Japanese and Korean student peers fostered friendship and understanding, through various exchanges while traveling back and forth between the two countriesStudent’s VoiceYuka SuzukiGraduate of the Department of French LiteratureI learned of the SOFEX program; my mind was then set on Sophia University in order to participate.In my rst year at Sophia I joined the former SOFEX held in Japan, and follow-ing that I vowed to myself to participate again. So when the call was made for students to take part in the new SOFEX, I wasted no time in applying. Although I was not condent in my English skills or knowledge of the theme relating to refugees and immigrants, these being prerequisites, I knew it was a great op-portunity to gain a better understanding of South Korea, a country that I love, and to study alongside other students, so I chose to serve as a student leader. The most memorable parts of the new SOFEX were the trips students took to both countries at the end of the pro-gram. In Tokyo we visited a facility that supports education of migrant children, and a church where many foreigners gather. In Seoul, we visited a homeless shelter and a facility for migrant workers run by the Society of Jesus. We learned about the circumstances of refugees and migrants in both Japan and Korea. Everything was very new to me, and I became aware how naive I had previ-ously been. For many of the South Korean stu-dents, it was their rst visit to Japan. We did our best to welcome them, as we wanted them to enjoy getting to know Japan. In return, when we visited South Korea we were treated with warm hos-pitality and had a wonderful time. We still keep in touch and travel to see each other, even after the program has ended. I believe such friendships will continue to be fostered by SOFEX in the future.got to know about SOFEX some time before I enrolled at Sophia. As I had studied French in elementary/junior high school and also learned Korean on my own, while in search of universities that suited my interests, I31Learning
元のページ ../index.html#31