Wow, I can’t believe, time flies so quickly. I am going to study summer Japanese program at Ritsumekian University in Kyoto. I was a bit busy with preparing for the summer course and now here it comes. I have just about a few days to go. First of all, I would like to thank to the staffs from the University of Edinburgh international office for providing scholarship and offering this opportunity.  I am really happy and excited for having this chance to study  abroad for a month. At the same time,  I am a bit nervous as I have never been there before and this will be my first time to travel so far and have organised everything by myself.  I want to take this opportunity to improve my understanding of Japanese language and culture by getting involve in both studying in University and volunteering in local area. I have applied for some volunteering position in few places and I am accepted. I am so excited to help them. So, I am planning to stay there for two months. However, what worries me most is the Visa. I am still waiting for the visa and hopefully I will get it soon. I am ready to go as soon as I got visa.

Goals I hope to achieve

I have interest in learning different things such as languages and cultures. So, I would like to improve my Japanese language skills. I hope studying in Japanese environment will help me improve not only my understanding of Japanese language but also their culture and activities.

I love meeting with new people and making friends. Sharing life experiences in different environment will be interesting too. So, I hope to make new friends from different countries and from locals.

I would also like to gain international experiences which I hope will improve my confidence, gain more knowledge and interpersonal skills.  I know I will have enjoyable time there and at the same time the culture chock  and challenges too. However, I want to face those challenges and overcome from it.

Skills I would like to develop

I love to take part in actives and helping people. I have been enjoying being a nice man among friends and co-workers. However, as english is no my first language, I still feel I need to improve my Interpersonal skill a lot better. I hope I will improve it if I keep trying to communicate with different people.

I like to keep things well organised and I tried to do it as much as I can. But, I sometime face different situation when I find difficult to manage it. I have situation where I can finish things done just before the last minute. So, I don’t want to be in that position and want to be able to manage well and improve correct decision making skills.

Confidence is the most important skills I really want to develop. Although it is alright to speak in front of my friends but I still am a bit reserved to speak in front of many people. I don’t like that feeling and I really want to improve as much as I can. So, I hope going out to different environment and try new things will give me a chance to be out of comfort zone. 🙂 Hopefully, I will achieve my hopes and skills.

I am quite confidence now as I could manage to go to Japan already. 🙂 I hope you all are having wonderful time in wherever you are studying. Wishing you all the best. I will upload more of my experiences soon. Take care. Thank you all so much.

Cheers,

Win Maung Thein