Ritsumeikan Academy
Competency Framework Special Website

I wasnt doing well on a science project, then I thought about changing things up a bit, but that failed too. I kept on changing and innovating until I got the perfect one and I passed.

I have a goal to work in Japan after graduating from Ritsumeikan University, so I am doing my best to improve my Japanese skills. Since I enrolled in an English-based program, balancing my laboratory work with Japanese self-study has been quite challenging. Despite my busy schedule, I am making an effort to attend Japanese classes offered by the Graduate School of Life Sciences. As a doctoral student, it isn't easy to juggle research commitments with my Japanese learning. However, with the support of my lab mates and faculty staff, I believe that achieving my goal is possible. Last July, I challenged myself to take the JLPT test for N2 level; unfortunately, I did not pass. I was frustrated by the result because I missed passing by just 2 points. Everyone encouraged me to focus on the future and not dwell on past failures. So, I continued to seek more Japanese classes and eventually discovered a business Japanese course provided by Kyoto City. In this class, I encountered many new words that I had rarely heard before, along with valuable lessons in business manners. After joining this class, I resolved to take the JLPT test again in December 2024, though I am still waiting for the test results. In conclusion, no matter how many times I fail, I will keep striving to achieve my goal.

I learned how to conduct scientific experiments and extract new insights from the process. In this way, I learned that my intuitions and initial guesses could be wrong, and I might constantly fail to finally understand the problems and come up with solutions. It was hard to maintain strong mental health during everything. Then I learned that failure is not a bad thing; it is a way for the research subject to tell its story, and I will understand more about the subject after each failure. It will refine my hypothesis and my knowledge. To balance learning and processing new information from experiments, I usually use the school gym as a way to escape from lab work, allowing my brain to go into diffused mode, which greatly benefits me in refining ideas and concepts. Sometimes I use different working spaces on campus to achieve a fresh working mode.

I built resilience through overcoming challenges, adapting to change, maintaining a positive mindset, and learning from failures and setbacks.

I learn about resilence when I encounter problems with my research, multiple times I though I would not be able to succeed in my research, even though I felt I was lots, it made learn from my mistakes and measure multiples escenarios as well as to accept that there is always a room to change, which is never bad.

I was kind of person who can be easily influenced by the words of other. After coming to Japan I learned to analyze the perceptions and learned how to act them emotionally. I realized after being burdened with the tasks I have never experienced before, I gradually started to de clutter the things with best possible alternatives. For example if I have to fill out the form which is written in Japanese that will give me almost headaches but I used Google translate and answer in best possible way. Another example was talking in front of people in class room, I tried my best even with clumsy attempts, gradually I learned that the gravity of the questions or answers are less important than the expressions becasue very few of them will remember what I speak.

Resilience has been learned throughout the entirety of my life. I have constantly experienced troubles and failures in my life, but eventually, I learned that there is no such thing as failure as long as you keep trying. Failure is when you completely give up, learning is when you make mistakes and correct them. As long as you experience troubles and try to learn from them, you will never fail. I will provide an example. Unfortunately, I have had three friends pass away due to problems with mental health. While this profoundly affected me, I learned the importance of taking care of my own self and how to continue living even when life is difficult. Though there are many other examples of hardships in my life, this one stands out as a recent example, and I strengthened my resilience by living through this experience.