ミッキーBlog #3

              Hey everyone, Mickie here! We have been in Japan for almost a month now! We only have about one more week until we go back home to Calgary. It has been such an awesome and fun time here in Japan: exploring Tokyo and trying new foods, seeing amazing things and scenery I’ve never seen back home before... I don’t want to leave so soon! Oh, how fast time flies! ~ Life in Japan is exciting and eventful. Everyday you find new things to muse about, and there is just so much to explore!

              In addition to the fun and excitement of this trip, I have new findings for my topic about Japanese cram schools since last blog! As I said in the last blog, I have asked some of my Japanese friends and Japanese students how they felt about cram schools, and how it affects them. I have also considered the differences between cram schools in Japan and preparatory classes in North America. Most people I have asked surprisingly answered no to the question, if they took cram school at all. There were also a variety of answers to that question: some said they took cram school only during exams, or when they were little, some said they did not take any cram school at all, and some said they took cram school up till high school. In university, students do not usually go to cram school as it is meant to be suitable for children and up to grade 12, high school graduation.

              I was surprised because based on my research through articles I have read about Japanese cram schools, it says that taking Juku is a big deal to get you through school, and that it is a big factor in contributing to one’s academic success. However, my personal evaluation of this says otherwise. According to my inquiries with Japanese students, only some of them have gone to or taken cram school. Those who have gone though, said that it did help them in their studies, and it also helped them make new friends. Therefore, Juku does play a social role in Japanese students’ lives.

              Despite contrary beliefs about parents making their kids go to Juku, most of my Japanese friends said they chose to attend Juku on their own. It was a choice, for the most part. For the few students that said no, their parents made them attend, they gradually started to like Juku after an initial dislike for cram schools. Juku does still run on weekends and during holidays, and it starts after school around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and runs till 9 or 10 in the late evening. Long hours for students attending Juku is normal, but of course, not everyone is pleased with the duration of it.

              The difference between Japanese cram schools – Juku – and preparatory classes in North America varies. They both serve the same purpose – helping students succeed in school and examinations. Preparatory classes in North America are mainly for examination preparations, whereas Juku has non-academic classes that students can attend as well. The whole parents making the kids go to prep school thing also depends on the student. They can choose whether or not they want to go, and most students do attend since examinations are fairly difficult as well.

              During the last week of this program, I would like to find out additional information about students who attended Juku and those who have not. In addition, I would like to know more on how Japanese students’ study, and the affects of studying between those who have attended Juku versus those who have not.

Anki Blog #3

            Hi everyone, this is Anki. I have been in Japan for three weeks now and there is only one more week left for this program. Now I don’t want to leave Japan because I had so much fun in Japan. Except for attending the classes in the morning, I am so excited to go around Tokyo in the afternoon even though I end up being very tired every day. Life in Japan is full of excitement and every single day is a new day, I get to visit many new places during this program. I have done more research on my topic regarding Japanese entrance exams. I have asked Japanese people in the dormitory which they prefer, the Alberta education system and Japanese centre exam.

            I have explained to Japanese students in the dormitory here at Senshu International House. In Alberta, we have diploma exams which are basically final exams for grade twelve courses. Only 30 levels courses in high school require diploma exams. Also, the diploma exams only worth thirty percent. Comparing to the Japanese entrance exam, the diploma exams are less determining and stressing. Unlike the Japanese entrance exam occurring at a certain place, we only had to go to our own schools to take the diploma exam. After explaining to the Japanese students, I asked which exam system they prefer. All Japanese students I asked prefer Alberta system, because the Japanese entrance exam is way too competitive, and they were all stressed before the exam. After talking with Japanese students, I got some more information regarding the entrance exam. Some people are able to get reference letters from high school teachers, so they do not have to go take the entrance exam and straight go into universities. For some universities, an interview is also necessary before getting accepted into the university. In Alberta, unless it is people trying to apply to graduate schools or jobs, they do not need an interview at all for being accepted into universities.

            However, even though it is easy to get accepted into universities in Alberta, university life is very hard, and graduating is not an easy thing. In Japan, it is harder to get accepted than graduating. I have heard from my sensei saying that people did not spend too much time studying in university but spending time making friends and going to parties.

            Despite all the differences between Japanese entrance exams and Alberta diploma exams, they have some similarities as well. In Alberta, students in the whole province do the exam at the same time, then the exams are taken to Edmonton to be marked by certain teachers, which is very similar to Japanese entrance exams that the exam occurs at the same time nationwide.

