My name is Shuto Marui, and I am a fourth-year student of the English Language Teachers Course of the Faculty of Education and Human Studies. I went to St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, USA, to study abroad for about three months. I would like to introduce my classes and life there.
 
I took classes in basic English, English education, and tourism. Since I was the only Japanese student in the English education and tourism classes, I had a hard time understanding the lessons. However, my classmates whom I made friends with through class discussions, kindly helped me and I was able to manage. There were also a lot of other assignments in American universities, which are incomparable to those in Japan. At first, I thought that I had to do them all perfectly, so I often studied all the time even outside of class, but with the help of my friends and after coming up with my own way of approaching my studies, I was able to improve and in the latter half of the year, I was able to relax.
 
What I found had a visible effect on my overall learning was writing. I often had to write long reports, and each time I did so, I received feedback from the teacher, and I found that my writing at the end of the course was more complete than before. This may have been one of the things that motivated me.
 
Next, I would like to talk about life in general. There were many services at St. Cloud, both on and off campus. For example, on campus, there were places where I could ask for help, and there were plenty of facilities such as shops and gyms, so I was able to simply enjoy life on campus. Off-campus, I enjoyed going shopping with my friends because there were many modes of transportation, supermarkets, and countless restaurants. There is also the JP Network, which is a community where you can get to know Japanese culture and participate in various activities to expand your circle of friends. I also joined the JP Network’s Yosakoi dance group and enjoyed interacting with many international students.
 
I was originally supposed to study abroad for one year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I returned to Japan after three months. Although it was a short period of time, I had so many experiences that I can't even begin to describe, and I feel that they helped me grow in many ways, and they have definitely given me confidence (a lot of confidence, really). I went through a myriad of emotions during my study abroad, but in the end, I can look back on it as a good experience.