Exchange Student's Voyage with Ozaki Seminar

こんにちは。立教大学経営学部で「国際経営論」を専門に学ぶ尾崎ゼミです。今回から、尾崎ゼミが受け入れた世界各国の交換留学生に、自国の大学と立教の違いや、尾崎ゼミでの学びについて聞きました。ゼミ選びや留学について考えるきっかけになれば幸いです。

初回は、ドイツの大学に在学中のXenia Abraham さんへのインタビューです。ぜひ最後まで読んでください。

Firstly, can you please introduce yourself?

 I am Xenia from Germany. I was in Japan since September 2019. I stayed for almost a whole year. I spent 2 semesters at Rikkyo. However during my stay, Corona virus became pandemic, and one semester became online.

How was Japan? Did you go to any places?

I went to almost every prefecture.  Especially, I went to Hokkaido “3” times. I really love Hokkaido. Sakurajima was also quite interesting because I have never seen active volcanos in Germany. 

How was Rikkyo University?

It was great! I was really surprised that there were so many people on campus at the same time. The campus was also really nice. I didn’t expect it to be so European. I really loved cafeteria.

The way students look was a little surprise. All the girls would have curled hair, perfect make-up and styled perfectly. 

At my university, no one cares about you. You can wear whatever you want. I asked one of friends who went to America to study, and she said she always went to the campus in jogging pants and T-shirt, and with no make-up.

What was the big difference between your university and Rikkyo?

I think the teaching style was the biggest difference for me. I felt like Rikkyo was almost high school. 

We had weekly assignments and classes at Rikkyo has more strict rules in every single class. For example, 20% for attendance, 10% for presentations, ~% for ~~~. All the activities would count into your grade. 

In Germany, on the other hand, it’s way freer. No one cares about your attendance. We have a big exam at the end of the semester, and that’s it. My whole grade would 100% come from that 60-90 minute-exam.

Another difference was the content we study. Even though we major in business, the content is way different. 

My university focuses more on mathematics. We’ve never had any assignments of discussing or explaining something, but every class I’m taking is maths based. I had never had so many written essay assignments at my university in Germany.

How did your journey with Ozaki Seminar begin?

I found this seminar by myself by looking at the syllabus. My major is international business, so I had to take an international course.
Seminars are different in Germany. 

We do have seminars but teachers will change every semester because each professor has its own specialization and we change seminars.

What is it like to study at Ozaki Seminar?

I really enjoyed a lot. I really enjoyed readings every week. Ozaki sensei always asked us the CQ (central question). I never went that much in depth with one reading, but I was really interested in examining different views on the topic.

Topic I studied in Ozeki seminar was quite interesting for me. I learned how the Japanese institutions work and how Japanese cultures, such as seniority system and hierarchy, influence the Japanese economy. I found it really interesting to learn Japanese cultures in depth.

The textbook he gave us was written in the 1990s. The final task was to examine the changes from the 1990s to today, 2020. 

For example, how the seniority system and hierarchy have impacts on the Japanese economy. That became a lot of learnings about the relationship of cultures and economy. I realized that small things of culture will have impacts on the whole economy and frame of companies.

Anything interested you?

One thing I found really interesting was that even though you chose a certain major, sometimes you will end up in a different working position after you graduated from university.

 In Japan, there are various people in the same department of the company. For example, a person who studied communication and the one who studied law are in the same team. That’s very odd for me as a German person.

 I study business, I will end up most likely in some kind direction, like I will go to a business firm and engage with marketing. However, Japanese people don’t stick to a specific area, and it doesn’t matter what you study in university.

Wrap-up

I really enjoyed the semesters with Ozaki sensei. Even though it was quite challenging for me not to be able to discuss in a way we are used to. It was still really fun to read the materials. 

Ozaki sensei was a really kind teacher with a lot of patience. It was a really interesting class and I learnt a lot from this class personally and academically.

Edited by George Yano

最後まで目を通していただきありがとうございます。尾崎ゼミでは2021年度から一緒に勉強する仲間を募集中です。ご興味をお持ちいただけましたら、是非SNSのフォローもお願いします。採用情報を鋭意配信中です。
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