Many areas in New Zealand are at the COVID Alert Level 3. This means people in those areas should stay at home and work from home if it’s possible. We, lecturers/teachers, naturally tend to spend so much time in front of a computer and… as a result, I have experienced massive KATAKORI!!! Have you heard […]

When a new item/concept is brought in from another country, we need to come up with an idea – how to call it in our language. There are mainly two ways to do so in Japanese. ‘Telephone,’ for example, is called ‘denwa‘ in Japanese. ‘Den’ means electric and ‘wa’ means talk. This is a case […]

A lockdown started again in New Zealand. In case people who are not familiar with the situation here might be reading this… ニュージーランドでまた、ロックダウンが始まりました。あまりよく知らない人のために書きます…。 There was a new positive case of COVID-19 detected in the community yesterday, on 17 August. At the time of the detection, nobody knew much about the case but everybody knew it’s […]

It is April now; time flies indeed… ４月です。月日の経つのは本当にはやいですね。。。 April means to us, people in New Zealand, Autumn. Most people in Japan would think of Spring; therefore, it is all about (maybe not all but) cherry blossom🌸. Also April is the beginning of an academic year. 4月は私たち、ニュージーランドの人にとって秋です。日本の多くの人たちにとっては春、そして、もちろん、桜です🌸！4月は学校の新しい年の始まりです。 All levels of schools and universities start their academic […]

Trimester A will start next month at the University of Waikato. Are you, by any chance, interested in studying at the university this year? If you are but not sure where to start etc., why don’t you contact us and just ask? Asking a question (or two!) does not mean you have to enroll. It […]

Have you thought of your cultural identity? How important is it for you? I found the following article, which Crystal, a Waikato student, talked about her own precious experience in regard to her cultural identity. This is not about Japan or Japanese culture, but I thought I should share with you! https://www.asianz.org.nz/leadership/thailand-visit-inspires-search-for-cultural-identity/ 自分の文化的[ぶんかてき](= cultural)アイデンティティって考えたことがありますか。文化的アイデンティティは大切[たいせつ]だ(= important)と思いますか。今日、文化的アイデンティティについてのすばらしい記事[きじ](= […]