Exchange Student Program The Soka University is presently engaged in academic exchange agreement
with 96 universities in the world. In the Philippines, U.P . had entered
into this agreement with the Soka University in 1988, and De La Sale in
1996. Every year, two exchange students from each university are dispatched.
Aside from that, because this is the only English speaking country in
Asia, many Soka University students came here to study at their own expense.
Furthermore, short term language training program is launched in Kalayan
College where Dr. Abueva, a friend of President Ikeda, serves as principal.
File 027: November 2008
Sho Inoue (De La Salle University)
Hello! My name is Sho Inoue.
I’m a third year student majoring in Economics at Soka University. I have been here in the Philippines for the past five months and am studying at De La Salle University in Manila as an exchange student.
From now, I would like to share my personal experience in the Philippines.
My Experience in the Philippines
with Exchange students studying
at De La Salle University
with a teacher in Payatas and my friend
with my friends in De La Salle University
As soon as I arrived in the Philippines, I noticed one important thing
with respect to one of my outlook about studies. When I was in Japan, I
only had a good image of studying abroad. That is to say, I thought it
was relatively easy to study harder and grow mentally more if I studied
abroad than when I studied in Japan. In other words, I was looking for
something different in my study environment. However, I soon found out
that such an attitude toward studying abroad was wrong in my first few
weeks of stay here in the Philippines. This is because my attitude was
too passive in learning new things and this may have been partly because
of my linguistic problems for I neither asked questions to professors positively
during classes nor did I tried to speak to my classmates about my queries.
After reflecting to myself, I reconsidered two things: the reason why I
decided to study abroad and what I should do to in order to become a capable
person during my stay in the Philippines. Then, I began to study the Gosho
and Sensei’s guidance again in earnest to figure them out. Then I came
across this guidance: "Dig beneath your feet, therein you will find
a spring. The place where you are now is crucial. Never try to avoid that
which you must do." This guidance gave me the answer to my questions.
Actually, I had several opportunities to learn this guidance back when
I was still in Soka University, but unfortunately I didn't understand its
true meaning then. However, I was able to realize its meaning instinctively
in my predicament at this time. Since then, I have changed my mind and
attitude, and I have decided to take every action which will help me realize
my goals.
After that, I took one decisive action: since the main reason why I came
here to the Philippines is not only to learn English but also to know more
about the present situation of a developing country and to broaden my mind,
I decided to visit Payatas which is well-known place for poverty and as
a locale called "Garbage Mountain". In Payatas, there is a free
school which provides education for children who cannot afford to go to
school because of poverty. I really wanted to visit the place to witness
and learn from the actual conditions there. However, some of my friends
told me it was dangerous for foreigners to go there alone. So I tried to
find someone who will be able to help me go there. Since there is an organization
which supports that school financially in Japan, I contacted that organization
by email. While I was waiting for their reply, I chanted Daimoku with strong
conviction every day in order to realize my wish. Then to my surprise,
I was able to get a reply from them a few days later indicating that two
persons from their organization were scheduled to visit Payatas in a few
weeks' time and they were willing to meet me and take me along with them!!
I was beside myself with joy for I could finally visit Payatas.
As I expected, the situation of Payatas was far different from that of Japan. I know that it is meaningless to compare Payatas with Japan. However, it was really very hard for me to accept the unreasonable fact that depending upon which country a person is born in, it would largely affect his or her life. At the same time, I couldn’t help but notice how blessed the circumstances I was in all this time.
When I visited the free school, there were about 30 children studying Tagalog
and I heard a story about one of these children. There was this boy whose
mother died the other day, but his family was too poor to hold a funeral.
Therefore, her body was still lying in their house. (Finally, his family
could hold the funeral thanks to the help from one NGO). How this boy felt
while his mother's body was lying at their home was totally beyond my imagination.
I was rocked to the core and couldn’t say anything when I was told about
this story.
After I visited the free school, I visited yet another school in the area.
There, I saw a lot of children practicing singing. I don’t know how I can
exactly express my feelings at that time, but their songs really moved
me. So much so that I had a hard time holding back my tears. Their innocent
behavior and clear eyes really impressed me. Then, these well-known words
came into my mind: "It is the adults’ duty to prepare a hopeful future
for the children." Since I was born, countless people have been there
to support me and I just turned 21 this October. Accordingly, I'm already
a matured adult and I believe that it is my turn to prepare a hopeful future
for the children.
My Determination
with my classmate
I've already been here for 5 months, and I'm learning a lot of things from
the Filipinos. It is their kindness and hospitality that has impressed
me the most. I really respect their humanity and I want to follow their
good example.
Right now, I'm still midway in finding out what I specifically want to
do after graduating from Soka University. However, I'm sure that what I'm
learning in Soka University is what is essential in the present world and
that what I'm experiencing first-hand here in the Philippines is broadening
my mind. In order to repay this great debt of gratitude to those who have
supported and encouraged me all this time – especially, my parents and
Ikeda Sensei – I will do my best to be a capable person who can positively
contribute to society.
