The faculty of health sciences held the 1st International Students Cafe at Makino Campus on August 7th. This cafe was planned by the students service subcommittee to give international students an opportunity to talk about their needs and concerns. Unfortunately, nine international students were absent due to the influence of COVID-19. However, three students of the department of oral health engineering were able to assemble for this cafe.

The cafe opened in the afternoon of the last day of classes before summer recess. Prof. Motone and other faculty of the subcommittee also congregated. Their chatting started in a relaxed atmosphere over refreshments.

The first concern all international students have is the difficulty of the Japanese language. "Some teachers talk very fast. In that case, we usually understand only half of the class." "It takes a very long time to read textbooks in Japanese." "We often do not understand the loan words from other countries because the pronunciation is different." "Osaka dialect is hard to understand, but it sounds cute." Each student has a different level of proficiency in Japanese. However, they all need to understand technical terms in addition to Japanese for daily use. Though they are having struggles with their studies, two students have the same goal: "To graduate with better grades."

Youngjin Choi, who is from South Korea and likes Japanese novels, has the following issues: 1)academic concerns 2)financial concerns 3)personal relationship concerns. She loves to talk, so she wishes to make many friends and chat with them. However, because of COVID-19, she had to stay home last April and May and could not continue her part-time job, so these days were very tough for her. She did not go back to her country since reentry to Japan would not be easy under the circumstances. It seems like her continued patience would be necessary, but she said "This university is my hope."

Siqi Fang, who is from China, also has concerns about COVID-19. She applied for financial relief but has yet to receive approval. The faculty assisted her in the application process. On the other hand, Shiyou Gyu seemed not to be flustered at all even though she has not applied yet. Teachers recommended her to apply for financial relief since the deadline is approaching.

After the cafe, Prof. Motone said, "I am glad that we were able to know their true feelings." He was very impressed by their hard work spending this difficult time as international students even though they have many concerns and struggles. The faculty of Health Sciences will continue to hold this cafe on a regular basis to support international students.