Sophia Magazine vol.5 / SUMMER 2017

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Takayuki Ogiharahere were movies I liked which made me want to learn Russian. Russia is a neighbor of Japan with major global inuence, and since I felt my English was already good enough I decided to take on a new language. Russian is not an easy language to learn. I remember studying very hard just to keep up with my classes when I was a freshman and sophomore. At rst, I did a homestay there. As I look back, I spent 10 wonderful days there just as a tourist, but studying at Russian university was a whole new ex-perience. On the rst day of school, I realized my Russian was just not good enough to hold a conver-sation. However, spending one year immersed in the Russian language greatly improved my prociency and boosted my condence. At Petrozavodsk State University, I took classes in Russian literature, inter-pretation, and translation. I also had invaluable ex-periences learning about the history of the Russian language and its rather unique systematic usage. When I had the opportunity to introduce Japanese culture to my fellow classmates, I took charge of teaching go, a board game about capturing territory. I found that Russians love Japanese culture, art, and sports, as there are many go clubs and studios for practicing kendo, judo, and karate. My experiences brought me closer to Russia both physically and emotionally.Currently, I’ve started to hunt for a job for after graduation. Some time ago, I wished to use my Russian skills in a job but now I feel that my career does not have to be limited in such a way; use of my knowledge of Russia is not now a precondition for accepting a job, but it would be great if I could nd a position where my skills can be useful. Whatever job I get, I plan on continuing my study of Russian so that I’ll be able to use it whenever it is needed.T➣ DEPARTMENT: Department of Russian Studies➣ YEAR: Senior➣ DESTINATION: Petrozavodsk State University ➣ LOCATION: Petrozavodsk, Russia➣ PERIOD: February 2016 to December 2016Established in 1940, Finland Karelian University had its name changed to Petrozavodsk State University in 1956. It is now north-ern Russia’s largest university. Petrozavodsk is the capital city of the Republic of Karelian, part of the Russian Federation, which shares a border with Finland.BACKGROUNDalways wanted to come to Japan, because I was interested in Japanese culture. In Germany, Japanese media, especially anime and manga, were popular in the late 90’s, as Japan was becom-ing increasingly international. I was impressed with changes happening here. I used to study Arabic and Persian. I also focused on Turkish because there is a large Turkish popula-tion in Germany. I then became interested in Japa-nese and wanted to learn it rsthand.Sophia and my university are partners in a rela-tionship that the German Catholic Church and the Cologne Archdiocese have invested in. Among all choices, Sophia was the most English-procient uni-versity offering a wide variety of courses in English. Yet, Japanese language classes have probably been most helpful to me, and since I am teaching German part time outside the university, the courses on second language acquisition and didactics have been useful.As I am returning to my home university, I decided that I would write my nal paper about phonological processes, the obstacles to learning German that are created by the language’s pronunciation, and phono-logic specications.Since I study linguistics and have studied some lan-guages, I aim to get a job in the area of international relations at a German company, German embassy, or the Foreign Ministry. Speaking many languages can be an advantage when you represent such organizations. I also would like to become better qualied, so my immediate goal is to be a freelance language teacher. I’m already setting up a channel online to provide Arabic (and perhaps later, Japanese) trans-lations. When I go back to Germany to nish my undergraduate studies, I plan to teach German to for-eigners. There is a big demand for learning German among people moving to Europe. I also may return to Japan for postgraduate studies or a job.I➣ UNIVERSITY: University of Cologne ➣ MAJOR: Linguistics➣ DEPARTMENT AT SOPHIA: Faculty of Liberal Arts➣ PERIOD: September 2016 to September 2017 William-Philip Michael HesseEstablished in 1388, the University of Cologne is both one of the largest universities and the oldest one in Germany. With its emphasis on teacher training and diversity of Bachelor and Master Programs, the university is a center of teacher training in Europe. It is also one of Sophia University’s most enduring partners. BACKGROUNDfrom “GERMANY” to“SOPHIA”from “SOPHIA” to“RUSSIA”27Voice