Nice to meet you, I’m Coma
/ はじめまして、私はコマです。
Hey, I’m Cosima. But you can call me Coma if you like.
I’m an exchange student from Switzerland. I will stay in Japan till July. In my stay here I am attending “Friends School”. When I got to know my sorted school, I was a bit surprised to see that it’s a private school, and an all girls school. Since in Switzerland I am at a public & mixed school. I would say the school system is also very different from my home school.
In the beginning I was a bit overwhelmed because I couldn’t speak or understand much Japanese. But now that I’m getting better at it, it’s easier to communicate with other students. Or also just to understand a little bit what the teachers say feel’s relieving. Because then I also know, that my Japanese has made progress. But sometimes when I’m outside it’s still a bit much, all written in Kanji (or mostly). But I think being in Tokyo is a good place, because many people can speak a little bit English, not like in places far away from Tokyo.
Before I made my exchange year I always wanted to wear school uniforms, because I think they are really cute and then everyone is treated the same way (not depending on how they dress). Well, I still think that way about the uniforms, but not gonna lie, I am kind of excited again, to wear my clothes to school. Not because I don’t like the uniforms, but I think wearing them every day makes them a bit boring I think. And people on the streets know that you are a student because of the uniform. In my school in Switzerland we had no uniform. So we often went to shops, or the city after school. No one would say anything. But I think here people will maybe make opinions about you if you spend a lot of time outside after school with your uniform.
But aside from school I think Tokyo is such a cool city to spend time in, just because of the variety of the things you can do here. Even though I’ve been here for half a year, there are always things which I haven’t seen or explored. And I think that’s really nice, because then I have a nice trip every other weekend.
日本に来て最初の頃は、日本語があまり話せず、理解もできないので、少し圧倒されました。でも、今は日本語が上手になったきたので、友達とコミュニケーションをとるのが楽になりました。また、先生の言うことを少し理解するだけでも、自分の日本語力が上達したことがわかるので、安心感があります。でも、外にいるときは、全部(というかほとんど)漢字で、ちょっと大変です。東京は多くの人が少しは英語を話せるので、いいところだと思います。
私は留学に来るまではずっと制服を着たいと思っていました。なぜなら、制服はとてもかわいいし、着るものに左右されず、みんなが同じように扱われるからです。でも、正直なところ、また自分の服を着て学校に行くことを少し楽しみにしています。制服が嫌いなわけではないのですが、毎日着ているとちょっとつまらなくなります。それに、街行く人たちは、制服のせいで学生であることがわかるんです。スイスの私の学校では、制服はありませんでした。だから、放課後はよくお店や街へ出かけました。誰も何も言いません。でも、ここでは、放課後、制服で長時間外にいると、意見されるかもしれません。
でも、学校以外で過ごすには、東京はとてもかっこいい街だと思います。東京に来て半年が経ちますが、まだ見たことのないもの、探索したことのないものが常にあります。そして隔週で旅行ができるのは、とても素敵です。 Translated by T.H 高２