Stay Tuned! Biz Times on Showa Boston Blog by TEE XIN YEE

Hi again! It’s me, S.Maeda.
This entry is not as usual. In English? Sure. In addition, this blog entry introduces another BLOG, Showa Boston Blog. Do you know “Biz Times” series written by TEE XIN YEE, sophomore student of our department? They are very very unique and interesting, telling you many aspects of Showa Boston as well as life and study in Boston.

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Followings are some conversations with “The Editor of Biz Times”, TEE XIN YEE via e-mail. They help you understand how she started Biz Times, concept of the series, etc.

BTW, she is going to update another entry soon. STAY TUNED Biz Times!

—Why have you started these entries? Your entries started during last semester in Boston. Any suggestion from Boston faculty or officer, or did you start voluntary basis ?

XIN Tom–our writing teacher in Boston was the most important people who supported the Biz Times. I was inspired by him and we created our first issue during my Jumpstart session in Boston. Before the Biz Times, there were some news issues that created by students in the past. Some of them were published years ago!
At the very beginning, Tom suggested me to find a partner to work on Biz Times together and he recommended Natsumi Hara. I invited her to join me for Biz Times as a editor.

The reason why we started Biz Times was to provide a platform for students to share their experiences abroad and at the same time to share Boston information with people in Tokyo.

In Boston, we published 3 issues. 2 of them was students articles and 1 interview issues. We have Biz Times as paper base, Biz Times blog and we also upload our article to Showa Boston’s blog.

And before we came back from Boston, I have promised Tom to continue the Biz Times and to create a bridge between Showa Boston and Showa Tokyo with it. So I have been looking for ways to continue the Biz Times.

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—Please tell us each concept of Biz Times and Biz Times Students Interview Beyond Boston.

XIN I think I have mentioned some of the concept of Biz Times, which is to encourage students to talk about their life and to practice English if they would like to. For example, Ayaka Shiratori and Mayuko Yoda have been a very active writer for Biz Times and they always insisted to write in English. Other than that, I personally love the interview section the best. Because I have learned a lot from all the interviewees, the experiences were priceless for me.

As for students interviews, I would like to know how much could studying abroad change someone. I know many students have many goals to meet in Boston. I wonder if they achieved what they wanted, but it is very exciting to see how someone changed. And I think it also helps the teachers see how students think about their life in Boston.

—You speak several languages and have excellent verbal skill. When you think about complicated issues like some difficult assignments, which language comes up to your brain, Pekingese, Cantonese or any other language ?

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XIN Emm… this is a tough question. First of all, I think I am not good enough for language, at all. In the past, if I needed to think deeply about a topic, Chines (usually Pekingese) would first come to my mind. Because it was my native language. However, especially after I came back from Boston, I do not feel that I am thinking some difficult topic in any specific languages. I used to be very uncomfortable speaking Japanese and English because I think I am not good at both of them, I feel embarrassed to make any mistakes. But in Boston, I think I have gained confidence about my language. I still think that I am not perfect, but what I matter more is the message that I am trying to tell people.

As I became more confident in languages, I think I started to use all of them in my mind no matter what I think about. But sometimes, I will feel difficult to come out with precise words in the language that I need to use. For example, when I need to say the word “金融” in Japanese, I could not remind myself the word in Japanese and all I can think about is “finance” or in other languages. Which are very confusing sometimes.

One more thing, whenever I read a book,I will imagine that I read it out in my mind, in the correct language. What I mean is, when I am reading a book which was written by a Hong Kong writer, I will “read” it out in mind in Cantonese, not Pekingese. They both write in Kanji (Chinese character), but still I always insist to read in the right language. I think that is one of my tips learning languages?