Toyohashi  University  of  Technology,  Institute  for  Global  Network  Innovation  in  Technology  Education        News  from  Penang  （Vol.4  2015/3/9）  	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 3nReports	 Understand a different culture through a hom estayRyushi Kimura, National Institute of Technology, Kochi CollegeI write about my feeling through a homestayvisited. So, their behavior made me relax while wein Malaysia for two days on 14-15th February instayed there.

this time.

I always try to adapt to local atmosphere when IContents of the homestayvisit the place with different culture.	  This homestay was arranged by vice president ofThen, I talk to local people and exchange ourPSP（Politeknik Seberang Perai）and eight KOSENopinion such as local character, culture, manner andteachers participated. Original purpose is that studentscustom. A part of these information and experienceexperience Malaysian local life. However, the viceis useful for my study. I have studied about energypresident encouraged us to experience the life inconservation for buildings in south-east Asianadvance before we recommend the experience tocountries. Especially, I propose new lifestyle whichstudents.

occupants contribute reducing energy consumption.

On the first day, we were introduced four hostAs part of the study, I stayed with various families. Ifamilies after welcome ceremony on 3 p.m. After welearned a lot of culture, custom and thought throughmade 4 pairs and were allocated each host family, wethe experience and met people who understand wellwent to the host family’s house to put our luggage inmy study (Pic.2).

the house. (Pic.1 shows that I made pair with Yoshi ofThese resulted from our relationship based onToyota College). And we played game and traditionalpositive mutual understanding on our cultures.

dance with local dancers until 11 p.m.

I hope that this experience will be the motive tounderstand deeply on different culture for us.

On the second day, we experienced some activitiesAgain, it is a necessary for global human resourcessuch as taking sap from a rubber tree, visiting apiaryand workshop for making traditional cookiesto understand different culture positively with ourUnderstand the culture through the homestaydifferent perspective related to the comparativeLocal people chatted away smiley wherever weculture, thought and custom.

Pic.2 With Malaysian urban planner, Mr. LiewPic.1 With host family and Yoshi4Issues about W ater- Penang -Yoshitaka Matsumoto, National Institute of Technology, Toyota CollegeRiver Water EnvironmentI wrote issues about water in NY as a QCletter last time. So, in this time, I write themI lectured the nitrogen dynamics in thethat I've experienced through lectures in USM,environment in USM, not only engineering butUniversiti Sains Malaysia, or PSP, Politeknikalso scientific knowledge, biogeochemistry andSeberang Perai, in Penang, Malaysia.

microbiology; denitrification and nitrogen massTaste of WaterbalancebetweentheatmosphereandWhen I teach the hardness in a class; is onehydrosphere. In this lecture, I introduced anof the indexes of water quality and theexperiment to measure nitrate ion in a rivercombined value of Calcium ion and Magnesiumwater using Pack Test, which is a simplifiedion, I let students drink different types of waterassay to check the water environment. Icontaining higher hardness or lower hardness.

collected four waters from the stream runningI prepared four different types of water; twothrough Penang Botanical Garden where IMalaysian, one Japanese and one Frenchsometimes run for an exercise after work atmineral water to let students drink in PSP. TheTUT Campus. The nitrate concentrations werehardness of tap water in Malaysia is soft aslower where I collected waters from the garden,same as Japanese. The students, who hadbut the water collected from out of the gardennever drunk higher hardness water, lookedthat was contaminated by living drainageuncomfortable when they drank, and they said,discharging from houses were extremely higher.

"I hate this". One student said "Taste like aThey need to take a policy to improve the riverhospital water.", when he drank Malaysian one.

environment in Penang.

In addition, they don't have any hesitates toweredrink Japanese mineral water, so, I hope theyexperiment,have a feeling to be familiar with Japaneseactive-learning teaching style we learned in QCculture and custom through a water.

was more effective as teaching a class andinterestedandin

By the way, studentsmyIlecturerealizedandthethatthisattractive to students than passive-teachingstyle.

Photo 1Photo 2Water tasting at PSP5Explaining sampling points at USMToyohashi University of TechnologyInstitute for Global Network Innovation in Technology EducationCenter for International Education1-1, Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, JapanTel:+81-532-81-5161Mail:unireform@office.tut.ac.jp6