Saturday, April 23, 2011

Not so welcoming orientations

Here in Japan many don't recognize the importance of an international language. It makes the life really complicated for the foreigners who come to Japan. Japanese isn't an easy language to master as English due to the 3 alphabets with thousands of letters and the different forms of language that's used such as formal, informal and much more.
I was truly disappointed at the orientation program of University of Tokyo, where none of the speakers cared to speak in English or at least to prepare the slideshows in English. There were many international students at the orientation program. I'm sure it was quite difficult for most of them to understand the content of it.  How could an institute like University of Tokyo ranked among the top ten Universities in the world could be that irresponsible towards a portion of their students.
Japan is a country where differently-abled people are treated with utmost respect and the infrastructure is specifically designed to make the life easy for disabled. How could a country like that could discriminate foreigners in this manner.May be it's a question about the ego. But I must say that ego can cost Japan in many different ways.
Well I usually don't sleep in lectures even when I'm sleepy for I believe it's a sign of disrespect for the one who conducts it. But I did sleep in the orientation to show my disgust towards that discrimination.