INTRODUCTION:
What do you imagine when you hear the word “Canada”? Many people must imagine The Vancouver Olympics, The Niagara Falls, and Anaurora. Then, what do you imagine when you hear the word “Canadian culture”? Is it hard for you to come to mind? We think Canada is familiar
country but is it true? So we start this project, it is called “Global writing”. This time we used Facebook and contacted Toronto University
students. Each of us wrote about the other side countries question and exchanged each other. This report shows you about what is “Globalwriting”. Are you ready? Here we go!
WHAT IS GLOBAL WRITING?
APU students give 6 interesting topics about Canada and ask
questions about them in English to students at Toronto University.
They write reports on their knowledge and experiences in Japaneseand answer.
In the same way, students at Toronto University give 6 interesting
topics about Japan and ask questions relating them in Japanese toAPU students. APU students send comments in English. We didthese exchanges 3 times on Facebook.

Sample of FACEBOOK PAGE

Achievements:
Masataka
Canada is a multiracial nation. I am really interested inCanadian identity, so I chose Canadian identity as my topic.
Through the discussion, some interesting points could befound. Canadian identity is made by various kinds ofnations. Canadian people can acquire two citizenships suchas a Canadian citizenship and a Chinese citizenship.
Canadian people tend to regard both of citizenships asimportant things. This perspective depends on individuals.
Nanami
Strictness of vertical relationship and length of working
hours in Japan are famous in all over the world and these arelinked to social problems like death from overwork. InCanada there are also vertical relationships and overtimework. However, these things seem to be not such big
problems that develop into social problems. On the whole, I
got impression that Canadian companies are much
comfortable places for workers than these of Japanese. I
thought there are many points which Japanese company
should follow like relationships between boss andsubordinate and work-life balance.
TakumaChie
It was rewarding for me to consider homosexuality becausesame-sex marriage is not allowed yet in japan and relatively
less familiar problem than Europe and United States. I got toknow that discrimination against homosexuals still lingered
and there were campaigns to take away discrimination evenin Canada that was legal and widely accepted through thisproject. But like Canada has changed the idea abouthomosexuality than it used to be, I hope Japan also become
tolerant gradually.

I learned about education for immigrant in Canada,
particularly classes of ESL (English as a second language)
through this project. I could understand the government of
Canada is positively supporting immigrant educations so thatthey can adopt new environments or cultures as soon as
possible. I think these education system is not established
yet in Japan, so this situation in Canada was surprising andnew for me.

HaruhoShiho
I learned that there was a program to experience the life
people in developing countries have. I thought that manystudents did not really think about the problem of foodbecause I saw many students leave a lot of food in the US.
However, I realized that they just did not know what they
could do. Also, I agree with the idea that it is difficult forthem to understand food is valuable if they have not lived
without food. Therefore, the most important thing is tounderstand the situation in developing countries and think
what we can do to solve the problem.
TakutoIt was great experience sharing each other’s opinion with
Canadian students. Two Canadian students and I discussed“job hunting”. Job hunting system in Japan seems to be
famous in the world for its intensity. They asked me if thisphenomenon is occurring because Japanese put too muchemphasis on work. Being told how different the system in
Canada is, I was surprised how Japanese are intense aboutworking. I thought acquiring some of the Canadian system
might be a considerable thing to do.

It was rewarding for me to consider homosexuality becausesame-sex marriage is not allowed yet in japan and relatively
less familiar problem than Europe and United States. I got toknow that discrimination against homosexuals still lingered
and there were campaigns to take away discrimination evenin Canada that was legal and widely accepted through thisproject. But like Canada has changed the idea abouthomosexuality than it used to be, I hope Japan also become
tolerant gradually.

I was surprised that I was asked about “Otaku culture”. Itwas good opportunity for me to think “Otaku” concept and I
can understand what image they have through conversation.
One Toronto University student said me why Otaku people
are scorned even though they contribute Japanese
economy? I did not have such an idea so I am interested intheir opinion. I noticed about it is different “Otaku” concept
between Japan and other countries. In abroad, “Otaku”
means just “big fun of particular thing.

Endeavors:
It was challenging for me to exchange our idea to use Japanese andEnglish. Of course we have not mastered our first foreign language.
However it was very good opportunity to say what I want to say andwe have done deep conversation, not casual talking! I think we did agreat job! (Nami)
To my shame, I don’t know about Japan greatly and I couldn’t answer
some questions. I should learn about Japanese society more and I wantto explain Japan to foreigners with confidence. I had good opportunitythat I think about the problem of Japanese working system that probably
I’ll face in the near future. (Nanami)Students at Toronto University often asked questions onee talents (lady-boy comedians) give influence on theJapanese way of thinking about homosexuality, but it was hard to answer because I thought homosexuals and oneeare completely different. Thanks to this project, I had an opportunity to think that it was wrong to discriminate andcriticize homosexuals and onee although their tastes are different from my ones. (Chie)

It was so interesting that I could exchange opinions between APU and Toronto university. I was able to acquire thelocal voices. I really enjoyed considering my topic. My thinking style is brushed up. Moreover, another topics are socompulsive. From another topics, I could also learn many things.(Masataka)
It was a good experience for me. However, I found it hard for me to talk about some problems with foreign people,
who have different way of thinking and perspectives, WITHOUT seeing each other. I argued a lot with my friends while
I was in the US, but I could see how they reacted to what I said. This time, on the other hand, I cannot know their
response until they reply. Therefore, I tried to be more moderate than when I talk face to face.
This project provided me with an opportunity to think about some problems, and to know what foreign students think
about the problems.(Shiho)
My major troubles were translating my opinion to English and talking about job hunting which I haven’t experienced
yet. It made it even harder because the topic was hard to think even in Japanese.
Also, it was very difficult to make up my opinion based on limited information that I have. But at the same time, it was
great opportunity to know more about job hunting.
Discussing serious topic was a challenging task for me but, I’m glad I took part in this program!(Takuto)
After finishing this project, I realized that I do not have so much knowledge about Japan. When I answered questions
about Japan from UT students, I often could not answer concretely without researches. This was shocking and I felt
embarrassed. I became to think it is very important to collect a lot of information on our society or culture habituallyby using newspaper or TV program.(Takuma)
It was interesting for me to communicate with the university students from foreign countries because I had neverdone such projects. Although there were many difficult topics, it is not difficult to write my opinions because one of
the most important themes of this project was writing our real opinions. It was impressive that we can communicate
with each other sufficiently if we make use of English and Japanese. And also, it was interesting to know real opinionsof Canadian people. I want to communicate with many people from all over the world by making good use of thisexperiences..(Haruho)

OVERVIEW:
Through this project, local opinions regarding variousmatters could be exchanged. Some topics were commonwith Japanese people, but other ones were different
between Canada and Japan. The project enables us toacquire a custom of considering daily matters, and brush it
up. Numerous opinions stimulated our way of thinking. We
are grateful to Toronto university students, professor
Miyatani, Ms. Okazaki, the iCoToBa adviser, and all themembers who took part in this project.