International Relations Office

Outgoing Exchange Students

My SEP Experience


Goh Peck Keong
Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
SEP to Kyushu University, Japan

At first, I was pretty much lost in an environment where I could barely communicate with others, but thankfully, the English-speaking, friendly and attentive airport staff was on hand to guide me through all the necessary procedures. Looking back, my first strides into the SEP journey were nothing short of eventful and really, they proved to be a sign of things to come. Every day would become an adventure and every day would be a day to savour.

Academically wise, I was enrolled into a programme specially designed for international exchange students at Kyushu University. It was called “Japan in Today’s World” (JTW) and education took place on two fronts. Firstly, there were the classroom-based lessons. Very little lecturing was actually carried out in these classes; instead, they were more akin to a big discussion seminar where students were encouraged to engage each other freely on topics concerning Japanese interests. Since students in the programme came from all over the world, many an interesting debate aroused because we were frequently bringing into discussion our very different perspectives on things. Furthermore, these debates did not centre solely on the readings of the week, but very often we found ourselves negotiating with the texts through our personal experience of living in Japan. In this way, we were able to develop a more refined critical judgement towards scholastic material because we could call on first-hand knowledge to assess the information put to us. The spontaneous and lively interaction with both classmates and materials was what made these lessons truly rewarding.

From having trouble finding the stuff you need at the local supermarket to knowing the exact second to raid that very same supermarket for bargain items just a week or two later; from being clueless in the city one week to being able to navigate your way through the deepest corners of the smallest streets to locate that obscure second-storey ramen restaurant which serves heavenly noodles a month later, it is these little bits and pieces of everyday life that makes SEP such a fulfilling experience, I feel.


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