            During the last week of this program, I will be asking Japanese students about how they have prepared the exam and how they learned to calculate their grades after the exam.  

Fernando's Blog #3

Hey guys, it’s Fernando again and i’ve been in Japan for around 3 weeks now. So far Japan has been a blast to be in with everyone enjoying their time here and spending my spring here has been a blast so far. I’ve been going everywhere from Enoshima, Kamakura, and all around Tokyo! My legs get tired everyday from walking everywhere but that doesn’t stop me. I’ve got some more of my research done since the last blog post which i think will shed a little bit more light into what i’ve been researching. I’ve been going around, asking people about their thoughts on club, while also looking on the web for good sources talking about japanese clubs and how is it compared to the ones back at UofC. 
The first thing that I realized is different is how clubs are started. Back in Calgary, it depends on the level of school you’re in. In High School, clubs are ran by teachers and the teachers act as the supervisors and the mentors for their clubs; though there were some clubs that the teacher is just there to supervise. For example, There was a robotics club and an anime club in my high school and the supervisor for robotics had to teach the students how to build the robot and how to program its functions in there to make it work. Meanwhile, the teacher for the anime club is just a supervisor since that club is just about watching anime for an hour or so. In post secondary, or at least in UofC, most of the clubs are under the Student Union and ran only by students. Compared to Japan, clubs always need a teacher to supervise the club but only in high school do they need to be there as a mentor. In university, they can be just there for supervision duties and just that. They don’t have to anything else. 
In terms of how clubs are created, in calgary, you would need to register with the school to make sure that that club is official. You would need to get a couple of your friends who share a similar passion to which you want to form the basis of the club on, and make sure to keep it going so it doesn’t go away for future students who share a same passion. For UofC specifically, get 10-20 of your friends, make sure that the club you want to start up is not already formed by someone else, and if not, go to the student union site and form one there. In Japan, you would need to get a teacher to act as a supervisor and submit the club form to make it official. 
So far, from what I have found with regards to how clubs operate here in Japan compared to Canada is that they have some similarities and some slight differences and so far those differences have only been in how they operate and how they are created. This is what I have so far and i’ll be posting once more later.

ミッキー Blog #2

Hi everyone, Mickie here! Welcome back to our blog on Japanese education! We have been exploring different places around Tokyo together as a class. Diving into the culture and customs in Japan has been pretty overwhelming, but it is an amazing experience and we have only been here for about a week! Everyone has been really helpful and friendly at the Senshu i-house, an on-campus dormitory for international students living with Japanese students. Even though there is a language barrier, everyone is so understanding when conversing. We are all having a great time here.

In this blog post, I will talk more in depth about Japanese cram schools, also known as juku 塾（じゅく）. As mentioned in my last post, they are designed to help students excel in their studies, especially for exams. Students tend to attend juku during exams to aid them in their studying. They are private schools that offer lessons after regular school hours and are opened on the weekends and during holidays. So basically, when you are not attending regular school, you still have cram school.

For academic juku, though some students take regular cram school after regular school hours, students who need it usually take it when exams are coming up. Students can start taking juku as early as kindergarten, and it ranges all the way up to high school. It serves as a common study ground for those who do not have access to that kind of study environment, or have difficulty studying at home. Juku also provides extra help from sensei for students with questions about their homework or examinations. Entrance examinations are hard in Japan so students strive to study as hard as they can to enter their university of their choice. As Anki mentioned in her blog, Japanese entrance examinations determine the future for the students. Whether or not they enter into a good university and succeed depends on this exam into university.

Juku is not always academically focused, there is also non-academic juku which is essentially extra-curricular activities, such as: music lessons, art, sports, and many more. Non-academic juku is mainly catered to children. Japanese parents think it is a good attempt to exercise a meaningful measure of choice in Japanese education as they fear rebellious behaviour and bad habits that their children will pick up if they are not able to find something to occupy their time with. Besides restraining rebelliousness in children, juku also serves as a social environment where one can make new friends! Children will sometimes ask their parents if they can attend juku because their friends attend. So juku is not as bad as it seems to be!

Currently, I am in the progress of finding answers to my questions in relation to cram schools and how Japanese students feel about them, how it affects them, and the differences between cram schools in Japan and preparatory classes in North America. I will update my explorations in the next blog!

