2019/7/22

The program completion ceremony for academic year 2019 was held on Saturday, July 20th, for the 174 international students who studied at the Japanese Studies Center for International Students.

The people who attended the ceremony included Associate Professor Fumiko Shiratori, Chair of the Japanese Studies Center for International Students, among other members of the university. Students were celebrated with a loud applause as President Takeshi Matsuda conferred the certificates.

“Please keep on learning Japanese even after you return home and be a bridge between our countries. You are more than welcome to visit us again when you’re back in Japan,” said President Matsuda in Japanese, and concluded his speech with “Bon voyage!” as he sent off the students ready to enter a new chapter in their lives.

The ceremony was then followed by a farewell party, joined by about 250 international students, faculty, and Japanese students. Taking pictures with their smart phones and losing track of time while engaging in conversations, they all seemed to have a wonderful time.

LOPES Isabella, an exchange student from Oxford Brookes University in the UK, said, “I had a rough time in the beginning, as I couldn’t understand what the teacher was saying, and I used to cry alone inside bathroom stalls. I survived this whole year because of my parents and classmates who cheered me up. Not only did I learn Japanese at KUFS, but I also learned the importance of kizuna (emotional connection).” Isabella is about to marry her fiancé who awaits her back in England. With a relieved expression on her face, her effort over the past year was clearly evident in how fluently she spoke the Kansai dialect.

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