President's Message
Be a sensitive person with a global perspective—Four “Forces” NUFS students should retain!
1. Create opportunities to meet people and cultivate patience!
I would like to ask all NUFS students: What is our purpose in learning?
My answer is that we learn in order to survive.
Then what is the purpose of living?
My answer would be that we live in order to confirm the joy therein. Only when we understand the joy, do our lives have real value.
Then how can we obtain joy or happiness in living? We should create opportunities to meet people and exhibit courage. Without this effort, we can never obtain these positive elements.
Have courage, fear not, and believe in your own abilities! Knowing and learning are the real keys to meeting people.
My motto is very simple.
A Japanese proverb says “even a cold stone will turn warm if sat upon for three years”, meaning that “Perseverance will not fail of its reward”. At university, we persevere for four years, which is already an excellent proof of ability.
My answer is that we learn in order to survive.
Then what is the purpose of living?
My answer would be that we live in order to confirm the joy therein. Only when we understand the joy, do our lives have real value.
Then how can we obtain joy or happiness in living? We should create opportunities to meet people and exhibit courage. Without this effort, we can never obtain these positive elements.
Have courage, fear not, and believe in your own abilities! Knowing and learning are the real keys to meeting people.
My motto is very simple.
A Japanese proverb says “even a cold stone will turn warm if sat upon for three years”, meaning that “Perseverance will not fail of its reward”. At university, we persevere for four years, which is already an excellent proof of ability.
2. The 4C Skills
I would like to call your attention to what people are talking about now in Japan: Global Human Resources
Following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disaster in March 2011, a feeling of helplessness has been growing in our society and we can no longer remain introversive or entertain the fantasy that someone will come and help us when we withdraw into ourselves.
What are Global Human Resources?
Global society is a competitive world where winning is placed above all else. On this vast earth, we are often faced with awful situations in which there can only be one winner. No winner, however, can promise lasting happiness if we do not coexist peacefully. Many of us are living in this contradiction—worrying and suffering.
What do we need to foster Global Human Resources?
The foundation of culture and cultivation of a specialty are quite necessary, but you also need the following four skills, or “forces” to survive as an individual in society:
Communication
Creativity
Cooperation
Contribution
These four abilities and talents are the keys with which to connect to the world as a global human being. They are also the forces NUFS students are expected to acquire in their college education.
Following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disaster in March 2011, a feeling of helplessness has been growing in our society and we can no longer remain introversive or entertain the fantasy that someone will come and help us when we withdraw into ourselves.
What are Global Human Resources?
Global society is a competitive world where winning is placed above all else. On this vast earth, we are often faced with awful situations in which there can only be one winner. No winner, however, can promise lasting happiness if we do not coexist peacefully. Many of us are living in this contradiction—worrying and suffering.
What do we need to foster Global Human Resources?
The foundation of culture and cultivation of a specialty are quite necessary, but you also need the following four skills, or “forces” to survive as an individual in society:
Communication
Creativity
Cooperation
Contribution
These four abilities and talents are the keys with which to connect to the world as a global human being. They are also the forces NUFS students are expected to acquire in their college education.
3. In order to be genuine intellectual people, foster critical thinking, and sympathy, universities are often considered as places in which to develop critical thinking
What is critical thinking?
Critical thinking means creating guidelines for your future conduct through objective and calm examination, selection, analysis, and integration of the knowledge and information obtained through your own experiences. Critical thinking is the best tool for survival in today’s severe, competitive world. I might even go so far as to say it is the best tool for achieving independence.
On the other hand, we must also focus our efforts on the ideal and peaceful coexistence with other people in the world. Only when we coexist happily, can we be independent individuals.
So which skill do we need to coexist? It is, needless to say, the sympathy to feel others’ joy and pain as your own. I wish to cultivate students who are full of consideration for others’ suffering and sincere hope to work for others.
Both cooperation and contribution are rooted in sympathy.
Sympathy also nurtures the imagination for literature and fine arts.
I hope to foster sensitive people with a global perspective who have a deep knowledge of literature and fine arts. I want you to share your feelings with others and at the same time be able to discuss world macro movement.