Fernando's research blog #2

Hey guys, it’s Fernando and while I’ve only been in japan for only a week, but it was a busy week for me. There were tours around Tokyo and the Senshu university Ikuta campus, exploring various parts of the city like Shinjuku, and Harajuku. In the limited time of the tour of the campus, I was able to see a couple of the clubs that were currently having club activities around the time. For example, we were able to catch the kendo club finishing up their club activities, which was disappointing because I wanted to see how their daily routine was like. As the tour went on, we went to the gym to look around but we were not able to look for long since the gym was closed for non-club members but in the time there, I was able to recognize the level of seriousness they take sports club in there. To close it down from the rest of the community, it means that they want the members to focus only to their activities and not be distracted by other people like spectators. We also saw the club room building on the way back but couldn’t go inside it.

Back in high school, my experience of clubs were that only some of them had mandatory meetings such as sports clubs, and some were not in the form of clubs at all but in the forms of a class like the culinary, band, or art class. Then in university, the diversity of clubs expanded to cultural, activist, or hobby clubs. So back in Calgary, clubs were lenient in terms of meetings as longs as the all the members do their work on time, and sometimes, the only ones with any work are the executives like the Japanese conversation club, where you only go there to converse with people in both English and Japanese and have a good time. In comparison to here, the clubs in Tokyo are more strict where meetings are mandatory, which means less time for holidays or free time for the students and more commitment out of it. In a way, it works to further improve their skills but I feel like being this committed to something that doesn’t return profit is a little bit going overboard. There might be a chance of being scouted like in the western countries but even so club work looks exhausting.

While all of this looks like im making clubs out to be a negative in school life, it is not. Since this is usually the time that students are able to socialize with others, form bonds with people and enjoy their hobbies. But students usually drop out of clubs in their senior year to focus on their studies in order to be able to pass the entrance exam to be able to further develop their education and skills to use in the real world once they graduate. And since clubs were not mandatory, at least in my knowledge, students can choose to not enter a club which is nice for people who don’t want to join the existing clubs in their schools. So there are upsides and downsides to school clubs but it’s all in the students decision to suffer through them if they decide to join one. This is what I’ve gathered so far and I will update more as I go on. Thanks and bye.

アンキのリサーチについて

            Hi everyone, this is Anki. I have been in Japan for a week now with friends from University of Calgary. I am very amazed and overwhelmed by Japanese culture and custom. Everyone is nice towards foreigners and they are very courteous. People and RAs (Resident Assistants) create a warming and family-like environment in the dormitory where I live in, it is called Senshu International House. I am enjoying and cherishing my time at iHouse.

In this blog I am going to explain my research topic regarding Japanese entrance exams, also referred as the National centre test. The national centre test is the most life-impacting event that happens almost in every Japanese high school students’ life on their way pursuing higher education to universities. Although there is also entrance exams for junior high school students to get into high schools, it is not as overwhelming as the high school students’ entrance exams to universities.

The entrance exam occurs every January nationwide and lasts two days. First day is for literacy courses exams, for example, Japanese, History and such. The second day is for science courses such as math, science, chemistry and such. Different majors that the students pursue after getting into universities have different grade requirements, the grade requirement for different universities are also different. The more famous and better universities require higher exam grades. The results of entrance exams are the only thing to determine the path of Japanese high school students. Unlike in Alberta, although there are diploma exams in high school, the grades only count as a certain percent for the entire course grade. Therefore, I wonder if it is better that the Japanese entrance exams are so strict and competitive.

You might wonder, what if the student did not get a good grade, or the student failed the exam, what would they do, does it mark an ending to the student’s career? The answer is no, if the student did not get high enough grade on the national centre test, which did not satisfy the entrance requirement for his or her desired university, they will have to take the national centre exam again a year after. During the blank year for students who is taking the exam in the next year, they will be studying or even go to cram schools to study in order to get into their desired universities. Students like this are referred as Ronin, which means a Samurai without a master in ancient Japan. Comparing the Japanese education system on entrance exams, Canadian students’ lives are easier for getting into the universities. However, the life in Japanese university is easier than the life in Canadian universities so I guess the Canadian students paid off the easiness after getting into universities.

