Report on the ECBO International On-line Seminars (Myanmar and Laos)

On-line exchange seminars were held with participants in Laos on January 20 and in Myanmar on January 28 through joint planning in conjunction with the “International On-line Seminar: Foreign Exchange Students and Development of Human Resources to Bear Responsibility for Post-corona Society,” which was held jointly by the International Affairs Department, School of Economics and Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Okayama University, and the ECBO overseas training course (in Myanmar and Laos), which is held each year by the Okayama University School of Economics.

Nine undergraduate students participated from the School of Economics, mostly in their freshman year. They reported their experiences with university student life in Japan during the coronavirus crisis, created a PR video for the Okayama University School of Economics and presented it at the seminar.

The students were able to engage in mutual sharing of their experiences under the completely disparate conditions of university life in Laos, where life activities continued unchanged and students attended classes as normal, Myanmar, where not only were on-line classes prohibited but students were also forbidden to enter their campuses, and Okayama University, where seminars and practical training were conducted in person, but lectures were held on-line.

This year’s seminar gave a voice to many students from these three countries, who said that it was good that they could exchange views on-line, but they wanted to visit each other’s countries and talk with each other once overseas travel became possible.

Also, the Japanese students were heard to say that although the students of Myanmar and Laos knew a lot about Japan, they had the feeling that they knew less about Japanese culture than they had anticipated.

Four days after the seminar in Myanmar was held, the coup d’etat occurred there. Since that day, on which a state of emergency was proclaimed, the people of Myanmar have had to stay at home, and from February 1, they have even been cut off from Internet and telephone services. Telecommunications services were restored the next day, but it made a strong impression on the students who had participated that if the timing of the seminar had been just a few days later, they might not have been able to have this on-line exchange.