Critical thinking means creating guidelines for your future conduct through objective and calm examination, selection, analysis, and integration of the knowledge and information obtained through your own experiences. Critical thinking is the best tool for survival in today’s severe, competitive world. I might even go so far as to say it is the best tool for achieving independence.
On the other hand, we must also focus our efforts on the ideal and peaceful coexistence with other people in the world. Only when we coexist happily, can we be independent individuals.
So which skill do we need to coexist? It is, needless to say, the sympathy to feel others’ joy and pain as your own. I wish to cultivate students who are full of consideration for others’ suffering and sincere hope to work for others.
Both cooperation and contribution are rooted in sympathy.
Sympathy also nurtures the imagination for literature and fine arts.
I hope to foster sensitive people with a global perspective who have a deep knowledge of literature and fine arts. I want you to share your feelings with others and at the same time be able to discuss world macro movement.
4. Studying at NUFS
NUFS makes every effort to support individuals who can broadcast themselves confidently
The most important point in learning at NUFS
We offer an educational style best suited to each student’s ability, talent, and goals. The foundation of all our abilities lies in the Japanese language we are using every day, and which is apparent in our culture and daily lives. Acquiring a firm foundation of Japanese is expected in parallel to learning foreign languages.
At NUFS, we realize each student’s hidden communication abilities and develop them so that students can communicate correctly and confidently.
NUFS
NUFS is a renowned international university with 140 instructors who are native speakers of foreign languages (over 50% of all our instructors). Japanese students, foreign instructors, and students from all over the world are gathered at the NUFS Global Campus.
Students are expected to absorb all of the knowledge available to them including development of the four skills above.
We Japanese are often prompted by compassion and are not good at speaking with firm sense of purpose. However, our goal at NUFS is the development of practical and communicative language skills. We would like to foster skills which allow students to deliver professional knowledge supported by rich culture. Question and answer style communication is not enough. Our goal is developing skills which facilitate creative discussion toward problem solving.
Whatever the case may be—never be afraid of failure! Shyness is your enemy, and failure is a stepping-stone to success.
In conclusion, NUFS’ identity is “languages”.
What are languages?
They are spades to turn the soil, the fruits of the earth. At the same time, they are the medium through which to enjoy such fruits. Just like a an ingenuous young farmer, learn foreign languages and Japanese language, enjoy cultures of other countries, get to know the reality of the world and Japan, and experience the joy of living.
When you become a working member of society, make a leap forward, using this accumulation as a springboard. Your efforts and success will renew the splendid reputation and future of NUFS.
The most important point in learning at NUFS
We offer an educational style best suited to each student’s ability, talent, and goals. The foundation of all our abilities lies in the Japanese language we are using every day, and which is apparent in our culture and daily lives. Acquiring a firm foundation of Japanese is expected in parallel to learning foreign languages.
At NUFS, we realize each student’s hidden communication abilities and develop them so that students can communicate correctly and confidently.
NUFS
NUFS is a renowned international university with 140 instructors who are native speakers of foreign languages (over 50% of all our instructors). Japanese students, foreign instructors, and students from all over the world are gathered at the NUFS Global Campus.
Students are expected to absorb all of the knowledge available to them including development of the four skills above.
We Japanese are often prompted by compassion and are not good at speaking with firm sense of purpose. However, our goal at NUFS is the development of practical and communicative language skills. We would like to foster skills which allow students to deliver professional knowledge supported by rich culture. Question and answer style communication is not enough. Our goal is developing skills which facilitate creative discussion toward problem solving.
Whatever the case may be—never be afraid of failure! Shyness is your enemy, and failure is a stepping-stone to success.
In conclusion, NUFS’ identity is “languages”.
What are languages?
They are spades to turn the soil, the fruits of the earth. At the same time, they are the medium through which to enjoy such fruits. Just like a an ingenuous young farmer, learn foreign languages and Japanese language, enjoy cultures of other countries, get to know the reality of the world and Japan, and experience the joy of living.
When you become a working member of society, make a leap forward, using this accumulation as a springboard. Your efforts and success will renew the splendid reputation and future of NUFS.
