Essay Study abroad? Why not? By Michael Pronko	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
君も留学してみないか？ グローバル社会での競争がさまざまな分野で声高に叫ばれる一方、日本人留学生の数は減少の一途をたどっている。異文化の中で培われたたくさんの知恵や柔軟な心が、これからの日本を変えてくれると期待するのだが・・・。

In my classes, I often tell my students, "Get out!" I'm not throwing them out of the classroom; I'm encouraging them to get out of Japan to study abroad. Japanese university students are often hesitant to study abroad, but I argue that nothing could be more important. Why not go? I ask them. You can always come back.

Recently, the education ministry has been asking the same question -- but doing it one better, by offering money! To encourage students to study abroad, the ministry announced it will start offering funds for universities to expand and improve study abroad programs. That will encourage more Japanese students to study abroad than ever before.

Actually, more students did study abroad before. The number of Japanese students studying abroad dropped by nearly 30 percent, from 82,000 in 2004 to 59,000 in 2009. In contrast, students from Korea, China and India studying abroad more than doubled during that same period, according to the Institute of International Education, a U.S. nonprofit organization. The gap between Japanese and other Asian countries has been increasing every year.

Of course, Japanese students may be getting more foreign culture and second language contact inside Japan. The opportunities here to study English and have contact with people from other countries are fairly numerous, especially in big cities. However, that is not the same as immersing oneself in another culture. Learning English without traveling abroad is like buying a sports car and keeping it in your garage without driving it around.

Many students have a real inner struggle over the issue. They want to see what is outside the islands of Japan, but are worried about how difficult it is. All too often, that conflict is resolved by taking the easy route of just staying at home. They lack confidence. But the only way to gain confidence is to take on smaller challenges to prepare for bigger ones.

The challenge of studying abroad is one way to acquire valuable life skills and to develop one's mind into one that adapts well to new situations. Dropping into a foreign culture and figuring out how to deal with different languages, food, attitudes and ways of thinking forces young people not just to adapt, but to learn how to adapt.

The education ministry is right to promote more students going abroad, not just to improve Japan's competitiveness in the world market, but to help students improve their own lives. My students who study abroad always come back with greater energy, motivation and maturity. They also, ironically perhaps, always return loving Japan more than they did before.

I wonder how Japan would change in the future if most university students went to study abroad. If the education ministry's proposal takes hold, we just might see!

Shukan ST: APRIL 20, 2012

(C) All rights reserved