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Tribune News Network
Doha
Ambassador of Japan to Qatar HE Seiichi Otsuka awarded Certificates of Commendation to Qatari students who have completed their studies in Japanese Universities during a reception at his residence.
The certificates recognise the important role the individuals play in bringing Qatar and Japan closer.
During the ceremony, three promising Qataris who now assume high positions in the oil and gas sectors in Qatar were honoured. They were Hamad al Nesf, who obtained his MPA degree from Doshisha University in 2011 under the Japanese Government's MEXT scholarship, Eissa Samani, the first Qatari to graduate from a Japanese university in 2016, and Hanan al Sulaiman, who obtained her Master's Degree from Nagaoka University of Technology in 2017 also under the MEXT scholarship.
In his remarks, Ambassador Otsuka said,"Needless to say human development for the next generation through education and vocational training is a priority assignment in all countries in order to cope with the science and technology oriented-society. Perhaps education itself does not know borders. However in fact, there are certain issues to overcome such as the language barrier and the cultural and social differences that sternly exist.
We understand that it is very challenging for Arab students to study in Japan where people speak a language from a different lingual-phonic cluster than Arabic in addition to the fact that Japanese people's customs and behaviour adhere to their own traditions and civilisation that differ from the ones in the Islamic world."
He added,"Today, we admire the three Qataris for overcoming the challenge in Japan and completing their academic assignments very successfully. Their strenuous efforts to obtain degrees from the Japanese universities are amazing. We, as Japanese, feel very pleased and honoured to have such excellent Qatari students sharing Japanese education and culture."
The students expressed their appreciation to the embassy and to Japan not only for the academic knowledge they obtained but also for the valuable cultural and civil experiences they accumulated during their stay in Japan. They also stressed their intention to become the connecting bridge between Qatar and Japan in order to further promote the understanding between the people of the two countries.
Hanan said,"The life in Japan is very rich and colourful in its history, structure and people's achievements. You will find that life in Japan is very organised, never boring, and very convenient in all of its aspects from the simple availability of all imaginable types of stationeries, convenient stores in every corner to the scheduled transportations and many other things."
Samani said,"I was the very first Qatari high school graduate to study in Japan under the scholarship by Qatar's Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Many of my friends were afraid of going to Japan because of the language. At first, I had to memorise 2,000 Kanji which was really hard. I failed many times in Kanji test and it took me a year and half to pass the language class test. I was studying in Sendai in 2011 when the earthquake and Tsunami incident occurred."
On his part, Nesf gave an engaging speech about his experience in Japan.
He said,"Having lived in Japan for three years, I remember many small things touched me. I visited Kiyomizu dera temple in Kyoto several times. Many of those times, I would unintentionally drop my wallet while walking and every time a kind Japanese would come up after me to return the wallet. I remember another incident when I took a taxi and started a small conversation with the taxi driver who refused to charge me for the ride. It was the first time in my life not to pay for a taxi. These things can only happen in Japan which I keep telling my friends. Japanese people are more Muslim than some Muslims. I took my MBA course in English and not in Japanese but there are so many things to learn outside of the university campus."
