Hello everyone! I am Caterina from 飢餓対策 group. I will try to express how I felt and how I feel about this project, and what I learned from it.

First of all, I think that the most motivating element for me during this project was my group. I really felt at ease with every single member of my channel. Even though I am far to be fluent in Japanese, my colleagues have always been patient and understanding, not only with me but also with each other. Moreover, I am really glad to have had the opportunity to get to know Japanese students, who I admire for their tenacity, since they always did their best to be present to our weekly zoom calls, even though they are very busy because of their part-time jobs. I appreciated a lot the efforts of the two 責任者 of my group, since they have always been there for us. Every time I had questions or doubts, they tried to help me with no hesitation. They also worked a lot to get everything well organized. I am deeply thankful for them. More generally, none of the group member has ever showed hostility or something like that.  There has always been a very collaborative spirit, and I think it was the most important thing to me, since this project is mainly based on teamwork.

At first, when I found out that the topic of my channel was “Hunger”, it really made me question about my language skills and I thought “how can I even try to speak about this serious theme in Japanese?”. However, even though at first it was difficult to speak and to express my opinions, then, through the zoom calls, the slack chat and so on, I began to feel more comfortable talking about this topic.

In the last two months I saw improvements, especially related to my own personality as a student, other than in my language ability. I practiced Japanese of course, but I also noticed the results in how I changed my approach on participating into a conversation: the initial stress and pressure that meetings or 自由会話class pushed on me, changed in motivation to get better. Participating to the 自由会話 classes with older students became a great opportunity for me. I listened to how senpai talk and express their opinions in Japanese, and I tried my best to learn from them.

In the end, I can say that this project was challenging, but it was worth it!

ありがとうございました!