Another Country, Another Bubble

[l33tminion]

The thing that most surprises me about Kanda is how much it reminds me of Olin. It's surprising because there are some pretty glaring differences. Kanda has an entirely different academic focus, 10 times the students, a far higher percentage of female students. But a lot of things strike me as similar: The incredible academic enthusiasm of the students, the awesome, friendly people,　the holistic, interdisciplinary, grounded academic approach (the last applies a bit more to Kanda natives than international students, I think). The one drawback is that in many ways Kanda is different from the rest of Japan (less shy (I think), much more enthusiastic about English, perhaps somewhat more openminded and knowledgeable about other cultures). Overall, I love Kanda, but I wonder how different my experience would have been if I'd chosen a different program and ended up at a different school.

Comments

[kihou.livejournal.com]

Part of what you see at Kanda is probably due to the fact that students are generally young. Certainly from my experience Japanese youth on average are more into English and other cultures (did you talk to people from Takatori?) Getting out to the countryside* and talking to older Japanese people certainly exposed me to a different perspective, but I'm not sure your experience would be that different at another school. For instance, the students you'd to talk to at any school are likely to be among the most proEnglish/America/abroadness, at any school.

*: Meaning mountains, of course.