My Digital Semester in Japan

27 September 2022

Photo: Freepik/tawatchai07

Two students studying teacher training report on their experiences in a virtual exchange with the Osaka University in Summer Semester 2022.

Majbritt and Matthis studied at Osaka University (OU) in Summer Semester 2022 — online. They each took part in an online course from the digital courses on offer for Hamburg students. This opportunity arose through the founding of a virtual network between Universität Hamburg and OU. Majbritt is studying French and mathematics for teacher training in secondary education, Matthis is studying art for teacher training in secondary education and literary studies for a master’s degree. This interview provides a summary of their experiences.

International Office: How did you find out about the virtual courses on offer in Osaka?

Majbritt: I found out about it from the STiNE Infomail. I get a lot of mails to that address so I didn’t see it at first, but I found it again later by accident.

Matthis: I think that was how I found out about it as well. I had attended a virtual summer school at Tokyo University during the pandemic, and I had also already spent a bit of time in Japan, so it didn’t take me long to decide. I applied straight away for the Japan: Society and Ideology course.

How was the application process?

Majbritt: It was really easy and not too much hassle at all. The communication flow was really smooth and quick. Everyone seemed to be really impressed with the program and were really willing to help. That’s why, regardless of what you’re studying, I can only recommend that everyone take part in a virtual course abroad. It’s free and a simple way to sample other courses and expand your horizons.

Did you choose a course that matched your curriculum in Hamburg, or how did you decide what to study?

Matthis: I totally chose my course based on the “this sounds interesting” principle. Then I found out that the course was very interdisciplinary, and comparative in its focus, and therefore it was quite advanced in terms of content. In terms of my course as a whole, it “only” helped me insofar as I wanted it as part of my elective area. But as the course was asynchronous, I was totally free to choose how to allocate my time, and so I could do it at my own pace. I really liked that, and it also fit in with the rest of my studies that semester, because most of them were in-person classes.

Majbritt: I did the course Second Language Learning with Online Resources, that focused predominantly on the subject of foreign language learning, so it was comparable with the courses in my major area of French and the subject-specific didactics that go with it. So the course for me was a good mix of aspects I was already quite familiar with from my studies at Universität Hamburg, and content that was new to me, like for example, Japanese language and culture. I was all presented in a way that was really clear and easy to understand.

If you compare the course at Osaka University with your courses at Universität Hamburg, what differences did you notice?

Majbritt: I felt like my course at OU placed more emphasis on participation, which I really liked. I really wanted something I could actively participate in, and where that participation was graded. The lecturer made a huge effort to involve us. There were a lot of short presentations, a chat via InCircle and a lot of group work in breakout sessions.

Matthis: That was totally different in my course, because it was asynchronous. But the teaching assistant did a really good job in supervising the course, and we also could write to the lecturer at any time if we had questions or need to clarify anything. In contrast to most courses at Universität Hamburg, there were weekly papers to hand in. The workload was about 3 hours a week, I think. At the end, I also had to hand in a longer assignment. 

Majbritt: I think that the workload during the semester was a bit higher than for my similar courses in Hamburg. Given that we had group presentations, and actually attending the classes as well as take-home exercises that were all included in the grading, we had to be a bit more involved during the semester. But I found it a wonderful opportunity to get to know the other international students in the course. Having said that, I also found the tasks we had to complete to be a bit harder than the ones from similar courses at Universität Hamburg.

On the subject of interaction: Did the virtual exchange give you the opportunity to meet other students, from Japan or other countries, to make it a kind of international experience?

Majbritt: A big part of the course was made up of preparing the presentations I talked about before, that we worked on in established groups. That meant I had a lot of direct contact with other international students. We had a lot of opportunities to talk about our own countries, cultures, and so on. As the course was about learning foreign languages, we always tried to involve the many various native languages in the group. Also, for every lesson, the lecturer introduced us to something typically Japanese, and tried to find out if there was anything similar in our countries, or what other traditions we had. For me, this course was definitely an international experience!

Matthis: I didn’t have any contact with other international students, and contact with Japanese people wasn’t really possible with this course, as it was designed for international students. For me though, just the experience of learning in another university system, and therefore, another learning setting, is similar to a kind of international experience. The language barriers as well, that will inevitably come up when you’re conveying Japanese content in English, were also part of learning in another context, and experiencing something new, much more so than doing an online course at your own university. A virtual course like this can never take the place of an actual physical stay abroad, but it is a good compromise, also if you’re still, for example, just trying to work out if a stay abroad is the right thing for you. It’s also a great way of getting course content that you won’t find in Hamburg. That is why I want to apply for another course at OU (laughs)!

Well, that’s quite a sales pitch! Majbritt, you also spoke before in favor of virtual mobility, is there anything else you would like to add?

Majbritt: Virtual mobility is free, easy to organize and easy to integrate into your schedule. It is an easy way to meet new people. Also, for people who want to have some kind of intercultural or international experience, but don’t want the hassle, or who don’t have the time, or money or whatever to do a semester abroad, this is a good alternative, or it could work like an “appetizer” to get a taste for it. It’s always nice to be part of international courses, and to see how open people are to dealing with each other and how willing people are to learn from each other, even if only online. For me, the course has definitely made me want to go to Japan in person, as soon as I have the time and money to do it.

Thanks for your time! And all the best for the rest of your studies!

We are planning to open new courses as part of the virtual mobility at Osaka University at the end of the year / beginning of 2023. Further opportunities for virtual mobility are provided in the eMobi@Dg2 or the virtual program offered by Charles University in Prague (in German only, registration closes 30 September 2022) which are also available to Universität Hamburg students.