Majestic Study - Being Foreign Law Student in France

By the time the French President announced the lockdown on March 16th that the country was going under a two-week lockdown, we had actually been preparing for it for over two weeks. We started preparing ourselves for self-isolation from the beginning of the month of March. As a result, we did not have to buy a lot of food and supplies last minute, which allowed us to get everything we needed even before people started to shop massively. Here are two reasons why we were able to do so. 1. We were listening to foreign media On a daily basis, we obtain information from multiple media and worldwide. For example, we usually follow the Japanese media and the BBC. We want to be informed about what is happening in Japan because our families live there and we listen to English media in order to work on our English language competence. We heard about the panic-buying that was happening in Japan concerning masks and paper products. Also, the BBC has thoroughly reported the situa

It's confinement Day 12. It must be a long time not to see your girlfriend or boyfriend for those of you who don't live together.  I had been in a long-distance relationship with my boyfriend before we started to live together. Back then, he lived in France and I was in Japan. We met each other in person about five times in three years.  My tips might be useful for you if you cannot see your partner in person during this difficult time. 1. Respect each other's work time Your free time is not his or her free time. Just because your partner can't talk to you at that particular moment, it does not mean that he or she does not want to do so.  In this day and age, we can always contact each other anytime anywhere. However, it doesn't mean that the person is always available for you, even he or she is working from home.  You might say, "Yeah, sure, but can't he or she spare 2 minutes to respond to my message?"  The answer is he or s

I have written about my French learning timeline in this article . This time, I will tell you a little about my English learning timeline. 10 years-old : I went to the MA, USA with my mother for her job. She worked at an institution attached to a university. I was placed in a local public elementary school (not international nor Japanese school). Middle school : I went back to Japan. I learned English at school (a public school) with other Japanese students. I also went to English conversation class twice a week so that I wouldn't forget it. Eiken Grade 2. High school : I went to a public high school. During my Junior year, I went to the States again as an exchange student for 10 months. I was placed in a public school in WI, USA. Eiken Grade Pre 1 and 1. Nothing much since then . I had English classes at my university twice a week for the first two years. I took some courses in English. I taught some high school students English as a private tutor (made decent mon

I could have gone home to Japan but I stayed.  Two weeks ago, the French government decided that all the universities would be closed in order to slow the propagation of the Coronavirus in the population. It was recommended by the Ministry of Education that international students go back to their countries if the trip was possible. Despite the situation, I decided to stay in France and here are 5 reasons why. 1. We didn't know how long the confinement was going to be At the beginning of the confinement, we did not know how long the confinement was going to be (and we still don't as a matter of fact). The government planned it for two weeks minimum. If I were to go back home and then confinement actually ended at the end of the two weeks, it would be too busy to do a round trip in such a short period.  Also, I was afraid that I would be subjected to confinement of two weeks in arrival to Japan. If that were the case, I would lose that time in a situation that is

It's Day 9 of confinement in France. It was another beautiful day: sunny and not too cold. I woke up around 6:30 am as usual. Then I made my bed, ate breakfast, changed the air, and planned my day. I habitually use Google calendar and a notebook to plan what I should do.  Calendar Blocking Method I use a method called "calendar blocking" by Amy Landino introduced on her YouTube channel,  Amy Landino . It consists of blocking a block of time for doing a category of tasks, you will have your own time table of your work and your daily tasks, like when you are back in school. Whatever you do will be on your calendar: shopping, eating, exercise, work, study, cleaning, ... She recommends in her video using a digital calendar because it gives more flexibility to your day (because nothing goes according to plan, right?).  Here's an example of mine from today. You get the idea.  I reserved time for a couple of my courses today to work on the course mat

Today was a reading day. I read an anthology of short stories written by a Japanese author Yoko Ogawa (not Yoko Ono) and half of a law-related book. The latter is not directly related to my studies but I had bought it because it seems interesting while I was back in Japan last summer. I had been too busy with my studies in French university since the beginning of this academic year that I haven't had a chunk of time dedicated to the book to get through it until now. I finally have some time to read it now due to confinement.  The book is called International Criminal Tribunal by NGOs by Professor Akira Maeda and I started reading it from the beginning because I didn't remember exactly where I was in the book. It is very interesting and I cannot wait to read the whole book. Some parts could be used as revisions of my international public law course. But what I'm doing in classes are basics and it was introduced as fundamental notions to help the author to carry