Friends are hard to come by where I come from. Friends are the people who are curious about how you are different. They enjoy doing some of the same things with you. They laugh with you and you laugh with them. Coming to Japan, that all felt like a dramatic change.
There were too many people vying for my attention. All the while, I was trying to balance out the loss of energy from social outings and the need for new energy to perform my studies. I have come to regret taking my Japanese Tutors for granted. It is not that something bad has happened, but it seems I have taken them for granted. Since there are so many other people vying for attention, I am limited to social outings to give them. But, more importantly, I never really became friends with all of them. (One tutor aside.) Perhaps it was because they had busy schedules themselves. Perhaps it was the lack of communication. Perhaps I did not come off as friendly as they had hoped. Perhaps there were other unforeseeable factors. Whatever the case, it was brought to my attention that while tutors are meant to be there to help students they are assigned to, they are also supposed to be friends. I regret not becoming their friend. I did befriend one of them though. She and I go out to dinner and have done a few things together. But we cannot do much, as she is so busy. But, I consider her a friend. The others? I wish I came to know them better. I wish I knew them as friends. I wish I did... I wish we did things together. But, since I have none or little contact with them, I do not really have a way to reach out to them. And if I did, there is the loss of time, as classes are starting and will soon consume my energy and time. In the end, I continue to advise new students that come to Okayama, and would advise any student coming to Japan, to make friendly with the tutors. They are your new friends in Japan. Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI studied abroad at Okayama University from October 2014 to August 2015 Archives
September 2015
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