早稲田大学　文化構想学部 JCulP AO入試　英文志望理由書　提出例(伊川　健二 教授参考)

早稲田大学　文化構想学部 JCulP AO入試　英文志望理由書　提出例(伊川　健二 教授参考)

To whom it may concern, I would like to thank you for your time and the opportunity given, and in this letter I will do my best to explain my motivation in applying for JCulP at Waseda University. I understand this is an extremely unique program offered by a prestigious school and I am hoping to focus on acquiring above academic English skills and pursue courses in International Culture, Japanese History and Language studies throughout my academic years. I would be more than grateful if you could kindly give it a read and allow me to proceed. During the in-person interview, I would be delighted to expand more on my area of studies, previously participated activities, personal background and what I wish to achieve with the curriculum including study abroad program.

I took part in a study abroad program this past summer in my 2nd year in high school, there my biggest findings were 1) Education programs and mandatory curriculum are very unique to each country and some countries only study very brief history about Japan 2) Whether it’s something we read on the internet, the news or textbook, a lot of the content has been translated and original interpretation may differ, due to above reasons, being able to understand in English without bias and taking control of what I study would have huge impact on my academic intelligence. In addition, as a responsible citizen to represent this country in the future, I wish to study about my own heritage so that I can possibly teach someone who doesn’t know much about Japan. I strongly believe that discussion and presentation based classes promote active thinking and would really help with building academic skills, even real life skills. Therefore, I am only considering JCulP or attending a school in the states as my right academic paths within my knowledge. 

It is hard to even imagine a world 10 years ago when people didn’t have smartphones and google maps. Reading history books really gives me the fascination, what it was like travelling a few centuries ago, when travelling was more than just witnessing different versions of the modern living around the world. It must have been very authentic and eye-opening and I envy that. As the first consolidated interpretation about Japan, Luis Frois’s work can tell us many things about Japan in the 16th century, at that time Japan was starting to open up to Christian missionaries. In 1585, at the height of Jesuit missionary activity in Japan, which was begun by Francis Xavier in 1549, Luis Frois, a long-time missionary in Japan, drafted the earliest systematic comparison of Western and Japanese cultures. The original of which has been recovered by section in Macau, France, Portugal and Spain mostly after the Second World War. The book provides a translation of the text, which is not a continuous narrative, but rather 600 something couplets on social subjects such as gender, child rearing, religion, medicine, eating, horses, writing, ships and seafaring, architecture, music and drama. Overall, the book represents an important primary source for understanding a particularly challenging period of history and its connection to contemporary Europe and Japan. 

I feel very intrigued about re-studying his work with experts at the school, to truly understand what he has accomplished and what we learn from it. It used to be said, Japan tends to identify itself as the “white in Asia”, but nationalism is revived to some extent as we see in tv shows etc and now is a great time to go back to our roots. Studying one thing doesn’t promise a bright future, however, in order for me to attain high-level education and equip myself with what is needed to unlock opportunities the next decades of globalization and competition, it is extremely important for me to study various international studies among like-minded students at Waseda where intensive studies is offered. Thank you very much for taking the time to read and I am already excited to join such a great school next year.

END.