Since gaining independence from Britain in 1984, Brunei has implemented a bilingual education policy, so English is widely spoken in addition to the official language, Malay. All university lectures were conducted in English, and I did everything from reading papers to discussing with fellow students and writing reports in English. There were many difficulties, but ultimately this experience helped me improve my English communication skills.
The first class that I would like to mention as being the most stimulating during my study abroad was "Economic Development," in which I learned about the process by which developing countries' economies have developed. The lecture was a case study comparing the progress of the two countries: the Republic of Rwanda, where an authoritarian government has used bold methods to promote development, and Brunei, which has invested the wealth generated by its abundant natural resources in education and welfare. I feel that this class helped me to deepen my understanding that there are various paths to development even in the same developing country. In addition, in "International Relationship," I was able to gain a perspective that I would not have been able to acquire if I had remained in Japan by considering the state of international politics surrounding Southeast Asia from the perspective of an ASEAN country.

Commemorative photo taken at the lake. Mr. Tsunekuni is floating in the water in the back left.

During my study abroad in Brunei, I belonged to an organization that interacted with students who were interested in Japan, and through this activity, I became strongly interested in the field of international cooperation and contribution. I want to put the knowledge and experience I gained overseas to practical use. After completing my study abroad, there are still two months until the second semester of my third year at Aogaku begins. How should I spend these two months? I thought about this and decided to participate in an internship (hereinafter referred to as the internship) in education at an elementary school in Cambodia during the summer vacation of 2022.
Cambodia has a sad history of civil war and turmoil from the 1970s to the 1990s, during which educational facilities were destroyed and many intellectuals, including school teachers, died. Currently, progress is being made in improving the educational environment, but the level of human resource development for teachers who provide education is not sufficient. Furthermore, although English education is included in compulsory education, there is a shortage of teachers who can teach English. I was interested in these issues surrounding the educational environment in Cambodia, so I decided to participate in this overseas internship.
While there, we taught English and math classes in English at the elementary schools that were the recipients of our support. In addition to teaching, we also visited schools that looked like they might become new recipients of support, surveyed what was needed and cooperated in activities such as adding classes and helping to procure supplies. As the children could barely understand English, we worked hard to teach them in creative ways, such as by weaving in Khmer, the official language of Cambodia. Gradually, the children's abilities increased, and some even said they wanted to become English teachers, which made us happy to see that we were making solid progress in education.

An internship at an elementary school in Kompong Speu province, next to Phnom Penh. A photo of the children in the class and those living around the school.We visit a remote elementary school to provide support. Even within the same class, the children are of different grades.