World Map by Miyu

When Professor Stan asked us to draw a world map, I thought “is it what we have to do in our English class?” After I saw all maps drawn by my classmates and exchanged our ideas, I noticed some interesting things. 

When I went to France, I was surprised because a world map was focused on France; and Japan drawn to the edge of the east. I had exactly the same feeling when I saw maps which were drawn by non-Japanese students. Something was wrong! Most of their maps were focused on their own country but it is quit a natural thing. We got used to thinking and seeing things in our own perspective. For me, Japan is always in the center of the world map. Everyone tends to think that our country is a standard and many people try to reject what they find strange because it is different from their standard or way of thinking. I think this is one of the causes of conflict, discrimination and war in this world. Trying to understand other culture, tradition and ideas is the important thing because now we have more opportunities to have inter-cultural communication than a decade ago. However, I think people in my class, both Japanese and non-Japanese, are enjoying these differences and find it interesting. I enjoyed seeing and comparing our world maps in the class, too because each of them were original and drawn differently. At the same time, I could notice that my view was one-sided and should be more flexible. 

We can find new things by seeing a map in different people’s perspective. For example, imagine if I were to be born and raised in a small village in Europe, I probably would not care about a tiny island country in the most eastern part of a map because it is too far away from my place and nothing to do with me as long as i'm not interested in robots or manga. Now, I understand why my French friends asked me the differences among Japan, Korea and China. For them, Japan is an uninformative country and never paid a lot of attention. Also I have to study more about the world because I couldn’t draw my world map correctly and know almost nothing about other countries. I have to pay more careful attention to the world affairs. As Ms. Hatcher (our professor of Introduction to the UN) always says, “People! We are majoring in International Relations!” I have to be aware of a student in this class and learn more things about the world. 

Recently I realized that I only know the surface of the things. Though I find this class interesting, I’m not quite sure that I really learned or gained something in this class. However, drawing a world map in the class gave me an opportunity to think about many things. I learned the importance of exchanging our ideas and share each other's viewpoint. I'm sure that studying in this class with students who came from all over the world will show me various point of views  and help me to have more flexifble way of thinking. It is necessary for us to understand and respect other people's idea; otherwise, we can't live in this world.

Miyu