Lindah Lenah Phiri, our former exchange student from University of Zambia (UNZA), who studied in Japan from April 2025 to July 2025 wrote an essay of his stay in Japan.
Please check it out!!
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Hello, my name is Lindah Phiri, a fourth year student studying psychology and philosophy at the University of Zambia. I studied at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) for one semester as an exchange student from April 2025 until July 2025. Both traveling to Japan and learning at TUFS has been one of the best experiences throughout my academic career, and I am grateful for being granted the opportunity to study abroad. I want to express my gratitude especially to Cloud Funding Contributors for offering me the Round-Trip Air Tickets from Zambia to Japan, and to JASSO for sponsoring my education and living expenses during my time at TUFS. I am thankful also to the Student Exchange Division, the International Student Support Association (ISSA) and the African Studies Center for their support and giving me the opportunity to interact with Japanese culture, and making my stay at TUFS enjoyable.
Academic life
While at TUFS, I studied Japanese Language and Literature. I enjoyed the new and exciting challenge of learning Japanese for the first time, and took classes for Japanese 101 every day. At first, I was surprised by the structure of the classes and the syllabus, as I was not used to having tests and assignments weekly, or having in-class interactions with my classmates. But I appreciated this learning style, it made learning the language, memorizing certain words, phrases, and sentence patterns much easier, as I had to constantly talk to my classmates and Sensei in Japanese. I found that I was able to use what I learned in class to speak with Japanese people inside and outside TUFS! As a psychology student interested in language, this method of second-language learning deeply interested me. With my Japanese literature course, I learnt much about Japanese history, art, and expression. Learning this helped me understand and better contexualize Japanese social life, as well as Japanese language.
Social life and Cultural experiences
I was glad to have the opportunity to interact with so many kind Japanese students from TUFS, who made me feel very welcome and comfortable. They introduced me to many places, such as the beautiful Asakusa, where one of Tokyo's oldest temples, Senso-ji, is. I was lucky enough to see many beautiful places and sites in Japan, including the Sakura in early Spring. The friends I made at TUFS were wonderful, including the Japanese students, the international students, and the other African exchange students. The first time I ate sushi, okonomiyaki, katsudon and ramen, was with the friends I made. I am glad to have experienced Japanese culture with all of them.
Challenges
My biggest challenge was adjusting to a new culture. I had to quickly learn how to act in different public social settings, such as how to line up and cue properly at the mall, museums, shops, or the train station. Navigating the foreign technology, especially in a foreign language, was also a challenge for me. Tokyo's railway system was also very complex, and I sometimes struggled when traveling alone. These experiences were difficult, but I appreciated the challenge, they made me think creatively and learn to problem solve quickly.
Conclusion
I have always had a deep admiration for Japanese language and culture, therefore my time in Japan has been incredibly fulfilling, academically and socially. I hope to take what I learned and the skills I developed at TUFS and apply them to my further studies at the University of Zambia and elsewhere. I hope to visit Japan again soon.
Thank you!