[ Final Report]

I feel six months passed by in an instant. However, these half years have been the most intensive of my life, and the time which I was able to grow up.

Each class had a lot of assignments, so I spent weekdays doing homework. While I was doing homework, I interacted with my friends, and sometimes they helped me do assignments. Everyone was highly motivated to study, and it inspired me to study hard as well.

If you take a math class, you have to learn mathematical words in English in advance. It is useful to study. That is my only regret. ESL(English class) is basically debate-style, such as speaking to each people. I tried to speak out in active in a class. Also, ESL102, I read some papers, which helped me with my thesis in Aizu.

When you study abroad, it's better to make goals. You can have as many as you want. However, it's better to keep it simple. I had set a goal for this study abroad. That is "It is impossible to use Japanese as possible as I can." I thought that by immersing myself in English, I could rapidly improve my English skills. At first time, I struggled to communicate my feelings in English. At times, I am reluctant to speak. In the dorm, my roommate is Taiwanese and we communicated in English. This is when I learned the importance of communication. In sharing room, it is important to respect each other, and by communicating with each other, we were able to learn about each other and spend a comfortable time. Also, in daily life, if there is an expression that I don't understand, I can immediately ask my friends questions and they can catch my skill. This means that instead of viewing my own ability as low, I can see that there is room for growth. And it made me enjoyed speaking English even more.

In the US, you can meet various people. I believe that it is how much you can challenge yourself there that will lead to your growth. In fact, before my study abroad, I was an introvert and was not good at talking to people. However, through this study abroad, I could become an extrovert and try to challenge myself in any situation. It may fail and feel depressed sometimes. However, I believe that it can grow up oneselves by learning from mistakes. College life also goes by very quickly. I hope that my future will change depending on how much I can challenge anything. For these situations, I continue to try to do.

[Interim Report]

It's been three months since I started studying at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT), but this period only felt like one month to me. Originally, I planned for a three-month program, but I decided to extend it to six months because I thought that it wouldn't be enough for me to have a satisfying study-abroad experience.

During these three months, there were a lot of events which ranged from enjoyable to challenging. The living environment in the United States is entirely different from Japan, so I spent the first month adapting to this new environment. I faced difficulties both in daily life and academics.

In daily life, cultural differences were particularly challenging. Essentially, I have to tell them my thoughts verbally, which means I have to explicitly tell them what I want. If I just wait for their response, I will not get anything. They don't guess what I'm thinking. Also, I discarded the word "restraint". Here, it is not necessary to hesitate to do something. Holding back won't get anything too. In the beginning, I should have been more forward, even to the point of being annoying. Personally, I struggled with between my desire to want to do and the frustration of not being able to do so.

In studying, I had felt despair about my English skills. I realized there's a significant difference between performing on school test and actually speaking and listening. I take ESL classes with other international students who are already proficient in English. It was challenging for me to keep up initially. Also, even simple orders at fast-food restaurants, it happened to not able to communicate with the staff. For example, I can't hear what they said or they don't understand what I said. In this situation, I did it somehow to communicate through gestures and expressions.

In RHIT, there is a one-week long break after fall semester. During this break, I visited Texas, which is the hometown of my friend. In Austin, the city of Texas, I had a fantastic week. I played with his cousins, went to escape room and rode around town on an electric scooter at midnight. It was so wonderful. I want to do that again.

Through these three months of study abroad, I believe I've grown noticeably. Besides improving my English skills, my personality become more positive. Previously, I often compared myself to others and tended to become negative. However, I can quickly shift my mind even when it doesn't work well. No one succeeds at everything from the beginning, and I believe it's important not to fear failure. Even if there is a significant obstacle ahead, I want to approach the remaining time with the determination to break it down.