English. But it was quite clear and I’ve got a lot of satisfaction from practicing my Japanese with teachers and other students. The classes of Visual Art were wonderful, in my opinion. We hardly ever stayed in class and always went to museums or exhibitions. But when we had classes at the University we listened very interesting presentations of the Professor and had a discussion about Art. The Professor always gave us very interesting information and I can say that I learned lots of fascinating things about Japanese art and culture in general.

  Summer Program 2019 gave me a great Daria 2experience of communication with people from all over the world and of course a ton of unforgettable memories and impressions. I’m really glad to have had the opportunity to practice my Japanese with full immersion in the country that I love since I was 10. And thanks to homestay I was able to see everyday life of Japanese people and maybe get to know their habits and customs a little bit better. I really appreciate to studied at Saitama University for the Summer Program 2019.