Imura Shigetaka: Lost and Found

Related Story：Imura Shigetaka: Decides to Make His Career in Guangdong

Imura Shigetaka, a Japanese international student in the Faculty of Asian Languages and Cultures of GDUFS majoring in Japanese Language Education, accepted the interview from GDUFS English News with pleasure.

“Nine-to-five jobs are not my type.”

Graduated from Hosei University, Imura devoted his senior year in college to preparing for the Japanese Judicial Examination. When he wanted to get a job, he was faced with a grim employment situation and realized that a nine-to-five job, which most Japanese graduates are satisfied with, could offer him anything but passion. “I was shocked to find that one of my friends disappeared after working overtime for a consecutive month with only three sleeping hours every day.” So Imura decided to find his life goal instead of live the way he didn’t like. In the following years, he’s been to many places and seen a lot, trying to find the purpose of his life: He studied Foreign Language and Literature in Tsinghua University for three years; he was once a Japanese foreign teacher at Hubei Normal University; he has been to Indonesia to experience a different way of life and to ponder on the true meaning of life. Finally, he applied for government scholarships to study Japanese Education at GDUFS, and this time with a clear goal: to become a Japanese teacher.

Imura Shigetaka

“Chinese is difficult to learn, especially for Japanese.”

When Imura first came to China, he could only say “hello”, “thank you” and “goodbye” in Chinese. Some retroflex sounds like “shi” made him very confused because Japanese tend to pronounce it like “xi”. He managed to learn the language all by himself. He would talk to vendors frequently and he believed that communication between people of different nationalities is extremely important. Now he can speak Chinese fluently. When it comes to the discrepancies between Chinese and Japanese culture, Imura found it a bit hard to adjust, although it was rather interesting. He was amazed by how Chinese people love to be together all the time while Japanese pay much more importance to privacy and being alone. “I prefer staying indoors, but going out with my friends is just as fun.”

“Students are very nice no matter in Beijing or Guangzhou.”

Imura felt very satisfied with the current school life at GDUFS. As an audit student, he can choose any class he’s interested in from the curriculum offered. He thinks Chinese students are very nice and friendly. He would go directly to Chinese students majoring in Japanese to seek for help before he come to the professors. “There are not as many baseball games as in Japan, but I often play catching balls with Chinese students in the sports field.” Imura said with happiness.

Imura plans to stay in Guangzhou for a few more years after his one-year learning program at GDUFS finishes. “I think it would take more than one year to get to know a city thoroughly and there’s much more for me to discover in Guangzhou.” Imura has applied to be a Japanese Foreign Teacher at Jinan University. He hopes to teach there and continue his adventures in Guangzhou.