My favourite part of the program was being able to talk to lots of new people who are in my age group.
What I love most about this program is the warm welcome I've received from the professors and students at Kyoto University. The professors are always willing to help me whenever I have questions, and they actively participate in all program activities. Additionally, the Kyodai students have left a great impression on me. They are always patient in listening to me, and they diligently teach me Japanese. We have also created many happy memories together.
京都サマープログラムのおかげで、英語を話すことへの抵抗がほとんどなくなった。私の英語はまだ拙いが、積極的に英語を話し、精進しようと思う。 また、住んでいる国が違っても、英語で意思疎通することができ、友達になっている留学生たちを見て、英語を話せるようになりたいと強く感じた。
I liked that it offered us various experiences so that we could make use of the 2 weeks to the fullest. The free days, field trip and cultural experience made the whole experience richer and I loved that we could travel in Kyoto when we didn't have class. Also, the student leaders accompanying us to the summer festival then hanging out with us for suika wari was really nice because it allowed us to do things that we would not have known if we had just been left to ourselves. For the actual program activities, I enjoyed English discussions because I it stimulated my learning and motivation for studying, and I learned a lot about various topics and viewpoints by talking with other students. I also liked the Japanese classes. They were very compact and fun.
京大生や留学生は皆、独自の考えを持っていて、親しみやすかったです。プログラムが終わったら、また台湾で会おうと約束もできました。
興味がある授業を自由に選択できたことと、リーダーさんたちが積極的にさまざまなイベントを開催してくれたことが良かった。またディスカッションを英語で沢山経験できたのが有意義だった。
Once of the best thing I liked about the program is definitely the interaction that we had with the Kyoto Students and definitely the bonding that we developed during these two weeks. I think what we don't notice the most is the effort that the KU students made to ensure that we feel comfortable and not left out. A lot of us didn't come with our friends and majority of us have almost no knowledge of Japan, so it was really heartwarming to see that the KU students wanted to interact with us even outside of school and on our free days!
日本人と外国人の友達ができた。色々なことを一緒にやって、とても楽しかった。 あとはたくさん日本語話せること。初めてこんなに日本語を話すチャンスがあるので。 とてもうれしかった。
What is effective as an academic program is the combination of lectures and student activities. Especially, ILAS Discussion is completely up to students, and they can join it actively.
I liked the interaction between international and japanese students very much. The lab visits were a lot of fun. The japanese language classes also were very nice. I liked the kamogawa :).
I think the interaction and conversation with other international students and Japanese students (both KU students and KU leaders) were the aspects that I liked the most. I think I learned a lot from different cultures which help me to gain more well-rounded perspectives from the world. Also, I really love when we as a group going out to do some activities together, whether its part of the program (field trip) or held by the leader (hiking in Daimonji Mountain). We had so much fun and so many wonderful memories.
KSP makes me more sophisticated and open minded. Thank you so much.
Giving students a choice from 11 classes was also great since it allowed us to manage the time difference better and tailor our schedule to our interests. As for the field trip, they were very illuminating about Japanese culture. I enjoyed the expertise brought on fashion and kimonos. Although sometimes translation was an issue, the content was interesting and eye-opening.
It goes without saying that Japanese classes were interesting and impactful. It is amazing how much we can learn in a span of 10 hours! Even as a multilingual person, learning a new language is always an exciting and rewarding challenge.
I also have to attribute it to the teacher/student ratio of Japanese class. This allowed me to practice and improve my speaking skills a lot. Every day after class, I would learn some new monologue by heart because I enjoyed it so much.
フィールドトリップでは、先生の着物の歴史の説明で、日本の着物への理解が深まり、日本人が伝統的な装いと現代社会を融合させていることに感心しました。 学術的な講義では、トピックはどれも興味深いものだった。私はほとんどのトピックについて初耳でしたが、各先生は2時間の講義の中でそれぞれのトピックに 興味を持たせてくれました。落合先生の講義を聞いて、 アジアのジェンダー問題というテーマをもっと理解したいと思い、次の学期はアジアのジェンダー問題の講義を受講することにしました。
ジェンダー、持続可能な開発目標（SDGs）、各国の市場特性など、さまざまなトピックについて話し合っていた時間のおかげで、 文化の多様性が非常に大きいことが気づきました。 それ以来、考えは広がり、自信を持って自分の国の考えや文化を表現できるようになりました。
The field trip and cultural experiences were also very intriguing as it helped us to explore Japanese culture more virtually. In the field trip, observing the technology advancement of Sake production from traditional methods to machinery based and to whole other innovations of cosmetics was remarkable to see.
日本語のクラスでは京都に関する文章、俳句、短歌などを勉強した。 文学作品を読むことで、母国で学んだことと全く違う日本の魅力を強く感じ、 また自分が勉強すべき方向を見つけた。今後もたくさんの文学作品を味わい、 日本の美と文化を楽しみたいと思う。
One of my favorite aspects of the class was our Breakout Rooms, in which we could ask questions to actual Kyoto University students. Here, I was able to converse and practice my learned phrases while getting to know my peers in Japan better. I must admit, I might have asked some non-sensical and basic questions, but the Supporters were incredibly capable of and patient in answering them.
