ひろしま留学大使 インタビューvol.18 SOE KO KO

My name is SOE KO KO, but everyone calls me Ko Ko. In my language, it means brother. Now I am studying at Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC), Hiroshima University for Master Degree. My research interest is on curriculum development on vocational and engineering.

I am a Lecturer in Technological University for 11 years. I became teacher since 21 years old. My teaching area is Electronic and Communication Engineering. I do really like teaching.

I have six family members. I have three sisters; I am the youngest and the only guy. My family works as gem merchants.

My towns name is MOGOK, it is similar to Saijo, surrounded with mountains, but there is no snow in winter. It is located in the Northern part of Shan State. My hometown is famous because of the trade and production of rubies and sapphires. Even my town is known as the Ruby land. The world largest ruby is produced form my town. Our traditional custom and language, Shan Nationality, is a little similar to the ones they have in Thailand, not all. 

My senpai Mai recommended to apply to HSAA. I already knew HSAA on Facebook before applying HSAA about the recruiting process.

I want to share my culture and learn about other countries.

私は食べ物を愛しています。クッキングが大好きです

I like cooking, traveling and visiting historical places. HSAA was perfect for me so I applied.

I want to promote the city I stay Hiroshima, that’s why I joined to HSAA.

I applied for a scholarship so the truth was that they chose me. My ministry selected me to go Hiroshima University. I got a scholarship from the Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) for master degree.

When I was young, I remember clearly one city in social science course named world history and it also included Hiroshima. I never hope I can visit and study at Hiroshima. I heard also that Miyajima is the one the third places you must visit in Japan. And also Hiroshima University is one of the best places to study in Japan.

That’s why I decided to come to Japan that is one of my dream.

I like island and beaches and Hiroshima has a lot of them. I love Hiroshima because of that and mountains. In my city, there is no beaches, just mountains and we need two days to go to the beach from my city. But Hiroshima, I can wonder not only beaches but also mountains.

I feel like it is my home. Hiroshima city is not noisy as other cities and Saijo is very peaceful to study.

I have already visited two or three islands near Hiroshima Prefecture.

The first thing is that is better for you to study Japanese, because we can go everywhere and we can do everything if you can speak Japanese. 

Please study English for academic writing. Please try to get experience Japanese food before coming to the country. I hope every country has a lot of Japanese restaurant.

Please try to get experience with the snow, some of us are came from the hot areas and this makes difficult to live during the winter. Prepare something about your country like as traditional dances, clothes and culture for sharing with other people from other countries.