Wu Chen studies intercultural studies at a private university in Kyushu, where she is a Chinese language tutor to a class of university students majoring in education. Prior to coming to Japan, she studied English and Japanese languages in a multi-disciplinary program for two years at a provincial public university in Liong, China.
At the start of this new year of the horse, I confidently greeted my seminar teacher, teaching assistant, and classmates in both English and Japanese. After my class, I entered a smaller tutorial room with confidence, too (“like a horse on fire” as my supervisor said) when greeting the students in my Chinese tutorial class (see Figure 1). A few months ago, when the semester first began, however, I entered Japan and the campus of a private university in Kyushu where I had dearly hoped to study much more timidly. Let me share my story to help you better understand the fears of foreign students who come to Japan to study.
I came to Japan in September of 2025 (year of the snake) from Dalian, China, with two friends to study Japanese. My friends and I watched out for each other in the airplane. We wore masks and were careful with our valuables, passports, and luggage. When the airplane touched down at Kagoshima Airport, I was feeling excited and anxious. I said to myself, “I am starting a new life in Japan.” We slithered silently through the immigration line on the way into Japan. International travel was not as bad as I had thought. The university sent a driver to pick us up. He immediately gave us a lunch box and a bottle of water. This generous greeting touched me very much. I could sense that the staff and teachers were going to be very kind. While riding the bus to the university campus in the rural Sakanoue town, I noticed that the streets were swept clean and tidy. The forested campus on a hill was exceedingly beautiful.
Placement Test for Studying a Foreign Language in Japan
My second step on the campus was more worrisome than the first. I faced an entrance test filled with grammatical expressions. After writing the test papers, the teacher conducted oral interviews with entrants one by one. When my turn came, the teacher asked me, “What kind of person is your father?” I replied that he is sabishi, which means lonely in Japanese (I had mistaken “loneliness” for “harshness,” which was a confusing translation for the invigilator). The teacher asked repeatedly, “Lonely? Lonely? Lonely?” I did not realize until after that interview finished, that kibishi means “strict” or “harsh.” I started to laugh at myself for having miscommunicated about my dear father back in China.
On campus the next day, I chose my courses with the assistance of senior students. The senior student for my group looked Chinese, so I asked him in Chinese, “Are you Chinese?” He replied in curt Japanese, “chigau, chigau” meaning “no, no.” I again laughed at myself for having miscommunicated. The following week—what my classmates and I understood would be the first lesson of Japanese language studies on the first day of the semester—I timidly entered a warm, yet darkened classroom. There was no one else there, not even the teacher came. I remain puzzled about the reason, but I suppose it was a scheduling mishap.
I prayed that my next step would be smoother. I entered my seminar class held at the library. The professor greeted me at the door, saying in English, “Welcome to your first seminar class.” I was also cordially greeted in Chinese by a Chinese Teaching Assistant (TA). I knew right away that she was really Chinese. Twenty-two students in that seminar class greeted me in Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese. This international experience felt very new and refreshing. I immediately felt that everyone was very friendly.
I learned about a haiku contest for high school students, and I was invited to go see haiku stone monuments located on a walking trail around an active volcano rising from Sakurajima Island. I conveyed my wish to have the ability to compose haiku in three languages (see Figure 2). I am therefore hoping that both my Japanese and English will improve this new year.
Tutoring a Foreign Language in Japan
A major step that I have made so far is teaching Japanese students the Chinese language in class. In the first class, the professor guessed that I was Chinese. He smiled and spoke to me fluently in Chinese. He perhaps knew I was taking the course to easily get credits. Right away, he challenged me to work a little harder in the course by helping him to tutor a group of beginners in the class. He directed us to go in to a room separately from his class. I am a little introverted, and my hypothesis is that most teachers are so too. Therefore, I was quite willing to teach Chinese to a few classmates away from the full class. I also want to be a teacher in the future, and it is not usually possible to experience the teaching profession without being enrolled in an education program.
When I taught Chinese for the first time, my hands were shaking, and I was more than a little nervous. My Japanese is not very good, so I could not express what I wanted to say. I am sure of this because of the confused look of the group members. I could only pop in a few Japanese words into my mostly Chinese teaching instructions from time to time. I also relied on a smartphone translator application. I really want to be able to communicate with Japanese students without the help of that translator. There are four Japanese girls in my group, and they all know each other. That is helpful because the atmosphere was very cheerful when I taught them Chinese.
In the second week of class, I taught my classmates how to pronounce their names, and they began to say “wow” collectively when they succeeded. I taught the group how to pronounce my name. Two of them also wrote my name in their notebook, and then drew a heart around it. I was so happy. They seemed to be learning Chinese very quickly just by chatting with me. The professor assigned a test at the end of each group session and he said that he was quite satisfied with not only the Japanese students' progress, but also my progress as a potential teacher. I once again feel like a horse on fire.