I am still on the progress of doing a questionnaire on how Japanese people think of the Japanese entrance exam and whether they prefer Japanese education system (on entrance exams) or Alberta education system. I will update more on my research regarding Japanese entrance exam on my next blog!

Welcome To Our Blog!

We will be covering topics about Japanese education. Our research topics will focus on the Japanese education system, cram schools, entrance examinations, and the steady decline in children which affect Japanese society.

Anki’s Topic:

In this group research, our main topic is Japanese education. I will be focusing on the entrance exams as well known as Nyugaku Shiken regarding group research in Japanese education. Entrance exams play an important role in Japanese students’ lives. From kindergarten to university, entrance exams are always necessary especially the entrance exam to university. The university entrance exam is a life-impacting event. From Japanese classes, I have been taught that after high school, all students will take entrance exams to apply to the universities which they desire to go. Not only the role of entrance exams, the rules of taking one entrance exam are also very strict comparing to Canadian education.

Cindy’s Topic:

My research topic is about job hunting in Japan. I would like to learn about the differences between job hunting in Canada and Japan, so I will be comparing and contrasting the job hunting procedures between the two countries. Finding a job is arguably easier in Canada than it is in Japan. As Canada is a multicultural country, resumes do not require (and it is advised not to include) any sort of personal information besides contact information. In Japan, there are restrictions on age and a set time frame in which people, mainly university students, are able to job search. These are just a couple of the many differences between job hunting in Canada and Japan.

Fernando’s Topic:

My research topic will be about the Japanese Education System. I will be talking about some of the main similarities and differences between the Japanese System and the Western System. For example, one of the similarities between the two systems is how the school year structure is similar at face value. That is due to the fact that during the allied occupation, the American government set to reform the old education system in japan to be more similar to their own. While one of the differences between the two systems is the Japanese education system offers a little bit more variation. One of which is the ability to choose between advancing to high school or go to special tech institutes after junior high. These institutes are called College of technology, or “kōtō-senmon-gakkō”  and put more focus on the technological programs such as engineering and can span 5 years rather than the typical 3 years in high school and then 4 years in a university. Graduates are awarded with an associate’s credential which they can use to find careers or, if they wish, study further in another post-secondary institution.

Mickie’s Topic:

Japanese cram schools, also known as “Juku” (塾), are specialized schools that offers supplementary educational classes to train students in bettering their grades, or to pass entrance examinations of high schools or universities. Cram schools also provides an extra space for students to study in case they do not have access to that kind of study environment, or have difficulty studying at home. They provide extra help and resources for students with their homework, or questions about their examinations.

Although some might think crams schools are not the type of after-school activity one might voluntarily want to participate in, others have quite a positive opinion about them. Cram schools can be a more relaxed environment to focus on your school work instead of the tense classroom environment during regular school hours so students do not feel the added pressure or stress. They can also make new friends from other schools and socialize which can add encouragement to their studying seeing that everyone is in on this for the better.

We will be progressing with our research over the course of the next month, so please look forward to our posts!

Anki's Introduction

My name is Anki, I am a third-year student at University of Calgary majoring in East Asian Language Studies concentrated in Japanese and I am planning to apply into Master of Planning program.

I have been living in Canada since 2012, this is my seventh year in Canada. I always have a strong passion toward Japanese language and culture, hence I started taking Japanese courses at the university. I love watching Japanese anime, movies, and TV dramas, reading manga, and sometimes draw some anime characters by myself! When I have free time, I sometimes like to play games as well, but I watch more game videos than playing the games. I have watched a couple of Assassins Creed games, Resident Evil games, Outlast, and a lot of more. I love doing research on Japanese Youkai, and other monsters as well. My favorite monster-related stories are Cthulhu Myths. The stories are very fascinating, and the concept of Cthulhu Myths is completely different from any other myths. Its uniqueness attracted me into researching and reading the books. I have read some books which are written by Japanese writers. My favorite Japanese writers are Dazai Osamu and Akutagawa Ryunosuke. I have read their Ningen Shikkaku and Rashomon. I have a passion of learning languages; I can speak Chinese, English, Japanese and some German. I admire people who are multilingual, they can always communicate with more foreign people. Also, learning languages opens up my mind thus I could develop deeper thoughts as well as building up my confidence.

