Indu Merritt ’17

East Asian Studies major, Japanese minor

I’m currently working on the JET Program as an ALT at a Junior High School in Sapporo, Hokkaido. I feel that learning Japanese at LC has helped me get to where I am today and has opened the door to working in Japan which was always a goal of mine. One of the many highlights from learning Japanese at LC was probably studying abroad in Osaka. LC Japanese language students are lucky in that we get 4 different Japanese study abroad programs to choose from! Studying abroad really helped with my language skills and created an unforgettable experience. 

 I studied abroad in Osaka at Osaka Gakuin Daigaku, and although the program was very language intensive, the fact that we got to room with other Japanese college students was amazing. It allowed my Japanese skills to really improve and since my roommates were other Japanese students it allowed me to make a lot of friends! Now whenever I visit Osaka I always have friends to go back to. 

 To me, the Japanese professors I had at LC were great and always made class fun but challenging. This really pushed me to study hard and really learn the language. Because of the wonderful experience I’ve had studying Japanese at LC, it has pushed me to want to learn more languages. I think it’s very important to at least try and learn more languages. From learning Japanese and studying/working abroad I definitely feel like my perspective on the world has widened and it has made a strong but positive impact on the way I think.