Page 41 - Warta USK September 2023

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Disaster Takes

Me to Banda Aceh

Name: Kako Nakagawa I am a student from Japan. I study Bahasa study at Universitas Syiah Kuala taking bachelor
Indonesia at Universittas Syiah Kuala this year
Age: 22 I degree and some taking master degree. Three
Place of Birth: Osaka, Japan since September. My stay is provided by the Darmasiswa students, including myself, will
Nationality: Japanese Darmasiswa Program 2023-2024 which is the return to our own countries.
Role: Participant of scholarship from the Indonesian government. When I came here, one of the cultural
DARMASISWA Program About 300 students from various countries differences I felt most was the rhythm of life
Universitas Syiah Kuala came to Indonesia through this program this based on Islam religion. Aceh is particularly
Email: kako_nakagawa@keio.jp
year. We could choose which university we famous as the province with the largest
wanted to go, and I chose Universitas Syiah percentage of muslims in Indonesia. For
ACHIEVEMENTS: Kuala because Banda Aceh is a special city for example, they go home from 12:00 to 2:00 in
t 2023 – 2024 me in some aspects. the afternoon, and the stores close at Maghrib
Awarded Scholarship of I have interests in disaster management and every night from after 6:00 pm to around 7:30
DARMASISWA to study how to heritage a history of disaster. In 2004, pm. There are mosques everywhere in the city,
Bahasa Indonesia and Culture the big earthquakes and tsunami happened near and even on campus there are mosques for each
at Universitas Syiah Kuala.
t 2020 – Present Sumatera and many people lost their lives. Then I faculty. Walking through the city, I hear loud
Student of Keio University heard an amazing fact that people in Banda Aceh voices coming from the mosques many times
did not know a tsunami would happen after a big a day and find a traffic jam of people heading
earthquake. In my country, that is a well-known to the mosques. There are many things in this
through education of history and science, so I city that I have never known or seen before. I
was amazed and felt sad that if Aceh people had still remember the excitement and emotion of
known that before 2004, they might have been finding a lizard as big as me on the way to and
saved. This is one reason why I chose this town from school. When eating out in this town, I must
KAKO have language class weekdays in the morning sugar for drinks.
and Universitas Syiah Kuala.
never forget to ask for non-chili for food and non-
About my learning Bahasa Indonesia life, I
In summary, I am very satisfied with my
decision to come to Aceh and to choose Aceh
and a culture class on Saturday. There are 9
for this program. Since I really came to Banda
students in our class. They come from different
Nakagawa countries. I think this environment is very Aceh, it has already been over 2 months. Little
exciting and fun. In class, we have a lot of
by little, I am learning vocabulary and culture and
enjoying my new life. However, a 10-month stay
opportunities to introduce and write about our
country using the Bahasa Indonesia language.
I like it because I can research my own culture seems like a long time, but it is short. I would
hope to enjoy to the maximum extent not only
afresh and learn about the culture of everyone the language but also the different cultures and
else’s country. This program is planned until next ways of thinking so that I will have no regrets in
June. After this program, some students will the last 8 months of my stay in Aceh. []

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