Global Perspectives – International Student Yuta Murase
Yuta Murase is the Global Education and Research Intern this summer for the Greater Cincinnati World Affairs Council. Below are thoughts on his experience as an international student!
How long have you been in the US? What are you doing here?
I am an international undergraduate student from Nagoya, Japan. I came to the U.S as a University of Cincinnati exchange student last August. I’m a Japanese history major at Nagoya University and studied international affairs at University of Cincinnati for eight months. I’ve been working at Greater Cincinnati World Affairs Council as an intern since May.
What do you like the most about being in the US? Why?
My favorite thing here is that people are really friendly. Americans usually shake hands and talk casually and become friends. Here, we can enjoy time together even if it is the first time we meet. Japanese are too polite, so we take longer time to be friends. I prefer American friendliness.
What do you miss the most from home? Why?
I miss Japanese food so bad. Japanese food and American food are so different and it’s hard to get real Japanese food here. I can find some Japanese restaurants around the Cincinnati area but this Japanese food is mostly “American Japanese food” and different from real Japanese food. Japanese people generally care about food and their health.
Yuta visiting Chicago with friends!
What was something that surprised you when you came to the US?
I was surprised with the diversity that the American society has. It is unusual and cool for me that people have different ethnicity and nationality that study and work together in the same space. But at the same time, I realized the inequality and the separation among races still exist in the society. I see people are spending more time together with people who are the same race. I feel they should take advantage of the great opportunity to communicate with different people.
What have you gained from being an international student? Do you think students should study abroad? Why?
I have gained the understanding for different cultures. You can understand different cultures and the way of thinking by living in a different society and communicate with people from different countries. Students should study abroad because they should communicate with the real people from different countries and touch different cultures. You can get global perspective and tend to think and care more about this whole world.
What are your future plans?
I want to make this world more global by promoting cultural exchange among different countries. This world would be more developed, peaceful and amazing if people from different countries understand, respect and cooperate with each other. I want to work for an international organization and make this world better.
