教員ブログProfessor's blog

Connecting Sophia students with Aotearoa-New Zealand through short-term study abroad.

Jenny Morgan

I am currently writing this blog from my home city, Wellington, in Aotearoa-New Zealand where we are in the middle of the summer season. I am thinking of the two groups of Sophia students who are participating throughout February in Sophia`s Short-Term Language Programmes at the University of Auckland and the University of Otago, Dunedin. As a fulltime EAP lecturer in CLER, I am regularly invited to run a pre-departure session for these student groups before they head to New Zealand for one month`s English study. Their pre-departure lecture usually includes icebreaker language activities, task-based discussions, and intercultural awareness, so they can make the most of their short language study programme, homestay experiences, and the cultural diversity that is integral, more or less, to the New Zealand way of life.

The Sophia study abroad students come from different faculties, have a range of English proficiency levels and learning goals, and diverse interests and club activities. In these pre-departure sessions, as with my own EAP and CLIL classes for CLER, I try to co-create a supportive learning community and tap into the “hidden diversity” of the class as we use English together. I want our Japanese students to be aware that this kind of collaborative learning, curiosity about differences, and active group discussions are very much the norm in New Zealand universities and friendship interactions. A commonly held myth about Japan, both within and outside the country, is that it is a homogeneous society with little diversity. Yet, once students start communicating, this stimulates rich discussions and awareness of the hidden diversity in their classroom and other communities of belonging. This diversity and understanding of their own cultural identities are also what they can tap into whilst in New Zealand where local students and host families will be very keen to learn about each other`s cultures.

In fact, on their return to Japan, Sophia students often reflect on positive experiences of ethnic and cultural diversity, along with the visibility of indigenous Māori New Zealanders and Māori language and culture in the media and daily life. Furthermore, Japanese students report being surprised (but not necessarily disappointed) that their homestay families are not always White, but are instead from diverse backgrounds, giving foreign students a rich experience of diverse kinds of “Kiwi” families, lifestyles, and English users. Through this study abroad experience, I hope our students can continue to explore diversity in Japan and changing notions of “Japanese-ness”. Together, teachers and students can develop respect and curiosity for difference at Sophia and in our wider communities.