I am a big animal lover and I have two cats at home. To me, animals are the purest living creatures on earth. A lot of animals are now in danger because of human activities, therefore, I try to learn about wild animals’ lifestyle, habitats, etc. Even though I love animals, I am very scared of bugs and insects, but I do understand that they play a very important role in the nature and they are necessary to be there. My dream job is to become a veterinarian so that I can help not just house pets, but also other animals as well.

I am very shy and anxious around people that I do not know much. I am trying to build up my confidence and learn to talk with more people. I think this study group will help me to improve myself in person. Many of my friends have told me that when they initially met me, they thought I was a cold-hearted and careless person. However, I am the completely opposite, I care about my friends and I feel happy when they open up to me and talk to me. I love listening to people sharing their experiences. I hope during this trip, I would be able to express myself more in a foreign language. It will be super challenging but then again, I could break out of my comfort zone and try something different. I also would like to make new friends in Japan.

こんにちは、私はアンキと申します。私はカルガリー大学の三年生です。専攻は日本語です。今回のリサーチ、私は日本の入学試験について、お調べたいと思います。入学試験は日本人とって、人生一番重要な試験です。試験の成績はどんな大学に行くことを決めます。お楽しみにしています。

Mickie's Introduction

Japanese Blog#1: Self-Intro

Hi, my name is Mickie Hong. I am studying East Asian Language Studies at the University of Calgary. I have always been interested in other languages and cultures, and I am super excited to be a part of this Japanese group study program.

My fascination in Japan stems from my childhood days. Ever since I was little, I have always been surrounded by toys, games, music, and books – all of which originated in or are related to Japan. As I grew older, I found myself learning about the culture through Japanese cultural videos on YouTube and that heightened my desire to go to Japan to experience it for myself. When I began studying to one day become a teacher, this interest pushed me into learning more about Japan, with the hopes of one day teaching there.

Joining this program and continuing my education in Japan will allow me to indulge my interest in Japanese culture and to deepen my knowledge of the Japanese language. Studying abroad will give me the opportunity to immerse myself in that environment, experiencing the culture first-hand, rather than reading about it through books, or watching it through YouTube videos. Especially with a group study like this, I will have peers who will be just as eager to learn as I am and who are about the same skill level as I am, encouraging each other in a new and adventurous environment. I believe that by immersing ourselves into the culture and language itself we will be able to get more from it and learn more from it in ways a classroom setting cannot provide.

When I first entered Mount Royal University, I initially took Japanese language classes as an option. However, those Japanese classes had a significant impact on how I learned and only heightened my curiosity for the culture. This was one of the main reasons why I transferred to the University of Calgary. I hoped to pursue the extended levels of Japanese, and currently, I am in the East Asian Language Studies program majoring in Japanese. I hope to meet and converse with Japanese students who are around the same age, making it easier to learn about the little places hidden to foreigners. I am looking forward to making new friends and creating fun new memories from this experience!

Asides from Japanese, my other interests are being active. I really like hiking and being up in the mountains with the gorgeous scenery and fresh air, and swimming and trying out new sports. I also like to read novels of any genre, listen to songs of any kinds (except for maybe country…), and watching movies, shows, and dramas. Recently, I have picked up knitting and crochet! It sounds like something I would probably do when I am way older, but it is pretty fun! I have actually made many different things such as hats, scarves, and even little baby slippers! I always like to try new things because if you don’t try, you’ll never know if you’ll end up liking it!

初めまして！私はミッキーです。大学三年生です。専攻は東アジア言語研究です。カナダで生まれました。しゅみはスポーツをしたり、音楽を聞いたり、映画とテレビを見たり、友達と一緒に食べ物を食べたりします。一番好きな食べ物はアイスクリームです。私の日本語を話すのが下手ですが、上手になりたいです。よろしくお願いします！

Fernando's Introduction

Hi, my name is Fernando. I am a 4^th year in University of Calgary majoring in Computer science with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction while minoring in Japanese. I first got interested in the Group Study Program when I took Japanese 205 when my TA’s were showing videos of him in Japan while in the program. At first, I never had enough of an initiative to pursue becoming part of it until last year when some of my friends took part in the previous program and told me some of their experiences with it. While some of the stories they told were negative, there were enough positivity in their other stories that it was enough for me to decide to apply for the program. There was another reason as to why I decided to apply. Back in my first year, I only took Japanese courses because I have a love, for anime, manga, and video games. It was only meant to fill in some optional courses for my degree until last year, I realized that I started loving to learn Japanese and going to Japan will further improve my skills at a speed that I can’t reach from just reading books. Being part of this means I will have to push my boundaries and improve on some of the social skills that I’m lacking. This also gives me an opportunity to further expand my horizons in terms of culture. By immersing myself, I can create new experiences that I can’t see from a screen or from other people’s stories.

