グローバル教育〔 地球的規模で考える 〕

留学便り第1便ーThe first report in Seattle

3学期からアメリカのシアトルに中期留学中の高校2年生Bさんから留学便りが届きました。夢に向かって大きな一歩を踏み出した彼女が、元気に実り多き留学生活を送れるよう、日本から応援したいと思います。今後も引き続きシアトル便りを紹介していきます。

Enthusiasum for studying abroad
The main purpose of my decision to study abroad is to think that it is necessary in the process of achieving my future goals.I think that learning English in the home country will give me an advantage in communicating with English speakers, in addition to the knowledge I can gain by taking English classes in Japan. And I will try my best to improve my English skills for this last 3 months without forgetting to thank my parents, teachers and host mother for their support.

About my stay in Kirkland
Kirkland, where I am staying with my host family, is a city next to Seattle, with beautiful nature and a relaxed atmosphere. My host family is a host mother named Cathie and an old cat named Sami. Cathie is always taking care of me and cooking me delicious meals. I was in quarantine for first week after arriving in the US, so I stayed home and took Kaplan's online classes. Face-to-face classes are scheduled to start next Tuesday. In this one-week online class, I studied with students from all over the world, and not only English, but I also learned about their national cultures and ways of thinking, and at the same time, I felt the need to be proactive and speak up without fear. However, in this online class, I was able to answer questions from my teacher and friends without worrying about whether I was right or wrong for my answers. This fact gave me a bit of confidence

Differences between the U.S. and Japan, and things that surprised me
This past week I was in quarantine, so I haven't tried many things yet, but my host mother taught me about the Gigs jobs. Gigs jobs mean second occupation, which is more flexible and can be started by anyone as long as they apply. In Japan, food delivery such as Uber Eats is an example. One of the gigsjobs in the US is the cab business, and since you don't need to be a professional driver to do this job, many people actually do this job. In Japan, there are not many people who do this kind of work, but in the US, it has become a common ,and one state has even enacted a law against gig workers. I have heard that there are still systems and traffic rules in the US that we don't have in Japan, so I would like to continue to challenge various things while looking forward to discovering new things.
I have to be careful because the number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in Seattle recently. In Washington State, you can't eat or drink in a restaurant without a vaccine passport, and you can't enter a movie theater or museum, unless you have negative proof within 72 hours. This weekend the quarantine was finally over, so I walked to the supermarket about 20 minutes from homestay home by myself. I felt that many of the products in the supermarket were more expensive than Japan. I asked my host mother about this, and she said that while the spread of the vaccine has restarted economic activity, there is a shortage of workers and the supply is not keeping up. Most of the residents living in the Kirkland area use cars for transportation, and I rarely see anyone walking. This is because most days around Seattle are cloudy or rainy, so many people have car. However, when it rained, there were very few people with umbrellas, and most people only wore hoods, which made me think that the local people are used to the rain. From now on, I would like to learn more about the lives of the local people and deepen my understanding of them.