For my CIP activity, I knew that I wanted to do something relating to my major since I\u2019m a Film and TV major at BU, and entering KCJS was solely to fulfill credits towards my minor. I stumbled upon the \u5b66\u751f\u30c6\u30ec\u30d3\u5c40 (Student TV circle) at Doshisha by chance, and knew immediately that it would be a perfect fit for me. At the Student Television circle, you can make any kind of programming you and your partners decide to make. It should be important to note that you don\u2019t need prior experience in TV to join this club, as many of the participants aren\u2019t media majors at all. It\u2019s a club filled with people who like to have fun making TV with their friends. I would suggest anyone interested in joining this club to do so, but know that you will have a hard time if you\u2019re not confident or capable with the Japanese skills you\u2019ve learnt. The circle meets officially twice a week, but you\u2019ll be split into teams, and your team decides on what days to meet according to everyone\u2019s schedules.<\/p>\n
My first contact with the circle was through a 3rd<\/sup> year student who acts as leader of the club.\u00a0 He told me which day in the week would be best according to who he knows usually attends the weekly meetings. Thanks to his thoughtfulness, I was placed in a team with a girl who likes to practice her English, and would happily translate for me whenever I got lost. I found this really helpful since TV is heavily influenced by culture, and I would sometimes be confused by certain slang used during the planning phase. My team decided that since I look like Harry Potter, they want to make a Harry Potter parody trailer. It might\u2019ve been easy to be insulted by this, but I think half of this decision was an attempt to incorporate me into the circle as best as they could. I think they knew if I got a role in acting, it would force me to be involved and make for a fun time. Though parading down Shinmachi campus in a HP robe was embarrassing, I\u2019m extremely thankful for the overall consideration that\u2019s gone into making my time spent in this circle a memorable one by the fellow members.<\/p>\n The best part of this circle is not the quality television content it provides, and in fact the content is probably very lackluster compared to the buTV10 station at home. By far the best part of joining this circle is all of the practice and experience in the language and culture that you get from being surrounded by Doshisha students, being creative and making content together, eating 10pm dinner together after a long day of work, and having takoyaki parties and okonomiyaki parties just for fun. I learnt a lot from these experiences, especially in how people my age interact with each other. I was thrown off at first by the underclassmen\u2019s use of teineigo towards me. I thought it was cold, and a sign that we wouldn\u2019t be able to become friends. Maybe they thought since my time here is only temporary, there\u2019s no point in even being casual with me? I was proven wrong, though, as this is a normal dynamic in Japanese schools, and I was quickly able to make friends across all participating ages easily. I also learnt a lot of slang through jokes and casual conversation. I quickly discovered Japanese jokes are difficult to understand, but the themes of the humor are often universally applicable and equally funny.<\/p>\n I\u2019d say my overall experience with the CIP has been a great success. The students are interested in helping you feel welcome and exchanging cultural insights. I was thrown into a club full of Japanese students I\u2019d never have met without KCJS\u2019s mandatory CIP policy. At first, I was intimidated by all of the kansai dialects, especially since they all speak so quickly with it. But it\u2019s something you can get used to, or if you\u2019re like me and just can\u2019t get used to it to save your life, then you learn to pick out the relevant information. I\u2019ll be forever grateful for the experiences I\u2019ve had. My advice for someone who\u2019s interested in joining any club at Doshisha would be to physically insert yourself. Place yourself in a position to have conversations. Enter the club room with a smile on your face and greet everyone. When the members are split into groups conversing and you feel left out, walk up to them and insert yourself into the conversation. They won\u2019t think you\u2019re strange, they\u2019ll be relieved that you aren\u2019t awkwardly standing in the corner of the room anymore. Ask questions and be genuinely interested in the people you meet. And never say \u201cno\u201d to an invitation to do something fun, even if you\u2019re concerned that you won\u2019t have time for your studies. Your time in the CIP can become the best part of the program experience, just like it has for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For my CIP activity, I knew that I wanted to do something relating to my major since I\u2019m a Film and TV major a … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080