First, thank you for approving my application for the HUMAP scholarship, living in a foreign country always costs a lot of money and having a scholarship really helps me live a simpler life and focusing on my studies.
I am currently a third-year student in Applied Languages, ‘Langues étrangères appliquées’. This degree allows me to obtain knowledge on law, economy, management, and computer science, and this is a part of why I wanted to go to Japan. I love economy and business management and managing a Japanese company for an international opening goal will be for me a really good job. As I always loved Japanese companies, I would love if I could help extend Japanese culture to a global wide culture, available for anyone to learn the importance and raise interest in Japan.
This degree also enables me to improve my English, and to learn two other languages, which are Italian, and Spanish. Thanks to this degree, I now know a lot more about these countries I am studying, especially thanks to my ‘civilization’ courses I have in these 3 languages, so learning about Japan was for me a must, because it is my favorite country due to its culture.
I chose to participate in an international exchange for various reasons, and Japan is part of it. Indeed, I love its culture, its landscapes, its history and especially its inhabitants. I am determined to know more about Japan and its history. Going to Japan was my dream and spending a yearlong learning experience is a good opportunity for my future. Improving my English and learning Japanese and the country history through different courses is what gave me the desire to go to Japan. This exchange program is therefore the opportunity of a lifetime to observe how teaching is done in Japan, and most of all, to immerse myself in this culture that I am very determined to discover. That is the reason why a mobility program is the best occasion for me, acquiring new knowledge, new skills, and on top of that, showing how much I have always been a highly motivated person.
I want to be a company manager specialized in high tech and global connections and Japan is therefore a de facto standard, known to be a part of where innovation come from, but also where big companies where created, and now known all over the world. Yamaha, Nintendo, Panasonic, Pioneer, all these famous brands are very known to me, and they are among my favorite brands regarding electronic.

Moreover, I do not have the opportunity to learn Japanese in France like I would by spending one year immersed by it. I will have the opportunity to learn a lot of new things that would not have been possible in France, like the history or the religion of Japan, and from their point of view.

The 8 November we went to Koyasan with the whole Year in Japan class, where we stayed two days. The first Study Tour we had, and it was a really good experience and memory.
The whole class enjoyed the trip and everything we did, and I especially liked it. Being in a sacred place, on top of a mountain, secluded from Society and globalization, this was a really good adventure.
We went to Koyasan by train, cable cart and finally by bus. The way to the mountain was beautiful, seeing so much amazing landscapes while having fun with my classmates. When we arrived in Koyasan, we realized it was very cold, but we were aware of how much it would be.
We stayed in a temple, hosted by Monks and apprentices, we ate like them, stayed with them and even had the opportunity to interview them. And doing so was truly an experience of a lifetime. It is hard to realize, but Monks are not people who you can talk to easily and talking to them felt to me like I was talking to important people, rare moments.
My favorite part about the trip was the pilgrimage to the temple.
Passing through the cemetery and feeling the atmosphere, cold and heavy, was at the same time sad and interesting.
Thanks to my 2 months of learning Japanese at that time, I had the chance to interview the monks by myself, as I said I talked to them, for 20min, we talked about their life, what they eat and a lot of thing.
Thanks to my Japanese class I could hold the conversation myself, without help, yet some vocabulary was hard to understand, I still understood the whole conversation as a block and details. Walking through shops and restaurant and can hold a conversation with the shop owners is something that I could not have done, but now I can, and I am happy about this.
Walking through the cemetery made me remember about some cultural aspects that we discussed with my professor and friends, like tombstones meaning, lights and how to do the pilgrimage.

I chose to go to Japan when I was in my second year of University, my third year has been in Japan and this was my last year of University to get my degree in Applied Languages. Japan was always a place I wanted to visit and live in for a bit of time. This opportunity is something that most people can not experience, and I feel so fortunate that I got to be able to go, that I was chosen to study in Japan for a year.
I though that this year was going to be a really complicated year as I was going to live in a city where the cost of living is a lot more than were I lived in France, but I got the chance to be awarded the HUMAP scholarship and I can not be thankful enough. Being able to live in one of the biggest city of Japan without having any money problem thanks to the HUMAP made all my stress go away, as I could study and focus on learning without having any problems related to money.
I achieved so much throughout this year, my English level became so much better, my Japanese level went from Starter to Intermediate, I learned a lot about Japanese culture, history, economy, social barriers, etc.
I started this year with an English level I was proud of, but being in France did not allow me to speak English, it just allowed me to learn it and listen to it, so my speaking level was bad, but having people from all around the world during this program made me talk to them in English everyday and therefore my accent and my confidence improved to the point where I am able to live in an English speaking country with no problems whatsoever.
The Japanese culture is something that always interested me and throughout this year I learned a lot about it thanks to my classes, but also thanks to the fact that I lived in a host family therefore I talked to them everyday about a lot of differences between our countries, but also things that are not taught in class.
I registered in classes that struck my interest but also classes that I thought would make me understand a lot more about Japan, and it did, thanks to a lot of different classes I now know Japanese economy but also social barriers such as how Japan deal with people with disabilities.
This year has been full of new opportunities for me and my future as everything that I learned interested me a lot, thus I will continue learning in this sector. I hope in the future I can work in a company that will both mix Japanese and Economy, I love learning and I loved this year in Japan, and I will do my best to make this year the starting point of my future job.
Throughout this year I also went to a lot of different places, and all thanks to HUMAP, because without a scholarship I would have never had the funds to discover not only the culture but also the country.

During this year I discovered a wonderful country and a beautiful language, and I would love to be able to spend some of my time in Japan again. I would like to be an English teacher, or a French teacher. In the future I would like to work for a company that is in Japan but also in different country, so that I could take advantage of the different languages I speak.