For two weeks from August 18, 2013 to September 1, 24 first-year undergraduate students took part in the 11th START Program *. Led by Associate Professor Naoki Maeda (Graduate School of Social Sciences) and 2 other faculty members, the students went to National Chengchi University in Taiwan.



On weekdays, the students had Chinese lessons every morning at the Chinese Language Center of the university. In the afternoon, they listened to lectures on “Japan-Taiwan relations”, “history and development of human rights”, “history” and “economics” etc. Furthermore, together with Taiwanese students, they visited the 228 Memorial Museum, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the Deng Nan-jung Memorial Museum, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and other human rights related institutes and learned about “colonial rules and Japanese sympathizers”. On each occasion, the participants actively asked what they wanted to know.

On weekends, they went to Quemoy, an island which is only a few kilometers away from the Chinese mainland and visited National Quemoy University. At the University the teachers introduced Quemoy Island and National Quemoy University and then the participants enjoyed exchange with local students. During the Chinese Civil War, Quemoy Island was the front line to the Chinese mainland and the students visited tunnels and observance towers as well as the August 23 Artillery War Museum.

On the last day, each student made a presentation about something (s)he had become interested in and researched during the 2 weeks of training (for example: Taiwan from the perspective of architectural style, labor issues, Taiwanese identity, human rights observed by the Constitution of Taiwan, Japanese presence in Taiwan or the independence of Taiwan etc.).

For some students it was the first time to learn Chinese. After studying Chinese for 2 weeks and practicing it in daily life, they became skilled enough to go shopping to the night market by only using Chinese. Furthermore, they could see Taiwanese students expressing themselves freely in Japanese, although they have studied it for only 2 or 3 years. The participants keenly felt that not only Chinese, but also English etc. as second foreign language, was very important and even after coming back to Japan, they have continued learning languages. During their two weeks stay, they were hit by a typhoon twice. Then the classes were cancelled and the airplane got delayed. In spite of these troubles, there were many things they could experience only locally in Taiwan, and so everybody did their best. At the follow-up meeting, the students said: “It was the first time that I was a foreigner and I experienced that my version of common sense was not understood. That is an important stimulus for my future life.”, “I tended to rely on others all the time. This training helped me to learn how to think and act for myself.”, “I felt ashamed when someone asked me about Japan and I couldn’t answer properly. Therefore I decided to study more about Japan.” Or: “I realized that the speed of learning depends to a high degree on the strength of motivation.” The students confirmed what they had learned through this program and stated their willingness to progress to the next goal by studying abroad again or deepening their specialized knowledge.



* The START Program provides first year students who have little overseas experience the opportunity to attend lectures and see everyday life at a foreign partner university in order to raise interest in international/cross-cultural activities and studying abroad. It was established in 2010 and has already been held 10 times by the end of 2012. During the first half of the academic year 2013, the program was implemented 3 times with Taiwan, Indonesia and Australia as destinations. The Hiroshima University Fund financially supports part of the research expenses to lessen students’ economic burden and to give a broader population of students the opportunity to study abroad. The participants had 2 training months before going abroad. After coming back, they had a follow-up session.

Visiting the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall together with students from the National Chengchi University	Playing shopping during a Chinese lesson
Lesson by local teachers	Memorial picture with students and teachers of National Quemoy University

【Inquiries】

International Exchange Group,

Education and International Office,

Hiroshima University

TEL：082-424-4346

E-mail：kokusai-ryugaku(AT)office.hiroshima-u.ac.jp

(* Please replace（AT）with @)