Hi, my name is Ryo and I’m from Kanagawa, Japan. I’m 22 years old and I’m doing an Internship at Langports in the Marketing and Communication Department.
I arrived in Australia 10 months ago and I been having a great time here. Before starting my Internship, I had been studying Business English and Business & Economics with native students in Griffith University.
This has been my first experience studying abroad, so I’ve been learning a lot of things and many of them have surprised me, like the huge difference between study in Australia and Japan, just to mention one 🙂
Differences between study in Australia and Japan
Today, I would like to mention some differences between studying in Australia and Japan.
Nationality
The nationality of students has diverse variations in Australian universities. When I was taking the class called Introduction to International business, I could hear different ideas and perspectives about some topics because there are many students who come from different countries and have different thoughts.
For example, in many Asian companies, the style of the company is collectivism, which means, workers tend to be evaluated as their teams. However, the style of companies in Western countries is individualism, which means, workers tend to be evaluated individually.
Moreover, in some companies in Asia, in particular Japan, many companies take the seniority system, which means working for longer time and your salary will be increased. On the other hand, in western companies, your salary is determined based on your performance. So, even if you started working in the company 6 months ago, your salary can be higher than the seniors’ salary if your performance was higher than their performance.
I didn’t have the chance to hear those stories in my home country when I was studying there because we were only Japanese students and we were discussing just local cases, additionally, we were born and grown up in Japan, so our ideas and perspectives were similar.
Teaching methodology
Also the teaching methodology is different in Australia compared with Japan.
In a Japanese University, students only listen to the teachers’ lecture during most of time and tend to be passive. However, in Griffith University here in Australia, each class has 2 styles: lecture and workshop. Students listen to the teachers’ lecture and then have time for discussion and presentation during the workshop.
With this methodology, students can be active during the workshop. In my opinion, the workshop was so helpful because I could share ideas with other students about some topics, it gives me new knowledge and awareness.
Also, I had my first experience giving a presentation. I felt so nervous during my first presentation, but I believe that the experience will be helpful for my future career. Moreover, I feel that students in Australia say their opinions positively more than students in Japan. The atmosphere made me also give my opinion positively and feel more confident.
My Business class at Griffith University
When I was taking another class called Firm Behaviors and Business Strategy which is related with by Business class, I studied how to get money in business and how big companies in the world make profits. While in Japan, I didn’t have the opportunity to study a Business class because my University does not have classes related with this area.
My dream is to work in a global company, so it has been an awesome experience for me J Now, I am preparing myself, I am study hard and I am pretty sure that the knowledge I have gained at university plus this experience doing my Internship program, will help me to achieve my professional goals and hopefully in the future have my own business.
These were some of the differences I wanted to share with you all between study in Australia and Japan. If you want to get these abilities such as improving presentation in English, getting new knowledge from people from different nationalities and getting business knowledge, I recommend you to study in Australia.
Thank you.
Ryo Yamamoto
If you would like to study in an Australian university, you can study English for Academic Purposes at Langports. Read more about this course here. https://www.langports.com/courses/eap-course/
If you want to hear about other student’s stories, click here. https://www.langports.com/what-is-happening-in-my-life-after-studying-at-langports/