Exchange Session with Kanagawa University

The Department of International Studies, Political Science and History, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) conducted an online interactive exchange session with the students of Kanagawa University, Japan. The joy of meeting new people and learning something new about different culture, tradition and ideas is rather an underrated experience; with the need to broaden our connection in a cosmopolitan world and also induce cultural sensitivity, an initiative was undertaken by CHRIST and Kanagawa University of Japan to connect the students of the two Universities. The program dating April 9, 2021, began with the elaboration on the need of keeping interactions between the students of two Universities addressed by Kochi Asaka from Kanagawa University and Dr Madhumati Deshpande, Coordinator, Department of international Studies, Political Science and History, CHRIST (Deemed to be University). It was followed by the introduction about Kanagawa University and its culture along with Kanagawa as a prefecture by the students of Kanagawa University, following on by the elaboration about CHRIST (Deemed to be University) and its culture by the students and ending with a comprehensive presentation about India and its culture. After the session of introduction and awareness about both the campuses, a breakout session was created so that every student had the chance to interact with each other in a much elaborate manner and get to know each other. The breakout session proved to be a much profitable exercise, as it gave the participants the chance to explore every topic from Manga to food to must-visit places with each other and not stick with the formal conversation of academia. The wide-eyed enthusiasm of the participants interacting with one another was not hampered by the fact that miles of distance separated them rather it only made the students more inquisitive to learn about each other’s culture. The sad end to the conversation was marked with the end of the breakout session. The students along with the faculties involved however were provided with the opportunity to interact with everyone in the open session, where the conversations about food, movies, music and stories by the faculties would keep the participants on the edge of their seats. A second breakout session was commenced after the open session where different groups were assigned for the participants to interact with the different set of students. The conversation as enthusiastic as the former and would cover the colours of Sakura, snacks, academia and so on. The conversations kept on continuing despite the constraints of language on both sides alas coming to halt due to constrain of time. The end of the interactive session was marked with the promise to hold this exercise again to bring the young students of the two countries together and understand each other's culture a little bit more. Report compiled by Urmila Narzary