My hobbies include anime, manga, video games, and computers. I’ve had an interest in anime ever since I was a kid and I would always catch my sister watching some show either on TV or in our computer, but as time went on, I steadily got more interested in what she was watching at the time. My love for reading manga, and subsequently light novels as well, came from my inability to wait for the next episode to release and inevitably just decided to read the source if there was any. With video games, I was introduced to it by my uncle who had a love for it. He showed me how games are fun and challenging at times but are always enjoyable. And to this day, I see gaming as both an enjoyable pastime and a driving force for what I pursue out of my degree.

The reason why I decided to pursue Computer Science was because I have a love for computers. I have always been tech savvy and can easily solve simple problems within reasonable time. I was the designated technician of the family and as I got older, I became more knowledgeable with the ins and outs of a computer to the point where I decided to build my own from store bought components. With that, I decided to try making something out of the things that I love doing and ultimately landed on picking Computer Science and I’ve enjoyed it so far. There are some downsides to the courses and assignments associated with the degree such as long nights and all-nighters just to finish projects, but these scenarios exist in multiple different degrees and infrequent and rewarding enough, sometimes, that it’s worth the effort of putting up with it.

I believe I will absolutely enjoy my time in Japan and create personal memories for me to reminisce about in the future.

初めまして。私はフェルナンドです。わたしは大学四年生です。せんこうはコンピューター科学。そして、ふくせんこは日本語をです。しゅみはアニメを見たり、テレビゲームをしたり、します。私の一番好きなアニメは君の名はです。私は日本語のしゃべ方を上手になりたいから、日本に行くのが楽しみにしています。よろしくお願いします。

Cindy's Introduction

Hi! My name is Cindy and I am a second-year student majoring in accounting. I was born in Canada, but I am ethnically Chinese. In my free time, I like playing mobile rhythm games, watching cooking and baking videos, listening to music, organizing things, and going out to eat with friends. In general, I am a boring person who doesn’t do much, but I think my strong point is my very distinctive, contagious laugh. I often find things funny and will laugh at most jokes, usually causing those around me to laugh at my laughing. It might be hard to strike a conversation with me at the beginning because I don’t have much in common with others, but I hope to improve my ability to talk to people and make new friends. I am very fearful and often worry about everything, so one of the reasons why I am going to Japan is to push myself out of my comfort zone and experience life on my own. I am rather sheltered, but when talking to my friends, I often find that there is so much more in the world than I ever imagined, so I believe this opportunity will be very eye-opening and beneficial to me. By going as a group to Japan, I believe it will help me feel more comfortable and make it easier to adjust to the new environment. I also want to improve my lack of confidence by putting myself in a situation that will challenge me to use a language I am not familiar with and practice it. I often miss out on opportunities to practice Japanese when I am given the opportunity to speak simply due to my lack of confidence, but in an environment where not everyone is able to speak English, I will have no choice but to use Japanese to attempt to communicate with others. While I enjoy Japanese class and learning about Japanese language and culture, I find that there isn’t enough time to practice new grammar points and vocabulary we learn during class, and that formal grammar learned from a textbook is not always appropriate and applicable for daily use. I think that by immersing myself into the culture and language itself, my Japanese will improve significantly compared to exclusively attending Japanese classes in a country outside of Japan. I have travelled to places outside of Canada, specifically in the United States and China, but these trips have always been with my family. I hope that by going to Japan practically by myself without my family, I will learn to become more independent and self-sufficient. I believe this entire experience will help me to grow as a person, pulling me out of my shell to explore new things, and improve in all aspects of my life. All this aside, I am looking forward to going to Japan and being able to experience Japanese culture and their food because it sounds much more interesting than what Canada has to offer.

初めまして！私はシンディーです。大学二年生です。せんこうは会計学です。カナダで生まれました。しゅみはリズムゲームをしたり、音楽を聞いたり、料理のビデオを見たり、友達と一緒に食べ物を食べたりします。好きな食べ物はアイスクリームとチョコレートです。今日本語を話すのが下手ですが、上手になりたいです。よろしくお願いします！