上智大学 国際教養学部 FLA AO入試　英語志望理由書 提出例 (林　道郎 教授参考) 

上智大学 国際教養学部 FLA AO入試　英語志望理由書 提出例 (林　道郎 教授参考) 

Dear Admission Office,

I composed this letter in order to explain my interest and motivation in applying for the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University. 

Why don’t we appreciate non-Western art more? China for example, has an extensively longer history of art which long-standing empires nurtured. However, when we go to museums, it is usually not until we had exhausted all time favorite European and American artists – Monet, El Greco, Cézanne, Sargent, and Hopper and everything else Western that the art museum has to offer, that we finally march into other sections such as the decorative masks, the calligraphy, the sculptures of Vishnu and Shiva from Japan, China, Korea, India and so on. I think that this applies to cultural and art studies as well, and overall this rounded education in academic subjects fails to achieve quality of inclusiveness culturally.

Globalization brought positive changes to our lives, but at the same time, it is casting challenges in many aspects of life – labor, security, culture, environment and basically everything. From climate change, demographic crisis to technological disruption and economic inequality, the world faces myriad challenges that require multilateral solutions but there is no single formula that solves them all. All we know is, in the new world order in place, the rich benefit, the world becomes marginalised and people who couldn’t cope with the changes brought by the era of information and technology would suffer. 

Ignorance is a blessing in one way. And very fortunately, we are able to live in our bubbles in a country economically established like Japan, unaware of what is happening in the world now. Although I can choose to do the same, I choose to take on challenges as the world has become “smaller” and I wish to be on the right side of the shift – which starts with competitive entrance exams, education in English, exposure to diversity, study abroad and to become an opinionated individual than conforming. In order to achieve that, the first step would be to get admitted to a school which promotes all the above, from liberal art studies in English to a flexible curriculum. I feel that FLA is the pioneer in its adoption in Japan, and it is my top choice since my sister had great learning experience during her 4 years at the school. 

However, I strongly believe that progressive studies can often be western-centric, and I know we can potentially change that by voicing it to the world, which would contribute to better recognition of Asian heritage experts and activists. Each one of us students needs to be conscious of the authors of each text book and cultural background behind research data points. For that reason, rather than joining a school in the West, I believe it is a better choice to do equivalent study as liberal arts in Japan where I can develop a sense of cultural objectivity, study my own heritage and yet participate in a study abroad program to output what we have learned and absorb various approaches. I’m committed to taking classes about Asian culture, in addition to Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. And I urge all fellow students to do the same, to start the process ourselves which is to open our eyes to art and cultures that we have yet to see.

As the recent COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated, even though the world is intertwined, we still have a strong sense of national identity and we cope with things very differently. There is a lot we can learn from each other, and we can only do that by investigating past events with profound knowledge on cultural factors. That is why I came to think a combination of sociology and comparative economics is the best way to go about it. I can’t express enough in words, but I am very thrilled to join the school and study among other like minded students. Thank you very much for reading.