A Fine Day with Kagoshima Students!

On the afternoon of the 4th November, we met our guests at the School of Biological Sciences (SBS). We were glad to take up this opportunity of hosting a group of students for the Kagoshima Prefecture Youth Exchange School Visit 2014.

Introductions and Presentations

Everyone was looking forward to make a memorable day for the students. When we arrived at TRX43, we split up into several groups and started to introduce ourselves to each other. Some of us also exchanged name cards with the students. We talked about popular Japanese anime/manga such as LoveLive, and food such as sushi and sashimi. The students then introduced to us the local food in Kagoshima, like shirokuma.

Soon, it was our turn to introduce more about Singapore. Our multilingual speaker Rui Xue gave a warm welcome speech in Japanese. Firstly, She talked about the demographics of Singapore for the students to have a basic understanding of our Little Red Dot. After that, Rui Xue showcased some of our famous local food like chicken rice and nasi lemak and landmarks of Singapore. The most interesting part was teaching the students Singlish. They were curious about the meanings of those words and tried to pronounce it correctly.

When our presentation was over, it was the students’ turn. During their presentation, they introduced outstanding Japanese cultures such as famous jpop group, AKB48, and the manga, Doraemon, which had been a part in most of our childhoods. The small quiz during the presentation was really fun and when our answers were correct, they would give us a small gift. Following the quiz, two students showed off their artistic flair as they preformed calligraphy with music. They wrote about happiness and gave the completed calligraphy piece to us as a token of friendship. Nonetheless, the most interesting part was when they taught us their festival dance. We wore their traditional coat named “HAPPI” when we learned the movements of the dance. It was really an eye-opener and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

School Tour

After the presentations and sharing sessions ended, we started our campus tour. Due to the time constraint, we did not manage to visit many locations. The first place we went to was the Lee Wee Nam library which is the biggest library on campus. We then walked along the road from the North Spine towards the Administration Building. As the tropical weather in Singapore was really different from Japan currently (it is winter in Japan), our Japanese friends could feel the difference in weather conditions as we walked from one location to another. Our last destination wass the Chinese Heritage Centre, which depicts NTU’s history and other Chinese cultures. Lastly, We took a group photo in front of the building.

It was a memorable time for both of us and the Japanese students. However, good times do not last. While it was time to say goodbye, we hope our friendship will last forever.

Written by Jia Ni
Edited by Jessel Eng
Pictures by Kwan Zi Jian