Nice to meet you!! My name is Renata and I am an exchange student from Brazil! My native language is Portuguese, but I can also speak English (forgive me if I write something incorrectly) and right now I am currently studying Japanese. My major in my home university is Business Administration, and through the exchange program of my university I decided to do 1 year of studying abroad in Japan.
One of the main reasons for coming to Japan was because I love learning about new cultures and how different they are from each other. And I feel that the Japanese culture is a very unique one and also very different from my own, sometimes even the complete opposite. And not only would it be a great opportunity for me professionally speaking but also personally. There is a lot of growth involved specially when you get out of your comfort zone. And I think getting out of it is a really important thing to do, and there is no growth without discomfort. I feel that the overall experience of studying abroad and being immersed in a different culture is a really valuable and life changing one. Therefore, that combined with the unique opportunity to be part of a club like RAMS is just boosting this effect. RAMS is such a special and remarkable group of people, there isn't a single person who isn't kind and hardworking. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be able to meet and work with so many wonderful and passionate people. I learn a little bit from them each day, not only about the Japanese language and how to practice cheerleading correctly, but also about what type of person I want to be in my life.
In our last practice we started it with warming our bodies up and stretching. We also worked on our jumps and tumbling. After that, we practiced double base and stand with straddle. We also managed to worked on our dance and kitei motion in between practicing stunts. As always, everyone was really hardworking and everything was super fun.
Now, my answer to Chiharu's first question of what is my favorite Japanese word is that firstly I don't have a specific one, but I do like 'Gambatte' a lot and I also like 'Shimeru' and 'Otsukare', I think they sound nice hahaha. And about which one's I've learnt recently it would be 'yori ii', which I think it means its 'better' hahaha.
Now my question is going to be to Uta, and I would like to know firstly what does she think is the hardest thing for her to practice in cheerleading? And secondly, what is the biggest cultural difference she has noticed from the foreign members so far?