December 2020
Hello friends! Just before the holidays, I decided to lift my spirit and think about all the funnier things that happened to me in the recent years! Who doesn't’ need a little break during a semester end season, after all, right? Moreover, I think everyone’s life has been filled with more seriousness since this COVID-19 happened! (well in a good way I find it’s easy to put the blame on covid and corona these days, on whatever bad or unexpected happens!)
As an international student I am sure a lot of you can relate to experiences that I have faced! Well, the good news is, this post might be a breather for you if you are contemplating to be one in the future!
I always glorified the status of being an “INTERNATIONAL STUDENT” while I was back in Nepal. Being from a developing country, I always dreamt to move out into the real world and receive an international degree from a renowned university. Isn’t that a big dream?
Spoiler alert: the grass is always green on the other side!
When I first landed in the land of the rising sun for my PhD, my happiness knew no bounds! The sheer pleasure of riding the “shinkansen”, that glorified bullet train that I almost forgot to inform that my flight landed to my (new) department staff from the airport. I had expected that there would be some internet connection in the great “shinkansen” because even a local tourist bus and most of the long distance buses in my country always had a free wi-fi.
However, I was extremely shocked when I go to know that there was no internet connection in that train at all! Somehow, I got hold of a train officer and tried to ask him about any pay/coin phones! There was practically no staff in the train who would understand English at that time! I asked, “Excuse me, could you please help me get to a phone booth, I need to make a call!”; but they excused saying something in Japanese which I would not understand! I just knew, “Sumi masen, nihongo wakaranai!” which meant, “sorry, but I do not understand Japanese!” in the most simplest form. They gave me an I-pad with some typical “FAQs” in English but to my disbelief none of the FAQs included the question I wanted to ask them. (Did this problem even existed before me?)
I had never anticipated that I would struggle to communicate with the people on board in the great “shinkansen” in Japan! I regretted for missing my Japanese language classes back in Nepal and failing to collect all the travel information about my destination country. Yes, don’t blame me for not doing my homework! I totally understand that it was my job to gather information about the place I would stay for the next 5 years. However, it was my first time real experience to travel to a big, developed country and I just assumed people in Japan would understand some English!
Like I said, we only miss what we do not have! I missed the people back in Nepal, who even uneducated at times would know how to communicate in English. So I realized that even being a developing country, there were definitely some green grasses on that side as well. With great difficulty, one of the train staff led to a phone booth close but it was definitely not my day!
Ironically, all the phone booth in shinkansen were card operated; I did not have a card to operate it and there was no provision to buy a calling card from the train itself! I was frustrated, shocked and saddened for not being able to make a phone call about my arrival.
Then I flashbacked into my life in Nepal! (believe me, it's the Bollywood effect on me, I tend to have flashbacks now and then at times like this: anyone who grew up watching Bollywood would be able to correlate!). The free wi-fi service that almost all travel buses had in my country seemed like the most valuable asset to me at the moment. Oh, how I had taken that service for granted while I was back home. The speed and luxury of the “shinkansen” did not fancy me any longer, I missed the old rumbling buses back home!
To my readers who are interested to hear the end, let me tell you that Japan is full of kind, helpful people. People who would go beyond their own way to help a “gaijin”, a foreigner! Luckily for me, some passenger next to me understood English and he had sensed my frantic effort trying to make a call. So he generously offered his phone to me and asked the number I wanted to call. I thanked him with all my heart and with a sense of gratitude and hesitation, I called and informed my department members about the time of arrival of my train as someone was supposed to pick me from the station. However, my chronicles of misfortune and the kindness sequalae of that kind person did not end there!
As I was waiting for the department staff for almost 30 minutes at the taxi stand, I knew they forgot about me ( I knew about the punctuality of Japan). Luckily for me, that same kind soul spotted me and he asked me if I was waiting to get to my university. He communicated my address to the driver and handed something to him.
Only while I was paying my taxi driver, he explained that the kind person had paid for me already.
I was so surprised at the kind gesture of that person, he indeed was my guardian angel! The funniest thing is I do not even know the name or address of that kind person as I wished to send a thank you note!
On a positive note, I like to keep that genuine kindness due as it always give me a positive energy to help another person like me, to pass that act of kindness down the line to someone in need!
“Kindness is like a contagious; it always passes with the same magnitude and repetition and it is difficult to get out of it once you acquire this! Believe me, no one has ever tried to break out of this addiction so far, for the real act of kindness is that: the more you give, the more you get!”
