~My internships over summer~

Hi! This is Erika from Japan!

During my summer break, I did three internship/volunteer activities. All were related to education which I LOVED! Two of them were in Japan, my home country, and one was in England.

I will start with my story in England. I got to intern with a company that teaches English and self-expression through art to Japanese 5th and 6th graders in England. One of the final projects was to create a musical in English. Since I have been in a musical theater company in Japan since I was 10 and one of the ways I learned English was through theater, or TV shows, I asked the company if I could join as an intern. The answer was YES and I got to spend 2 weeks with 11 kids who were starting to learn English. Whenever we had extra time, my boss let me do some workshops related to musicals. That’s when my musical experience from Japan and my experience as a theater minor at UCSB came through. The kids were very happy with the activities we did together. They told me that learning English became fun for them if it was through musicals, which was the happiest thing they could ever tell me. It was tough at times, but I loved the experience!

I also volunteered for a program called HLAB in Japan. This is a one-week summer program for high school students. College students from Japan and abroad came together to create workshops about what they were learning in their school. Japanese college students helped translate. We also did many activities together and mentored the high schoolers about any of their concerns or dreams. I joined this program when I was a high school student, and this was when I first met someone who actually studied abroad for college to the States and that became my dream back then (and it came true!) So I was happy I could give back to the community that helped me decide my future. If any of you want to teach in Japan in English, google HLAB!!!!

The third program was also in Japan, teaching kids how to debate. In Japan, debate has been recognized recently as a good tool for education. I was asked to teach debate using my experience as a debater in high school. It was pretty fun to hear middle schoolers and high schoolers say that “debate sounds scary because it looks like people are fighting” at the beginning, and then say “debate is fun because it’s like a mind game or a puzzle!” in the end. I do think debate can really teach you how to think critically, so I felt honored that someone asked me to spread that knowledge.

I also did some translation for a local museum in my hometown. The 2020 Olympics are coming up, but they didn’t have any English for their displays. I haven’t finished the entire museum yet. This was my summer!

As I return to UCSB, I am excited to meet new people and help people that are new to UCSB because MANY people helped me last year when I was a freshman.

Feel free to contact me anytime!