From Japan with Love

Sunway College recently played host to 10 Japanese students who visited Malaysia for a 3- week stay in conjunction with a youth training project named ‘Look Malaysia Programme’ launched by Tourism Malaysia Tokyo.

The Japanese and Malaysian students communicating with one another during the ice breaker session.

The 10 who came from different universities from all over Japan were chosen out of 146 applicants to undergo the programme aimed to foster goodwill and revive Japan’s global image since the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami on 11th March, 2011.

A Japanese student (right) teaching the Malaysian student how to introduce himself in Japanese.

Sunway College’s Australian University Programme (AUP) which offers the Victoria University Bachelor of Business course orchestrated a one day programme for these students to gain a cultural exposure of Malaysia. The programme included a Presentation on Malaysia and an ice breaker session, whereby the Malaysian and Japanese students collaborated in small groups and competed with each other to build the tallest paper tower that was able to hold a 500ml water bottle. This provided an insight to how the Japanese students work collaboratively and also to encourage open interaction. The students also shared what they had learned from each other during this session. This was followed by a session where the Japanese students were exposed to conversational Bahasa Melayu, to assist them during the rest of their stay in Malaysia.

The winning team for the tallest paper tower each got a VU cap.

After some scrumptious Malaysian food for lunch, the students were taken on a campus tour followed by an interactive session on “Barriers to Communication”. They were then entertained to a talent show put up by the Malaysian students and a mini fashion show of the Malaysian Ethnic Wear whereby Sunway students and staff paraded in their vibrant traditional outfits that included the baju kebaya, cheong sam, samfu, sari and other costumes. In return, the Japanese students responded with an enthusiastic rendition of a few famous songs in Japanese as well as a ‘magic show’ with a deck of cards. At the closing ceremony, these students were presented souvenirs by the Executive Director of Sunway College, Elizabeth Lee and everyone including the Japanese students joined in to sing “Rasa Sayang Eh”.

Staff and students dressed in the Indian traditional costume during the fashion show.

The Japanese students expressed how pleased they were with the programme and commented that the visit to Sunway was their best day. Tan Kim Hong, an AUP student said, “It was exciting to see how fascinated the Japanese students were in learning and understanding the Malaysian culture. Although some of them appeared shy, they were willing to share and exchange the Japanese culture with everyone”. Tan recalled a response from Makato, one of the exchange students who shared, “All the happiness and enjoyable moments will be brought back to Japan. I hope Sunway College will conduct a Student exchange programme between Malaysia and Japan to further expand the understanding of the different cultures in the near future”.

The Japanese students were esthetically presenting a Japanese song to their hosts.

Yeow Xiaoqian also an AUP student said, “It was very fun to teach the Japanese student our language and in exchange learn a few Japanese words ourselves. I was also pleased to see the Japanese students enjoy our fashion show”. Since the visit Yeow has been keeping in touch with some of the Japanese students through Facebook.