Story and photo by Jake Dowling, Icon summer intern
Ishikawa, Japan, and Ada, Ohio, are two completely different places. Just ask Hiroaki Kitagawa.
“My hometown has about 400,000 people, it is much more relaxed and it is easier to connect with people you don’t know here,” he said. “So that is one major difference between here and back home.”
Kitagawa, 26, is a postgraduate student who majored in computer science at Waseda University, a private university located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.
As part of Waseda’s program, Kitagawa is enrolled as a foreign exchange student at Ohio Northern University.
“Waseda has a foreign exchange student program, and ONU has had strong relationships with exchange students in the past, so that’s how I got here,” Kitagawa said.
Kitagawa is studying business management at ONU so he can understand the business world. He can then follow in his parents’ footsteps and run their architectural business when his time comes.
“Mainly my parents have their own company and they wanted me to help them manage it in the future,” he said. “So I thought studying business management here can help me gain the proper knowledge to be successful at managing my family’s business.”
Kitagawa is the middle child of three, but as the oldest son in the family, he is looked upon to keep the family name in success.
“Men have a bigger role in the family in Japan than women do,” he said. “So being the first son in the family, my parents have taught me to be a well-educated person so I can manage their business down the road.”
Waseda’s exchange student program opened the door for Kitagawa to learn a new major and become more educated.
In high school, Kitagawa attended a high school in Syracuse, New York. There, he learned what it was like to be in America for the first time and it was his first crack at learning the English language.
“When I first came to America, my English was not as good as it is now, so it was harder to communicate with other people,” he said. “But, being an exchange student in high school gave me the experience to learn the English language.”
Kitagawa began attending ONU last fall, since then, he has adapted to a few cultural changes, such as transportation.
“Living in Ishikawa, I took public transportation, but in Ada, it is a little harder to find rides, but I have been able to find friends who will drive me to places.”
He has also learned how Americans communicate compared to how people communicate back home.
“I think the biggest culture change is how you approach people,” Kitagawa said. “Back home, people are a little more insecure whereas in Ada, it is much easier to ‘break the ice,’ and get to know complete strangers, which that makes it easier to make new friends.”
As for the classroom, Kitagawa says the students at Ada are passionate about their education, which is something he values greatly. In Japan, it is a little bit different story.
“In Japan, you just go to class to gain the credit,” he said. “But here, it feels like students care more like how high their grades are and what they are actually learning.”
Kitagawa says he has liked his stay in Ada and will be here for a few more months. Other than going to school in America, Kitagawa has seen many parts of Europe too.
“I have seen the different cultures in other countries, and I think that is a good experience for me to know other people from other countries but also, it gives me a better comfort level too,” he said.
