Q: Hi, Haruka. Would you introduce yourself?
A: Hi, My name is Haruka Ishikawa from Tokyo, Japan. I’m between sophomore and junior. My major is Art & Advertisement & Graphic Design. I like to watch movie and travel. I really want to go to Europe one day and my best place that I have ever travelled was New York.
Q: When was your first day to come to USA?
A: I had been to Hawaii for travel when I was in elementary school. I looked around city, dived into the sea and did snorkeling. The sea was so beautiful and gorgeous. I had been Hawaii for three times before. The last trip was with my grandmother when I was high school 3rd grade. I came here Concord University 2015 May. The first impression to Concord University was .. I didn’t feel like it is America just like that I imagined. It was like countryside of Japan. And there were no pollution. It was cool and green.
Q: Do you miss your country? As you know a lot of international students miss their country.
A: Yes, I miss Japan. Especially food, friends, family. I’m planning to go back to Japan for internship on next summer vacation.
Q: What made you come here?
A: I got an admission in Japanese college of foreign languages in Tokyo. And when finished freshman, I came here for transfer student.
Q: There are many schools in USA. Is there any reasons that you came to Concord University?
A: The reason why I picked Concord University is because here is small ( I don’t like big university because small university is really easy to get attention from professor and be taken care of ) and tuition was not expensive. Also, my teacher in Japan recommended me to go to Concord University because everyone is so kind and here Concord University is good to study.
Q: How do you like it here?
A: I can feel the great nature. And people here are really kind. They help me out a lot whenever I feel depressed and I have a hard to example. For example, last semester, my American roommate Willa Handy helped me out a lot. She liked Asian culture and became my best friend. Whenever I feel loneliness, she was with me and chatted with me. Also, she introduced me many friends so we hung out each other a lot. Willa taught me to how to speak and listen English well so my English ability was really improved. And she helped me whenever I write English Essays with correcting my grammar and vocabulary so I could do better than before.
Q: What are the hard things to stay here? I mean kind of challenges that you face.
A: I cannot choose the food unless I have a car and go to market. Sometimes I want to try many kind of food but it is really unlimited. I want to buy the car but I cannot afford to insurance so it makes me stay only in school. And sometimes, it’s kind of boring. Because we are trapped. Also, there are some language problems. Being a great bilingual person is difficult. Sometimes I have a hard time to translate Japanese to English in my brain. Listening is the hard stuff, too. I think Americans speak so fast and use a lot of slang. But I cannot understand what they say whenever they speak fast or use some slangs. I don’t know where to learn some slangs because there are lots of. And whenever I speak with Americans, they don’t use slang to me so there’s no place to learn some slangs.