1. Who am I? — A CAMPUS Asian Nomad

Hi! My name is HaeMin, CHOI from the Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul National University (GSIS, SNU).

Although I received high school and university education in the United States, I was interested in Chinese and Japanese culture, language and politics (of course Korean as well) more than American politics. Therefore the study I wanted to do was international politics related to Northeast Asia. However, the undergraduate university I was in did not teach enough about Asia; just briefly mention the concept of the rise of China. With the reason above, I decided to study more on Asia in my home country, Korea, which I believe the center and the mediator in Northeast Asia.

In March 2012, it was the time when I only had one semester left before the graduation. Even though I was satisfied with the study and classes I had taken in Seoul National University, I felt slightly empty on one side of my heart. However, I read from “Notice” section on my school website; promoting CAMPUS Asia Program. Without thinking more than one second, I went to see the person in charge in order to ask thoroughly about the program. This was it! Studying in both China and Japan is “the dream” I always wanted as I was interested in both countries! Luckily I had a reasonable GPA, obtain JLPT Japanese Proficiency Test score, and HSK Chinese Proficiency Test score; nothing was needed more, but just apply for it.

You may ask whether I hesitated to apply since I had only one semester left before the graduation. The answer is “NO”. I never hesitated to apply the program because this was “the dream” for me to study in China and Japan. Thankfully, both my parents supported me on the idea of being abroad again. A few weeks after I applied, I heard the best news of the year, being accepted to CAMPUS Asia program.

Then, on March 28th, 2013, I flied to Tokyo with four other CAMPUS Asians from my home university. Japan was where I only been once before for research program, and where I wanted to study about Japanese people, society, politics and old history. You would never imagine how much I was excited to arrive in a country I want to look at closely. It was like “Dream ★ Comes True” — one of the famous logo in the game during 2002 Korea-Japan Soccer World Cup. Yes. Finally I was in Tokyo! I gave my word that I would experience and enjoy everything I can.

2. How was the life in the University of Tokyo (Todai) ? — Delightful days

From the first day of arrival, the school arranged “tutors” for us, five. Todai has a system of tutor for international students to help foreigners to settle in the city as well as at school. We did not expect them to be at the airport greeting us at the arrival gate. Most of us spoke enough Japanese to get to the place we were assigned. Surprise! There were three Todai students waiting for us. We felt it was some kind of welcome gift from the school. Those three students were really nice, kind and even helped us to carry the baggage. On the next day, they took us to the Ward office to fill out foreign residence form and help us to apply for insurance. Everything went smoothly thanks to them. The picture on the right was taken on the second day at a Korean restaurant, after visiting the Ward office.

—In Classes
Although my Japanese is not good enough to take courses, I just challenged myself to take some courses in Japanese. So, for the first semester, I took four classes in Japanese and two in English. As Korea and Japan has a few conflicts on territory, textbook, and comfort women issues, I really want to know how the Japanese professors teach their students in these issues. To be honest, I expected something “far-right-wing” comments, because I believe the education brought the conflicts. However, such expectation never became real. Of course there were professors who explained only on Japanese positions (this was understandable because they were Japanese, but it was never far-right-wing comments), but most of professors tried to teach both countries positions on those issues and rather being neutral. Actually there were a few professors yelling at Japanese students; “Japan is very irresponsible country, so YOU should do something because you all are future leaders”. I was very shocked to hear such frank talks. It is not like I was happy to hear such, but rather did not know how to react. This was different from what I expected! You may question that those professors said such because there was me, a Korean, a foreigner in the class. To answer you, I never told professors I was Korean until my presentation day or midterm. Professors were surprised that there was a Korean “censoring” them. Since then, I had a feeling that I could talk about many issues between Korea and Japan with Japanese friends in Todai who are being educated from these professors.

—With Friends
The school I was in, the Graduate School of Public Policy (GrasPP) of Todai, has both English and Japanese programs. Most of Japanese students were in Japanese program but there were also numbers of Japanese students in English program. Mostly I was closed to CAMPUS Asian Japanese students who are getting ready to visit my home university. However, I also was able to make other Japanese friends with different background because I took a few classes in Japanese. We formed a discussion tea-time or dinner every Friday. The weekly discussions were held in Japanese but we could mix up with English if we do not know a proper word to use. We talked about many issues, not only just sensitive issues but also culture about each country like job hunting, family traditions, school life, general social life, language and even love affair. We all were very open-minded, listening to each other. We never criticized each other but rather being modest criticizing own country. I think this was how we became closer and how we were able to bring up sensitive issues on table. The picture on the left was taken during our discussion about Korea and Japan (Three boys are Japanese and three girls are Korean-CAMPUS Asia from Seoul National University) There should be two Japanese girls in this group but both could not come for this day. Then, we took this picture because we seem like having a “triplet date (미팅 in Korean or 合コンin Japanese).”

—Experience being interviewed by the school
One day, Kkogsongi, Jinsun and I (all from GSIS, SNU) received an email from Todai News Letter office saying that they want to interview CAMPUS Asians. The reasons for them to interview us was first, they were amazed by us speaking Japanese (other than Kkogsongi who lived in Japan for 7 years, Jinsun and I studied by ourselves), second, they wanted to know what CAMPUS Asia was, third, they want to promote “international mind” to Todai students. We, three, answered OK, but we were nervous because we wanted to carry out our mission of making a good image of CAMPUS Asia.