Ryota from Japan, Studying Economics
NCV is great place to feel diversity and a great opportunity to learn about different cultures and nationalities.
Ryota from Japan, Studying Economics
Ryota's Experience:
My name is Ryota Okamoto. I’m from Japan. I’m studying economics back home. I’m a 3rd year undergraduate student and I’m taking Australian studies and International Business at the University of New South Wales.
So when I started living at NCV I was very nervous because I couldn’t speak English as well as other international and local students and it was the first time living in a foreign country by myself, so I was not sure I could make new friends in the college. But the other NCV residents are actually very, very friendly and I could make lots of new friends in just those first weeks. It was an amazing fact for me because it was so much easier to make new friends in the college compared to my campus life in Japan.
The reason why I chose New College Village [was] I wanted to cook for myself and I wanted to meet a lot of friends from different countries and backgrounds. I like this beautiful and clean [building] and [its] new facilities.
The studio room provides individual kitchen and fridge so it’s very beneficial for cooking myself but there also are meal plans which are for people who don’t like to cook themselves. It’s a great opportunity to make new friends and talk about the days and studies and different cultures.
I think New College Village has a good balance between academic life and college life because there are lots of places for studying and spending individual time in the college, but there are also lots of events to interact with New College people. For example, there is a culture night to learn about different cultures and nationalities. I cooked some Japanese food and shared with other people and introduced some Japanese culture.
Through the NCV life I was able to learn that English is not the essential skill to communicate with other people from different countries. The more important thing was how much I was keen to talk with other friends from different places.