Open Seminar: “Falling in Love with the World: Dive into Foreign Cultures!”

2013年10月7日更新

(Ms. Takano responds to questions from the audience.)

Believing that she could make friends with people anywhere in the world, Teruko Takano has traveled to 60 countries. She has published Butterfly at the Ganges River and other books of essays on her travels around the globe. Since resigning from film producer Toei Company, Ltd. in 2011, she has been engaged in a wide range of activities as a “PR agent for people around the globe.” She has appeared on television and radio, given lectures, and published her essays and books, as just mentioned.

The open seminar was powerful as Ms. Takano talked about the cultures and values of the people she has met during her travels, while weaving in segments from An Office Worker from Ginza Travels the World! This television travel series, which she both created and appears in, highlights the encounters and interactions she has had with people of different backgrounds during her travels to such countries as India, Morocco, and Romania. Through this, she taught us how to have intercultural exchange where you learn about the cultures and values of the local people by traveling overseas and diving into foreign cultures. She told us that when things you think are common sense do not make sense to others and when things do not go as you thought they would it is an opportunity to reexamine what you have always considered to be “true.” The seminar offered us a good opportunity to rethink the stereotypes we have about various cultures and values.

A total of 133 people attended the seminar from both inside and outside the university community. After the seminar, we received feedback on the seminar from the audience. Some people said that they now wanted to travel overseas. Others said that they enjoyed the lecture because they heard stories about countries that they did not know about and learned about the ethnicity of the peoples. Still others said that they received the power to think independently with their own mind.

We would like to express our appreciation to Teruko Takano for accepting this speaking engagement despite her busy schedule and to all members of the audience for attending.