【海外短期フィールドワーク2014年（2013年度）リアルタイム報告01】

海外フィールドワーク紹介のページはこちら

カナダブリティッシュコロンビア州立トンプソンリバーズ大学で
今年（2014年2月〜3月）も海外短期フィールドワークが行われています！

2014年2月21日〜2月22日

心理学科では、今年もカナダ・ブリティッシュコロンビア州立大学トンプソンリバーズ大学で海外短期フィールドワーク心理学コースを行っています。今年は心理学科14名のグループです。2月22日、成田空港からバンクーバー空港へ、そしてすぐにバンクーバー空港からカムループス空港にフライトです。写真は成田空港の一枚です。

バンクーバーで乗り継ぎです。4時間以上の空き時間で、お昼を食べる人もいましたね。すでに英語を必要とします。

プロペラ機でカムループス空港に着陸しました。直接滑走路の脇に降り立つローカル空港です。とても寒かったですね。空港ではホストファミリーが皆さんを待っていてくれました。自己紹介をして、それぞれの家に向かいます。これから週末はホストファミリーとじっくり話をします。

2月24日月曜日

週末をホストファミリーと英語漬けで過ごした後、月曜日にオープニングセレモニーが行われました。今年も心理学科の教授陣からはサンドラ（准学部長）、マイク（心理学科長）が足を運んでくれました。その他、国際交流グループのロリー、ラリー、ジャムシド、木村さん、英語の先生のキャサリンなど、これからお世話になる多くのスタッフが顔をそろえてくれました。その後、木村さんよりトンプソンリバーズ大学での勉強やカムループスでの生活のためのガイダンスが始まりました。

ここだけは日本語で説明してくれます。木村さんはもうカムループスに長く住んでいらっしゃいます。とても丁寧に説明してくれました。特に、カナダやカムループスの文化の説明はとても助かります。

本学教員のオープニングスピーチ

  This is my eighth time to be making a speech. Now I feel like coming back home and it has become my very important anual event. First, I would like to express my gratitude to Lorry, Larry, Rika, Jamshid, Catherine, Myrissa, Leana, Meghan, Yoshie who had contributed to build this program, Sandra, Mike, other professors who are not here, TRU-World staffs, and host parents. This program cannot exist without you. Today I am going to talk a few short stories about my life and this program that are connected with one another.

  First, I will talk about friendship. The process of how we get to know other people and become friends varies depending on each person. And an idea of what friendship would also be diverse. So I just talk about my case in which I have been given some real close friends here in Kamloops. I am quite confident that I now have real close friends here in Kamloops. I’d rather not say their names, but they are here. I see them less than a week per year, but they occupy essential part of me. And without them my life would be tasteless and empty. Just imagining them in my mind makes me feel that I am worth living. If I had not come across this program by being requested by Bunkyo Gakuin University, I would not know that I would be feeling so empty without them.

   Next, I will talk about necessity. To live a totally different life without knowing what I had experienced during these past 10 years might also have been happy, but I would not want to spend that another life. Ten years ago when I was requested to be part of this program, I did not know anything about Kamloops and people here and had much less interest in Kamloops. Sorry! But this short-term field-work program started somehow and I came here with 18 students in the first year and that experience totally changed my life. I still vividly remember the first year when I met Sandra, John, Mike, Yoshie, Larry, Lorry, and other professors and staffs, and their families here. I was so fascinated by every single person I spent time together. Then the program had become my life work. The people involved in this program occupy very important part of me now. What I am trying to say here is not only that you are important, but also the process of how we get attracted by people, Kamloops, et cetera. To be frank, as I told you, I came here 10 years ago for the first time with much less interest and enthusiasm in anything. But now, ten years later, it all came back to me that I cannot live without them. So I believe by now that what is important is not the interest or enthusiasm in the first place, but is just to take the first step to a new world. We might find something necessary looking forward but then we might not feel it is indispensable. The interest and enthusiasm would be cultivated afterwards. Of course it is good enough to do what we have strong interest. I do not deny that. At the same time, I would like to tell you that my experience taught me that acting without knowing brings us much joy, surprise, and unforgettable experience, for sure.

   My last story is about the word “ichigo ichie,” the Japanese proverb. In dictionary it means “one meeting, one opportunity, or the only chance in a lifetime.” I also got ”ichigo ichie” here by being requested by the university and now I truly appreciate that I had been selected as a person in charge of this program. Taking actions without pre-established harmony would bring us unpredictable joy and memory. I have met such wonderful people here and they brought me special experience and feelings that have made my life so important and worth living. You gave me a tendency that I should be involved in anything that are given to me for any reason. Now I like this tendency cultivated within myself because I would not have met you without this tendency. So again I would like to show my deepest gratitude to the people that are part of this program. Through these stories of mine, I would like my students here to experience the same things during this program. I am sure they will get the real meaning of “ichigo ichie” by going beyond their previous imagination here in Kamloops.

 Thank you again for being with us and sharing the time and delight with us.