Nao

Hi guys! I’m Nao.  I go to Central Hawke’s Bay College with my best partner, Tsubura! I have been living in NZ for about 5 months. It’s the turning point of our study abroad. I feel  like I only came here a short time ago. I’m a little bit sad to think that the rest of my study abroad will also pass at such a fast speed…but I want to make the most of my stay!!  Now,  I will introduce my NZ life.

 

My host family is my mother, older sister, and younger sister. They have 1 dog, 2 cats, 1 rabbit and 2 birds as their pets. My host mother has many hobbies, for instance she does knitting, making sweets, and sometimes paints some pictures. My older host sister is living in Shiga in Japan now and she works as an ALT. She will come back to NZ in August, so I’m looking forward to seeing her! My younger host sister is so amusing and she likes to sing very much.  They have had many international students before, so when I tell them about my distress, they give me some advice and encourage me. They are also outdoorsy  people, so they take me to many places around NZ when we have a holiday! My host family is my second family!

 

Next, I’ll tell you about my life at school. NZ has a large number of subjects, so we can learn a lot of technical things! I really like cooking and music. In cooking class, we practice cooking twice a week, and we make a wide variety of food. I often make food in my host house, too! (I use NZ’s cook book!!)When I come back to Japan, I want to make food that I’ve learned in NZ for my family and friends.  In music class, it’s different from Japan. We write the lyrics for music, compose on our own, practice the musical instruments individually, make music by using computers… anyway it’s really high level!!! Also we can take musical instrument or vocal lessons in the school so I take the violin and flute lessons. Now I’m practicing a difficult song that I will play in a music contest at school in August. I want to be the best player!!   Also I joined the School Show as a flute player. They don’t hold it every year and it had been seven years since the last show. I was really happy that I could join the show.

 

Actually, I still can’t understand English well. Now, 5 months have passed but I’m still nervous. Before I came here, I’m sorry that I troubled my teachers in Japan a lot. I don’t know how many times I consulted with them about English…I’m deeply grateful to them for supporting me.When I came to NZ, I struggled with English. I cried almost every day. I talked to my dean, but I couldn’t erase my uneasiness. I didn’t have much confidence in my English. The matter affected my conversation with my friends. At first, everyone explained things to me with their best effort, but gradually they only talked to me when there were only a few people, because I didn’t understand the content of the conversations. Especially, when I talked to teachers, my friends or other international students with Tsubura, I experienced really painful feelings. They had never looked at me or talked to me. Then they finished talking and they said to the other international students, “Please tell Nao what we said in Japanese.” I was shocked by this.  However, I noticed that I didn’t do anything, I just worried. So I decided to change myself. At first, I didn’t know how I could do better, so I thought about it earnestly…Then, I realized that I needed to put my thinking into doing, so I tried everything I could do. “To start talking, I must make a topic of conversation, join the conversation positively and find some useful expressions.” Such things were natural to do when I was in Japan, but now I need to have the courage much more than my imagination. At first it was really hard for me and I worried a lot. However, I am gradually getting courage little by little. Now I have really great friendships with Kiwi students and we talk and tell each other jokes!  The other day, my friend said to me, “It’s really difficult to learn a foreign language! You are doing so great. If I were you, it would be impossible!!!! “I was so glad to hear it and now I’m more confident.

 

From now on, I think I will still have problems, but “I will have courage and try hard.” I will have great days of studying abroad and not regret even a single day!

 

Big love

Nao

 

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