Akiyama

Department of History of Faculty of Literature, Sacred Heart University, exchange student at Seoul Women's University

I have been exchange student at Seoul Women's University for about a year since February 2016. While studying about Korea at my university back home and after participating in the Japan-Korea exchange meeting, I decided to study about Korea more deeply going to study there for a year. Besides studying, I wanted to engage in some activities with Korean society, especially related with the exchange between Japan and Korea. When I got accustomed to my life in Korea, at the end of my third month, I found out about the internship in Asia Hope Camp Organization and I decided to apply.

My job was mainly to organize Nippon Camp and to accompany the weekend volunteer activities and the K-Pop camp. Although the Nippon Camp was already organized by a previous intern, I had to arrange the accommodation. Thanks to the support of our employees and other interns, we were able to finish planning the camp on time.

I participated in two of the weekend volunteer activities the multicultural symbiosis program and theweekend Hallyu Camp. These programs were conducted for junior and high school students, participating in bazaars, visiting museums, and interacting with to foreigners in English. Some of the participants were able to speak Japanese and actively talked to me. It was a very good experience because I had no opportunity to interact with Korean middle and high school students before.

Regarding the K - POP camp, I was the interpreter between the Korean Art High School teacher and the participants of the camp. It was my first time to work as an interpreter, but it gave me a good opportunity to look back on my own language skills. Moreover, the exchange between Japanese and Korean students was overwhelmed.

As an interns at Asia Hope Camp Organization I had many experiences and leant many thing I could not have learn at the university. I met a lot of people, including the interns, and had opportunity to learn about Korean society and culture. I will never forget the feeling of gratitude to the organization. From now on, I would like to accumulate a lot of experience in the rest of my student life.