P.S: Disclaimer: My wonderful journey as an international student in Japan started with a lot of big shocks and surprises, but I would also like to confess that the four and half years spent there are indeed one of the best memories in my life!
-- Madhu Shrestha
Madhu is a masters student in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology.
As an international student I am sure a lot of you can relate to experiences that I have faced! Well, the good news is, this post might be a breather for you if you are contemplating to be one in the future!
I always glorified the status of being an “INTERNATIONAL STUDENT” while I was back in Nepal. Being from a developing country, I always dreamt to move out into the real world and receive an international degree from a renowned university. Isn’t that a big dream?
Spoiler alert: the grass is always green on the other side!
When I first landed in the land of the rising sun for my PhD, my happiness knew no bounds! The sheer pleasure of riding the “shinkansen”, that glorified bullet train that I almost forgot to inform that my flight landed to my (new) department staff from the airport. I had expected that there would be some internet connection in the great “shinkansen” because even a local tourist bus and most of the long distance buses in my country always had a free wi-fi.
However, I was extremely shocked when I go to know that there was no internet connection in that train at all! Somehow, I got hold of a train officer and tried to ask him about any pay/coin phones! There was practically no staff in the train who would understand English at that time! I asked, “Excuse me, could you please help me get to a phone booth, I need to make a call!”; but they excused saying something in Japanese which I would not understand! I just knew, “Sumi masen, nihongo wakaranai!” which meant, “sorry, but I do not understand Japanese!” in the most simplest form. They gave me an I-pad with some typical “FAQs” in English but to my disbelief none of the FAQs included the question I wanted to ask them. (Did this problem even existed before me?)
I had never anticipated that I would struggle to communicate with the people on board in the great “shinkansen” in Japan! I regretted for missing my Japanese language classes back in Nepal and failing to collect all the travel information about my destination country. Yes, don’t blame me for not doing my homework! I totally understand that it was my job to gather information about the place I would stay for the next 5 years. However, it was my first time real experience to travel to a big, developed country and I just assumed people in Japan would understand some English!
Like I said, we only miss what we do not have! I missed the people back in Nepal, who even uneducated at times would know how to communicate in English. So I realized that even being a developing country, there were definitely some green grasses on that side as well. With great difficulty, one of the train staff led to a phone booth close but it was definitely not my day!
Ironically, all the phone booth in shinkansen were card operated; I did not have a card to operate it and there was no provision to buy a calling card from the train itself! I was frustrated, shocked and saddened for not being able to make a phone call about my arrival.
Then I flashbacked into my life in Nepal! (believe me, it's the Bollywood effect on me, I tend to have flashbacks now and then at times like this: anyone who grew up watching Bollywood would be able to correlate!). The free wi-fi service that almost all travel buses had in my country seemed like the most valuable asset to me at the moment. Oh, how I had taken that service for granted while I was back home. The speed and luxury of the “shinkansen” did not fancy me any longer, I missed the old rumbling buses back home!
To my readers who are interested to hear the end, let me tell you that Japan is full of kind, helpful people. People who would go beyond their own way to help a “gaijin”, a foreigner! Luckily for me, some passenger next to me understood English and he had sensed my frantic effort trying to make a call. So he generously offered his phone to me and asked the number I wanted to call. I thanked him with all my heart and with a sense of gratitude and hesitation, I called and informed my department members about the time of arrival of my train as someone was supposed to pick me from the station. However, my chronicles of misfortune and the kindness sequalae of that kind person did not end there!
As I was waiting for the department staff for almost 30 minutes at the taxi stand, I knew they forgot about me ( I knew about the punctuality of Japan). Luckily for me, that same kind soul spotted me and he asked me if I was waiting to get to my university. He communicated my address to the driver and handed something to him.
Only while I was paying my taxi driver, he explained that the kind person had paid for me already.
I was so surprised at the kind gesture of that person, he indeed was my guardian angel! The funniest thing is I do not even know the name or address of that kind person as I wished to send a thank you note!
On a positive note, I like to keep that genuine kindness due as it always give me a positive energy to help another person like me, to pass that act of kindness down the line to someone in need!
“Kindness is like a contagious; it always passes with the same magnitude and repetition and it is difficult to get out of it once you acquire this! Believe me, no one has ever tried to break out of this addiction so far, for the real act of kindness is that: the more you give, the more you get!”
P.S: Disclaimer: My wonderful journey as an international student in Japan started with a lot of big shocks and surprises, but I would also like to confess that the four and half years spent there are indeed one of the best memories in my life!
-- Madhu Shrestha
Madhu is a masters student in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology.