<figure id="attachment_405690" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405690" style="width: 1707px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ffe7538b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/c4110330a5cc727d7d3b37d6b66f09aa.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-405690" class="wp-caption-text">A quick shot of my roommate, Hanso, in the dormitory.</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Most Chinese dormitories have rooms for five or eight people.</h2>
<p> For the last update of this year, I would like to talk about dormitory life, which is hard to imagine in Japan. I live in a university student dormitory. The dormitory is divided for local students and international students, and the dormitory for international students is a little bit more expensive.</p>
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<p> The dormitory for international students is a bit more upscale than the one for local students and international students.</p>
<p> You may be surprised to hear that a room for two is high-class, but it is a room for two.　Some may be surprised, but basically all Chinese university students live in student dormitories. Because of the large number of students, most rooms are for five or eight people. They use Japanese-style shared toilets and wash their clothes by hand in the washroom.</p>
<p> In contrast, the international student dormitory has Western-style toilets in each room, and showers and washing machines are always available. Although there are occasional difficulties such as toilets that do not flush or showers that only produce hot or cold water, it is a very fortunate environment within this university.</p>
<p> My roommate is a Korean university student named &#8220;Hansoo&#8221; who always calls me Onni (sister). She came to China as a one-year exchange student, and when I met her in October, she could not speak Chinese at all. Now she reports to me every day about the new words she has learned.</p>
<p> However, she seems to enjoy studying Japanese more than Chinese. Recently, she watches &#8220;SPY x FAMILY,&#8221; which I recommended to her, and shows me Japanese and songs she learned on TikTok. I am also gradually learning Korean. We are learning each other&#8217;s language little by little.</p>
<figure id="attachment_405692" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405692" style="width: 1702px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3894d2dc"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/bd96e8dfaa353fe959d2085588e5fd59.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-405692" class="wp-caption-text"> I went to eat Korean food with Hanso. She kindly cut the meat for me.</figcaption></figure>
<p> In the dormitory, we speak a mixture of Japanese, Korean, English, and Chinese, but the first Korean word I learned and the first Japanese word Hanseo learned were &#8220;Wait a minute.</p>
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<p> Whenever I couldn&#8217;t convey what I wanted to say, I would always say, &#8220;Wait a minute! and look it up on the translator. In our room, he would say several times a day, &#8220;Wait a minute! Kidaryo! We communicate with each other by saying, &#8220;Wait a minute!</p>
<p> The last time the president of South Korea declared martial law, Hanso said, &#8220;Onni!　Korea is over! and angrily told me about the situation.</p>
<p> I was able to hear about the situation from my Korean friends before everyone else in Japan did, and I couldn&#8217;t help but think, &#8220;If I had stayed here as an announcer for TV Tokyo, what would I have done?</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" A moment of heart-to-heart communication with international students from different countries"></div>
<figure id="attachment_405691" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405691" style="width: 1702px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4a1a6a03"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/11da5f4a2fc0d7b43a81608b8ce0825e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-405691" class="wp-caption-text">Entrance to the dormitory lined with flags of various countries</figcaption></figure>
<h2> A moment of heart-to-heart communication with international students from various countries</h2>
<p> In the dormitory, I live with Armenians, Ethiopians, Turks, Russians, and other students from countries I did not have many opportunities to meet in Japan. Although they are all studying Chinese, most of the conversations in the dormitory are in English, so it is a strange experience for me to learn Chinese while also learning the importance of English.</p>
<p> One of the cultural differences I feel in dormitory life is the concept of lending and borrowing things.</p>
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<p> Hangers and clotheslines in the common space are things that each individual has bought, so Japanese people would never use other people&#8217;s things without permission, but people in other countries seem to have the perception that &#8220;you can use anything in the common space without permission. I have seen my newly purchased hangers being used without permission, clotheslines being moved without permission, most of the things I was supposed to hang out to dry on the floor, and many other unexpected things.</p>
<p> Once, there was a sudden knock at the door, and when I opened it, a girl, a total stranger, asked me to lend her some detergent. Of course I lent it to her, but I thought, &#8220;I still don&#8217;t have the courage to suddenly thump on a stranger&#8217;s door. But it would be nice to be in an environment where I can easily lend things to others.</p>
<p> Anyway, the &#8220;tacit understanding&#8221; that is common in Japan is not understood at all, and in fact, it is common sense here that it is worse to be tacit. It would be arrogant to ask someone from a different culture to &#8220;consider our feelings,&#8221; and nowadays it is more reasonable to express one&#8217;s feelings directly, so while I am in China, I follow the &#8220;common sense&#8221; here without any resistance.</p>
<figure id="attachment_405693" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405693" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="39eb49ab"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/b3e166c5557aa6e24e1fc9bb9a95cd3c.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-405693" class="wp-caption-text"> The view from the dormitory is of the &#8220;Five Great Streets,&#8221; an area where Tianjin&#8217;s historical buildings are concentrated.</figcaption></figure>
<p> Recently, there was something that brought me together with everyone in this global dormitory. It was the first snowfall. I had been thinking that the cold weather had been continuing recently, but that day, a piercingly cold wind blew from the morning, the temperature dropped dramatically at night, and few people were walking outside.</p>
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<p> Around midnight, when I thought it was time to go to bed, I started to hear rustling voices coming from the hallway, and as I wondered what it was, I received a message from a Chinese friend: &#8220;Miyu-chan, it&#8217;s the first snow! I hurriedly peeked out the window.</p>
<p> I hurriedly peeked out the window and was surprised to see many of my classmates looking out the window of the Chinese dormitory across the street as well. I went straight down to the first floor and came to the entrance of the dormitory to find that everyone was dressed in heavy clothing and gathering in groups to catch a glimpse of the first snowfall.</p>
<p> I was really happy at the moment when we could share the feeling of enjoying the first snowfall together by playing our favorite music, bringing drinks and toasting each other, and by looking at each other and making facial expressions, even if we didn&#8217;t speak. It made my heart warm and fuzzy to think, &#8220;I am having an experience that I can only have here and now.</p>
<p> Although we may not always understand each other, we smile at each other when our eyes meet in the elevator, and when someone is holding a package with both hands, they open the door and wait for us without saying a word. Even without words, when I feel that they &#8220;think of each other and live together&#8221; with a little thoughtfulness, the corners of my mouth always naturally turn up and I walk around the dormitory with a smile on my face.</p>
<figure id="attachment_405695" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405695" style="width: 1702px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f868260a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/e3c899702f9d0b8a0932da438ab1a201.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-405695" class="wp-caption-text"> Dinner with Hanso this week!</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_405697" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405697" style="width: 1707px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4f6c364a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/2eba1826a012d93dc85f485a794d0c39-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-405697" class="wp-caption-text"> We went to a Hong Kong restaurant. Japanese and Koreans eating Hong Kong food in China.</figcaption></figure>


 Miyu Iketani

 In the last installment of this popular column, Ikeya talks about dormitory life, which is hard to imagine in Japan. What was it like living with Armenians, Ethiopians, Turks, and others in a world where "unspoken understandings" were not understood?

 In the last installment of her popular column, Miyu Iketani, former announcer for Teletext, talks about her experience of studying abroad in China, where "unspoken understandings" are not always understood.

Former TV TOKYO announcer Miyu Iketani faces a world in China where “unspoken understandings” are not understood.

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