Two graduating students of the Faculty of Arts and Letters,
Daniella Immaculate Ignacio and Junella Marie Padro, under the
Asian Studies program, attended JENESYS 2017: Language and
Communication Batch 3 held in Tokyo and the Tohoku region in
Japan.
Ignacio and Padro were both chosen by the National Youth
Commission of the Philippines (NYC) together with other 21 delegates to
participate in the JENESYS 2017: Language and Communication
Batch 3. Other student delegates were from the Ateneo de Manila
University, University of the Philippines Diliman and Miriam
College. There were also student delegates from Camarines Sur,
Visayas and Mindanao. Accompanied by a supervisor
assigned by the NYC, the participants were able to experience Japanese
culture first-hand and cultivate cross-cultural communication skills
through immersive experiences.
They also had the opportunity to visit Ota City, Yonezawa City and the
Yamagata Prefecture.
After their immersion and exposure, Ignacio and Padro together with the other delegates were asked to come up with an action plan on how to disseminate the information about the program to other youths in the Philippines.
The delegates came up with suggestions which included the
use of social media for information dissemination while those who are
working as teachers volunteered to spread awareness by sharing
their experiences to their students.
The action plan aimed to establish better relations between Japan and
the Philippines by encouraging the growth of knowledge through mutual
exchange of information and culture, as well as to familiarize other people
through adaptation of the delegates’ experiences.
Over the course of the JENESYS 2017 Program, the delegates were
able to experience Japanese culture first-hand and cultivate
cross-cultural communication skills through immersive experiences.
The Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths
(JENESYS) is a program endorsed by the Japanese government, while
the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE) was established in
2007 and has put through exchange programs to promote mutual
understanding and strengthening relations with other countries by
inviting Filipino youths to visit Japan to have a better understanding of
Japan’s history, economy and also experience Japanese culture
