IATSS Forum

At midday, the phone rang. “Listen, you were selected!” That moment went by but the feeling has been fresh as if it just happened yesterday! Oh yeah! I got it! I did a great job! Here I gooooo … Japan! My dream of setting the feet on some other Asian country really came true! And Japan is the first country in the journey! I was first interested in Japan years ago when I watched a Japanese film about a girl who was hard working and passionate about making cakes and I admired her for her effortless assiduousness. Other films teach me how to live in harmony with others, how group consensus benefits each individual. I’ve learnt a lot from these films and when I heard of the IATSS motto – “Thinking and learning together”, it really made sense to me. Undeniably, we can’t live alone though I know we should stand on our own feet. But we are living in a world where countries are so interconnected. We think about the situation, we share our opinions and we learn from others, of course, together. That’s what I like most about the IATSS forum and I am looking forward to having new experiences by making more friends, cooperatively working with each other, sharing and gaining!

Japan, the first Asian destination in my journey, has made a great impression on me since the first day I heard of Japan via the press to the day I myself stepped the feet at Chubu International Airport to the last day in the country. Through many seminars, workshops, field studies and a mountain of interesting, impressive and useful activities, I realize the main thread flowing in Japan in general and in IATSS Forum in particular which most impresses maybe not only me but the other 17 participants is the human-oriented mindset. Such mindset is clearly expressed in plentiful areas including transportation, Budo Martial Arts, school visit, facilitation skills and so on. Among these areas, the most impressive is the Budo Martial Arts, which we had a chance to be taught by Professor Alex at Kansai University. We highly appreciate the “zhan xin” spirit which focuses more on the mindset than physical strength. It teaches us how to be brave to fight against your fear, to stand up, to take the challenge and opportunity and to make changes. And more importantly, the more you learn, the more you grow up, get mature and humble. It’s the thing that I can feel through the way Dr. Alex delivered the seminar and the way he taught us during the practice. To sum up, I can say that Japan is the country with “for-the-people” spirit which should be learnt and applied by others in the world including Vietnam and I hope there will be more programs provided by Japan for developing countries like us in order that we can gradually bring the idea into reality to create a better life for all people.