The Merits of Cultural Immersion by Rachel Armany by Rachel

The Merits of Cultural Immersion by Rachel Armany by Rachel - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

All college students should be required to study abroad, because the experience of living in another country is one that shapes and improves one's character in a way that cannot be achieved easily through other means. For the month of July 2014, I was given the wonderful opportunity to travel to Japan with the Student Diplomacy Corps, an organization that "provides opportunities and scholarships for high school students from across the nation and around the world to access dynamic international education summer programs" (from the SDC website). As much as I would love to talk about all the sushi I had, or how many selfies I took, the most memorable pieces of my experience are the lessons I learned in traveling to another country.

When traveling to any place out of your comfort zone, it’s valuable to note the skills that you acquire after spending an extended period of time away from what you’re used to. Before traveling to Japan, I had little to no useful traveling experience, as I hadn’t been out of the country since 2011, and even then I traveled to Canada; a place significantly similar to America both in cultural and in environmental capacities. Upon leaving Japan, I felt as though my traveling experience expanded vastly even though I had stayed in the one country for the entire time. Additionally, being so far away from home prompted me to consider the many wonderful experiences I had been missing out on.

When I first arrived to Japan, I immediately felt a barrier between myself, a born and raised American with a very small knowledge of true Japanese culture and language, and actual Japanese people with a very small knowledge of true American culture. It was certainly intimidating, and while I admit I am not fluent in Japanese now, after about the halfway point of the trip, I felt that barrier slowly begin to dissolve. Towards the end of my trip, I was not dissapointed that I had only gotten to the speaking level of a 3 year old, because I learned that speaking the same language isn’t always communicated through words.

Some of the people who truly helped me learn the meaning of communication are the members of my host family in Kamaishi, Japan. Both my host parents and my two host siblings were supportive, kind, honest, understanding, adventurous, and very loving. But, I did not discover this by sitting a circle and getting to know them on a deep, familial level, I discovered who they were as people through the times we spent together. Going to a fish catching festival and watching my host brother and sister fail 100 times, and seeing their faces when they finally caught a fish, or visiting my host mother’s shrine dedicated to her family and learning traditional prayer rituals, or watching my host father try to close my suitcase by sitting on it the night before I left Kamaishi; these are memories I will cherish forever.

My group also got to visit a town devastated by the Japanese tsunami in 2011. We helped clean two beaches and make them look more approachable, because large bodies of water are still intimidating to Japanese children, as they remind them of their past emotional trauma. After hearing the stories of many victims of the tsunami, including a woman who lost both of her parents, even a small deed like picking up debris off of a beach meant so much to the Japanese people I worked with, and I know no textbook or course of study can fully express that idea.

Traveling to another country helped me discover more about Japan, Japanese people, and even myself. Studying abroad should be valued as an essential piece of higher education; because without the requirement to take part in a cross-cultural experience, some people may never choose to travel, and may never gain the same beautiful, remarkable memories.