Hello! Allow to introduce myself once again. My name is Linda from group 20 “Environment protection”.

These two months have been crazy hectic and full of surprises one after another. I am deeply conscious that I had a great chance to live a brand new experience not alone, but with new companions from within my University, as also from outside. I consider this chance as a bit of a struck of luck, as when I decided to apply I wasn’t quite sure of what was awaiting me, nor even I had the time to think more thoroughly into it. It was the fascination and self-improvement hoping feeling of the moment that lured me in, as to say of course the discovery of a great internship occasion. I had a gut feeling that I would experience many things and that I would develop more responsibly. At the end of this period I can proudly claim so. However it was not simple at all from the very beginning.

The first meeting via zoom with my fresh appointed team mates was nerve wracking and a merry-go-round of indecision and insecurities. It was not only brain-draining talking for more than 1 hour in Japanese while trying at the same time to focus on our topic and on arranging a way to work and to research together for our next meeting. No, recalling it, it was almost a strike against my self-esteem at moments. However, soon enough I realized it was also a good balance to stimulate my determination and the urge to prove myself better. And I was not alone in this: as I struggled, I also saw my others teammates in a difficult position too. For the first week we helped each others greatly and steadily, trying to figure out the best ways to improve our knowledge on the subject and sharing articles in Japanese, English and Italian, as well as lists of useful basic vocabulary. The theme seemed far too wide, as well as requiring special knowledge that I hadn’t achieved prior time. Accommodating a rather egregious topic according to everyone was not an easy task and we struggled to focus on one. But even if rather sloppy was the beginning, almost unconsciously we immerged ourselves in a path from grandest and most various trivia to concentrating on more specific and go hand to hand topics. That is to say that we went from what was the perception and the message of “ambientalism”, and then continuing with the various ways that organizations, people and governments could and are following in order to preserve the immense heritage that is our planet Earth. Stimulating each others curiosity with cases from the Italian land, and receiving on the other side new knowledge from Japan was one of the most stimulating part. But certainly not the only one. The 自由会話 were the other spectrum and continuation of this equivalent exchange, and just for this sole reason it could have been my favourite part of the project. But it was even more, as these peculiar lessons, at first surrounded by a bit of shyness, soon enough unraveled in a free space for creativeness and self assertion as for inclusion from both the sides. The teacher’s eyes being far and long away would certanly help. Being the mediator and older student springed up my resoluteness in showing interesting content and learn new vocabulary and reinforcing my grammar in order to help the students.

However after having described the great benefits of this project, the other side of the coin were the difficulties of these same parts. As for the jiyu kaiwa, i consider myself rather fortunate, considering how I managed to have at least one student for half of my lessons. Seeing how the others were splitted in different groups and most of the times not being able to show the great efforts prepared beforehand, it was undoubtly sad and discouraging at times. I eagerly hope that on the next time, the students would be disposed more equally and that the number of Japanese students would also increase for this matter. Apart from that, the demerits of the chosen application, Slack, I believe have been already listed far enough. From the slowness of the notifications to the deletion of old and sometimes precious messages, I believe that another option should be taken into consideration and approval. I would also like to pinpoint another doubt of mine. Working on team was greatly helpful and enriching, however sometimes I perceived a somewhat seclusion of mind and block of ideas given the case of working only on one theme. That was partially helped by reading the other team’s blogs on Nolbrick. Nonetheless I personally think that sharing the work and view of points of the other groups even more would add great benefit for everyone.

Going back time, I would suggest myself to take time to go more deeply in making acquaintance with my fellow mates, and even asking to have more days to get to know each other better. Howsoever, I am grateful for the relationship established and the common mutual help. After the peculiar time we are all living in, this experience was truly a breath of fresh air and renovation from within. Not having anymore the chance of studying abroad, this was certainly a brief but otherwise intense period resembling fairly well the “留学” experience.

I would like to give my thanks to all the teachers, coordinators and the Japan Foundation for this splendid opportunity that I will preserve deep in memory. The motivation and precious moments I gained will not certainly go to waste. And last but not least: to my great great teammates.

Once again: どうもありがとうございました