By Nur Wahidah Binti Ali
In today’s world, Japanese culture stands as one of the leading and most prominent cultures around the world, mainly because of the global reach of its popular culture.
“Friday With Love: The College Preparation of Japanese Style” is a programme organised by the International and Culture Bureau of Mahallah Representative Committee (MRC) where three speakers shared their experience and knowledge about ‘The College Preparation of Japanese Style’. The speakers were Nurdiyana, Hudaa Mardhiyah and Yuki Takeuchi.
The one-hour session was moderated by Ms. Nur Syahirah who spoke very fluent Japanese. It was streamed live via Mahallah Zaid Bin Harithah’s Facebook account.
Nurdiyana had shared about the tips to enrol at the Japanese universities with suitable sponsorships that could help Malaysians to further their studies in Japan.
“For self-sponsored students, the procedure of college entrance is quite a hassle and students need to bear the high costs of education,” Nurdiayana said. “There are several examinations and the university requires students to pay for each of examinations that they are sitting for.”
Meanwhile, Mrs. Hudaa Mardhiyah who was a teaching assistant at Kansai University, Osaka, shared how helpful the Japanese were compared to Malaysians in terms of helping other people.
She said, for instance, in Malaysia, if we ask about the direction of some places, they just tell us the way to be there. But in Japan, they are not only telling us but they bring us to that place that we are heading to.
That was based on Hudaa’s experiences while being there. Other than that, Hudaa said that Japanese people are very trustworthy and they even treat people with courtesy.
Ms. Yuki Takeuchi, who was once an exchange student in IIUM Pagoh who studied English Language for International Communication, shared with the students several Japanese cultures that we Malaysians need to follow before traveling there.
The crucial part is about greeting people because there are a lot of greetings in Japanese style like ‘Itadakimasu’, the very common greeting among Japanese before eating to thank for the meal.
Nonetheless, Ms. Yuki also shared about the Japanese etiquettes while eating. “I forgot to not make any sound during eating of ‘mee sup’ but in Japan I am taught to slurp the soup to show we Japanese are enjoying the food.”
Wrapping up the session, the moderator reminded the audience to watch the past ‘Friday With Love’ programmes that were held in December 2020 on @mahallah_zaidharithah IGTV.***
(The writer, Nur Wahidah Binti Ali is currently an undergraduate student pursuing a course on English for International Communication at IIUM campus in Pagoh)