Rattapon Thadnork
Thammasat University

If you think of how to change your life in a better way, to be an exchange student in Japan will be the most recommended answer for you. As an exchange student at Ritsumeikan University, Japan, through the AIMS program, I have been bombarded with a ton of experiences and great memories. I also have lots of great classes with an international atmosphere that are really challenging and fun. Not only can I learn new cultures and have many chances to tackle new things, but I have also developed great friendships during my stay here.

For the classes, there are a lot of good classes, especially International Industries and International PBL seminar. The International Industries course is run by Prof. Dr. Raupach, one of my best professors at Ritsumeikan University. The professor is aware of the purpose of the exchange program: the Japanese government would like students to be able to come up with solutions based on problems. The professor is enthusiastic to address the questions and kindly encourages students to give the solutions. During the class, students have lots of chances to work and hold discussions with one another. The most interesting thing is that the students are from different parts of the world such as Southeast Asia, Europe, America and Japan. The different problems in different countries are eagerly shared and discussed. Furthermore, the International PBL seminar was set up internationally and gathered students to make a project. This enables students to have the experience of cooperating with other international students.

Japan is well-known as a strongly disciplined country. My discipline has unconsciously changed in a good way. For instance, I now consider that being punctual is really important after coming to Japan. Thus, I can manage my time to do things more efficiently than before. While a student, I have part-time jobs such as a house keeper and an English teacher. I would like to try to be like Japanese students, who normally do part-time jobs and have to allocate their time to study as well. I have learnt tremendously from this and I would like to raise this awareness for Thai students if I have the chance to do so.

I have had the opportunity to stay at Oak Town Higashi Ibaraki, where my neighbours are local. I can learn how Japanese live their daily lives, and moreover I can notice how Japanese consider time as one of the most important things. They have to walk fast to compete with time in order to catch the very punctual trains. In addition, I can go to the university on foot and by bicycle—approximately 3.3 kilometres away from Oak Town Higashi Ibaraki—so I can simultaneously keep myself healthy while being a hard-working student. To live at Oak Town is such a good opportunity for me.

Finally, all of my Japanese and international friends are friendly and supportive. Even though I came here by myself, I have never felt alone. Both Japanese and international peers have always cheered me up and cared about me. So, there is no need to worry even if you are joining a program alone without initial companions. You are going to create such great friendships here.

To be an exchange student is something that must be experienced once in your college life, in my opinion. You will surely grow up and be able to have a high ability to make good decisions in the future, due to the fact that you have to wisely orchestrate everything by yourself all the time. I, for example, know myself what I would like to really do in my future because of being an exchange student here.