Events held to deepen international exchanges

Birthday party at Tamadaira residence

イベントを通じて深まる国際交流

―多摩平国際寮の誕生会をのぞく―

Chuo University has one of its two International Residences for students at Tamadaira in Tokyo’s Hino. At present, about 60 foreign and Japanese students live together there. They hold various events to deepen their mutual understanding. One of them is a birthday party they have once a month.

東京・日野市多摩平にある中央大学国際寮。現在、留学生と日本人学生合わせて約60人が入居しており、交流を深めるためのさまざまなイベントが行われているが、ここに紹介するのは毎月1回のバースデー・パーティー。

Students enjoy their Christmas party at Tamadaira international residence.
Students enjoy their Christmas party at Tamadaira international residence.

Such parties are organized monthly during the summer term from April to July and the fall term from September to January to celebrate all students who reach their birthday each month. Preparations used to be made mostly by Japanese students. But they began to be joined by foreign students in the fall term this year. Riku Kurosaka, a Faculty of Policy Studies second grader, explained, “Some foreign students have offered to help us in the preparations. Besides, we thought we can have better cross-cultural exchanges by cooking different national foods together.”

For example, when the students had a birthday party in November, they cooked traditional spring rolls with the help of their colleagues from Vietnam. They usually enjoy not just meals but also some entertainment as well. They often play a game in which they guess who it is after looking at someone’s childhood picture and charades in which a Japanese student teams up with a foreign student. Kurosaka said such games really help warm up the parties.

A birthday party was an event initially planned and launched two years ago by Kengo Osawa, a Faculty of Commerce third grader, who was then dormitory leader. Its main purpose was for all student residents to join hands to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. Osawa mentioned what he called a secondary effect of such party. He said, “Students have their own styles to celebrate birthdays in their countries. So our party gives us a very good opportunity to promote contacts between different cultures.”

このパーティーは夏学期の4~7月、秋学期の9~1月に毎月行われ、その月に誕生日を迎える寮生全員を祝うのが通例になっている。準備には日本人学生主体に行われてきたが、今年後期から留学生らも加わるようになった。その理由として、後期イベント係の黒坂陸さん(総合政策学部2年)は「留学生から準備を手伝いたいとの要望があったことや、それぞれの国の料理を一緒に作ることで異文化交流ができるから」と言う。

例えば、11月のバースデー・パーティーでは、ベトナム人留学生から教わりながら、伝統料理である春巻きを作った。また、パーティーは食事を一緒にするだけでなく、余興もある。1人の寮生の昔の写真から、それが誰かを当てるゲームや、留学生と中大生でチームを作り、ジェスチャー・ゲームなどが、大いに場を盛り上げるという。

バースデー・パーティーは1昨年冬に前寮長の大澤憲吾さん(商学部3年)が企画し、始めたイベント。寮全体で仲間の誕生日を祝うことが主な目的だ。さらに「留学生の出身国ごとに、祝い方は異なるので、異文化交流にはもってこいだと思った」と、パーティーの副次的な利点を大澤さんは挙げた。

Residents enjoying the party.
Residents enjoying the party.

The party is quite popular because it can be joined even by students who are usually too busy attending classes or doing a part-time job to communicate with each other. Ling-wei Li, 26, from Taiwan, said, “Birthday party is my favorite event because it helps me find something quite unexpected of my colleagues through the games and cooking preparations.” The Tamadaira residence had its December party on Christmas Day.

授業やアルバイトがあるため、普段、交流する機会があまりない者も参加できるので、このパーティーは人気のイベントだ。台湾からの留学生リ・リンウェイさん(26)は「ゲームや食事の準備を通して、寮生の意外な一面が知ることができるので、バースデー・パーティーは好きなイベントだ」と言う。12月のパーティーはクリスマスの25日に開かれた。

(Written by: Kohei Kuramoto)(倉本康平)