Exchange Student Program Soka University is presently engaged in academic exchange agreement with
96 universities throughout the world. In the Philippines, U.P . had entered
into such an agreement with Soka University in 1988, and De La Salle in
1996. Every year, two exchange students from each university are being
dispatched for the said program.
Aside from that, because this is the only English speaking country in Asia,
many Soka University students come here to study at their own expense.
Furthermore, short term language training program is also launched in Kalayaan
College where Dr. Abueva, a close friend of SGI President Ikeda, serves
as its principal.
File 040: May 2010
Ryo Sakai (University of the Philippines)
Hello everyone!
My name is Ryo Sakai, an exchange student of the University of the Philippines (UP) from Soka University, Japan.
Since May 2008, I have stayed in the Philippines and studied economics
and accounting at the University of the Philippines.
I will be leaving the Philippines in 3 months and to be honest, I do not
want to go back to Japan because I came to love the Philippines very much.
How I Found My Way to the Philippines
with my fruiends in UP
This is not my first visiting to the Philippines by the way. Before I came here as an exchange student this time, I have actually been able to visit the Philippines twice.
In my first visit, I just came by and went on a trip around the Philippines. I enjoyed my trip a lot and I decided to apply for the English Language Intensive Course at UP, which is being offered by Soka University on February every year. Fortunately, I was able to be selected to become one of the members of the course, which afforded me the opportunity to come to the Philippines again wherein I was able to make many memories that I will never forget.
In my second visit, I was able to meet with many UP students and felt that
I wanted to study with these smart and kind students as their classmate.
After going back to Japan, I studied English a lot and seriously chanted
to be able to become a full-fledged exchange student to UP. Finally, my
hard struggle paid off as I was able to become an exchange student. Today,
I would like to share my impression and my determination that I was able
to make through my student life in the Philippines.
My Life in the Philippines
My friends in International Center of UP
with my classmate in UP
At UP, as I have mentioned before, I am taking up economics and accounting classes. Needless to say, the school days in the UP were so hectic for me that I was not able to follow the pace of UP students at the beginning. Actually, economics is my major in Soka University. Therefore, I have already acquired basic concepts of Economics and started studying some applied subjects. Since I had studied Economics in Japan, I had some confidence in my knowledge about economics and accounting. However, in the classroom discussions, I could not effectively show this knowledge which I have gained in Soka University.
The first problem was my English communication skills and level. In fact,
I could read assignments and understand the lecture part, but I didn’t
have enough confidence when I discussed class topics. However, one day,
one of my professors told us in class that we should have confidence more
and think seriously about problems and its solution in order to have confidence.
Moreover, she said to us, “even though you may commit mistakes in giving
a solution to a given problem, you should nevertheless challenge yourselves
to answer them because this is a university where you can do any number
of trial and error”. After I heard such remarks from her, I decided not
to fear committing mistakes but rather fear giving up on any opportunity
to explain my opinion. Of course, after making such inner determination,
I suffered from my problems such as to have an incredibly great volume
of reading assignments, the pressure posed by my other classmates in presenting
perfect presentations, my professor’s harsh requirements, among other things.
Whenever I faced these problems, however, I always recalled the message
and encouragement by our founder, Ikeda-Sensei.
And through my persistent effort, I was finally able to get the second highest score in all the long-term exams, get the highest grade in one of my classes, and made the best presentation in my life! In retrospect, without the UP professors and our founder’s guidance, I would not have been able to reach even the end of each class, and I might have dropped out of my classes eventually. Through my UP life experience, I really feel very thankful for both UP and Ikeda-Sensei.
During my school days in UP, as I have mentioned above, I studied a lot
because I determined to myself that I would do my best. Aside from studying,
I also had other unforgettable events and experiences. Most special of
which is the “Japanese Night” in which we, the Japanese exchange students
hold in UP every year to showcase and introduce Japanese culture to both
UP students and foreigners alike, was the most impressive one for me. During
its preparation, I became one of the two leaders and our mission was to
find sponsors along with making a budget plan to fund the said event. I
want to be a certificated public accountant in the future, so this opportunity
was so interesting for me because I could apply my knowledge in the process
of fulfilling my responsibility for the event. Though making the budget
plan went smoothly, actually financing our event was terribly difficult
as we did not get any money however hard we tried. In fact, we almost gave
up the financing part of the event halfway, but we sincerely and persistently
kept on persuading many Japanese companies and restaurants.
Finally, our efforts bore fruit as we got many sponsors to support us,
and we were able to successfully conclude our event. Through this event
and my experience as one of its leader, I have learned many things such
as the difficulties of financing an event, the importance of cooperation,
the importance of logical thinking, etc. More than anything, I felt that
the most important thing was not to give up, as I have determined to myself
before.
My Determination
with my classmates in UP
Finally, I want to express my determination. But before do, I want to first
express my sincere gratitude to all the people who helped enable me to
study abroad and experience what it is like to live in the Philippines.
Especially, I really appreciate Ikeda-Sensei, my parents, UP professors,
my classmates, and SGI members. Through my life experience in the Philippines,
I have come to thought more seriously about my future and the future of
the world. I did think about my future a little before, but I did not deeply
consider the future of the world as a whole. Through experiencing and going
through many impressive things in the Philippines, my mind has been changed
from a micro point of view to a macro scope.
As a result of my thoughts, I decided my 40 years plan to be a person who can truly embody the ideal of my mentor, Ikeda-Sensei. In the first decade, I will concentrate on studying more in order to gain the necessary “weapons” to fight with other incredible talents. In the next decade, I will strive and become the top individual wherever I will be by then; be it in a company, an institution, or an organization. In the third decade, I will be a person who can care about my country, Japan. Finally, I will be a person who can think about the world and contribute to the realization of everlasting peace in the world. I will not give up my determination because I have learned the importance of not giving up during my life in the Philippines. Subsequently, I will be back to the Philippines after being the person who I want to be.
