Last Wednesday, I watched a video during the African American History class. After the class, the professor called couple of students窶� name. I was also called. That class was right after the second exam, so I thought I did so badly in that test, and he probably would make some suggestions or give some advices me. I was asked to come to his office. I thought definitely it will be something about the test. However, something unexpected happened; he gave me some books! It was totally unexpected.

I thought that I should borrow it and get him back maybe after the break, so I asked him if I can I borrow those books. However, he answered 窶弋his is for you.窶� I was so surprised. I just told him that I thank him for it at that time.

I always underline or write something when I read English book; therefore, if it is someone窶冱 or library窶冱 book, I shouldn窶冲 do that. The way of reading will be so different. Since I am worried about in case I misunderstood or misinterpreted what he said, I today asked the professor again if he really gave me those books. His answer was yes, and I told him that I was so grateful, and that kind of thing never happens in Japanese big university. (I am not going to mention any specific university窶冱 name anyway. It is just in general.) He said he sometimes gives students books when he gets them and it is proper to study.

The books are about 窶廣ffirmative Action窶� which is a kind of special help provided by the government for certain group of people like women or African Americans. I asked the professor to help me get some information about it by making a list of recommended books and articles before, since this topic is going to be my thesis. I never asked him to give me books. It encourages me to study more and more. Maybe I should ask some questions on it after finishing reading.

These kinds of incidents do make me realize the difference of the scale of the college. There are 50 thousand people in my home college; on the other hand, there are just 1500 people in this college. Atmosphere is so friendly and I can have more close relationship with both students and professors. Class is held one teacher and 10 or 15 students at most. In addition, teachers assign lots of homework every time; therefore, we should have good relationship even though we cannot do well at the test or for paper. I don窶冲 know Japanese universities and colleges should be like here. Some of my Japanese friends think in that way. But when I think of my variety of activities outside of the classroom at my university, since teachers in Japan didn窶冲 assign many homework (maybe we were expected to study voluntarily), I could participate in the clubs so actively. But lots of homework won窶冲 allow me to do that. There are lots of things I can do during the fruitful four years. Both could be the choice, and I chose the Japanese way. Since many things are totally different from my college, the experience here will be so profitable for me.