Before this program, I set 2 goals for this program. Firstly, how the study-abroad is. I had not experienced study at oversea by using English. So, I did not know study-abroad and how the study-abroad is. I want to know how the study-abroad is before this program. That is why I set this goal.
Did I achieve this goal? The answer is YES. I visited many agricultural companies and studied Turkish agricultural system during this program. In this program, I got a lot of chance to ask for lecturers. But in the first I could not ask questions because of my character. As the time passed, I could ask questions. I found I need to be more active person in this program. I realized if I want to know more at oversea, I need to be more active. This is the same true of studying in Japan. So, I need to study English more to speak fluently what I want to speak. This program made me realize natural things when I study.
The second one is to look at things from a broader point of view when I study. I joined this program with the faculty of agriculture students in Niigata university. And the lecturers were from faculty of agriculture. They have agricultural sight when they look at things. They can find problem by agricultural sight. This was a good opportunity to look a society from agricultural sight. They made me get a new sight when I look a society.
We visited many companies and listened lectures for agriculture during this program. All things are first time for me. I was surprised many times during the lecture. I know agriculture is big industry in Turkey because I can easy to find a field when I take a bus and airplane.
We also visited not only Turkish companies but Japanese companies. I knew what they do in turkey and why they expand in Turkey. Turkish company that we visited are leader of their region agriculture. For instance, a compost company makes mushroom by using their compost. The company makes mushroom at the first time in the region. Now, there are many mushroom companies in this region. And we visited organic dry food company. The company process raw materials into dry food. They cooperate with local farmer. They give back local farmer parts of profits. Thanks to this project local farmers' environment become good. This is a distinguishing trait of this company. On the other hands, Japanese company that we visited are fresh. They are trying to develop Turkish markets. The manager talked to us how difficult to develop new markets and what is working at overseas. That is useful for me. I was impressed by their lecture. Actually, I want to work at overseas in the future. This time was good for me to know what working is at overseas.
However, I think there is bad point in Turkish agricultural system. First, there are gaps between university, company and local farmers. In Turkey, university research advanced technology, and company sells machine for agriculture. But most of local farmer does not accept advanced technology and agricultural machine though university and company try to spread their skill. The farmers tend to make crops by traditional ways. In this case, university's research is not used well for agriculture in turkey. If the farmers accept skills and machine for agriculture, they can make crops more than now. Then, Turkish output for agriculture will increase high pace. We listened agricultural machines company's lecture, they try to spread their machine on Turkish farmers. The company try to solve this problem to sell their machine. That is, there are gap between university, company and the farmers. It is like this. How to solve this problem. I think this is the problem to solve for Turkish agriculture.
We are helped by Turkish people during this program. And I talked with Turkish people. They are always friendly to me. In addition, when they have language problem, they do not give up talking with me though mother language is not English. I was surprised by their attitude. Generally, the Japanese are poor at communicate with foreigner because of language problem and their character. I realized I need to follow Turkish people's attitude.
In Turkey, there are lot of Muslim. Not all of Muslim follow the Islam strictly. Some Muslims follow the Islam strictly. Moreover, there are not only Muslim but other religious people. They live together without conflict. This is a model of globalism. In the future, we probably live with other cultural and religious people because globalism. When that time, we need to understand other culture to make a good relationship and society.
In this program, I learned mainly agriculture. But I also learned a lot of things beside agriculture. I want to go study-abroad in the future. Thanks to this program, I got a confidence for study-abroad. I know what studying is at overseas. In the other words, I need to be more active to solve the problem. And I need to look another sight when I hit a wall.
福島大学への留学案内・年間スケジュール
