- Ulrich Fobian
- JAPAN: ABE Initiative
- Kansai University, 2017-2020
A Note to Future Participants
"This programme is life-changing"
Change is hard. The programme will be hard, and not in the way you imagine. Your very character and beliefs will be put to the test as you are required to step outside all you know, into the unknown, into Japan.
Change is beautiful. You will experience beauty. Beauty in a new way of approaching what may have become mundane everyday tasks.
Change is brave. Bravery requires self-sacrifice, and therefore to be brave is to be humble. Be brave in unlearning bad (and even good) habits, and humble in embracing and accepting traditions and a culture completely new to you.
Change is opportunity. Take opportunities. Take photos. Take moments to remember that you are a stranger in a strange but extraordinary land. Take time to miss your loved ones far away, and tell them. Take the help you are given at every turn by the generous Japanese people. Take opportunities to say thank you. Take the JICA program and use it as the unique and exceptional platform it is. Take South Africa to Japan and carry it with pride.
Change is faith. Hold on to your faith in choosing this programme and hold on to what you believe, for you will need it when you lose faith, temporarily, in the program and your decision to pursue it.
I am living proof that change is hard. I had to give up things very dear to my heart in South Africa to come to Japan. I can confirm without a doubt that Japan is beautiful. The country has so much to offer and holds treasures unspeakably precious. I know that change required me to be brave even when I felt my weakest.
Education in Japan, including at a tertiary level, is a complete 180 degree opposite from education in South Africa in many respects. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised and deeply disappointed. This is normal. Change does this. Be brave and humble in both. This is true not only in education but also in the new lifestyle you will live. Embrace it with all the bravery you can muster. Every single day. I took an opportunity, made it my own, which included many personal failures, and successes, and now call Japan home and work in my chosen legal field in a wonderful company. Not at all in an attempt to escape South Africa. No. But, in my own right, to be a South African ambassador. My personal faith has shown me that my cornerstone is not in certainty of earthly belongings , but in Christ. In short, I have seen wonders and miracles through taking this program and my faith has grown stronger and deeper.
I truly hope you take this life-changing experience and love the journey as much as you anticipate the finish line.
頑張ってください
“Ganbate kudasai”
(Please do your best).
