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。