さぁ、４月になりました。
複数のFinal Paperと複数のFinal exam とに対応出来てますか？
大きな波の中で溺れそうな気分ですか？
Don’t worry. You are not the only one.
Most importantly, we understand.
Post Semester Decompression Session
溺れかけた大学の１年が終わったら、来学年に備え、潰れそうになった圧力を抜きましょう。そのストレスを引きずったまま、次の学期でぶっ倒れることのないように。
Post Semester Decompression Session II
It is very exciting to begin university in Canada. You meet new people from every corner of the world, are exposed to new ideas, and if you live away from home, have a completely new lifestyle. It feels so liberating. After the first month, however, your newfound freedom crashes into reality. Midterm exams and assignments approach like a death sentence. You suddenly find yourself in the library for long hours; if you want to pass.
Students here are often graded on the bell curve – a few of them get As, the majority get Cs, and a number fail. This puts you in direct competition with your classmates, and you have to try very hard just to get a C grade. That makes for a stressful environment.
At the same time, you need to take care of your own meals, wash your clothes, change your sheets – all that stuff you took for granted in high school. I recall stepping out of the shower my first midterm week to find that I didn’t have any clean towels. That required some uncomfortable creativity that is probably left unsaid. Let’s just say that I was half wet and shivering cold on my way to classes early one October morning in Canada.
The stress of this new lifestyle can be overwhelming. To survive, students need to adopt coping mechanisms. A coping mechanism can help you temporarily forget about university, so you can go back to your study more cheerfully, knowing there is life beyond studying.
I had a roommate that coped with the stress by playing the guitar. Fortunately for his roommates, he was pretty good. One of my classmates overcame stress by going on nature walks. He would walk an hour through the coulees, past temporary homeless shelters in the trees, and across the frozen river to reach university each morning. For me, it was exercise. Getting my heart rate up helped me relax, and so I took courses in sports that I had never played such as fencing and was able to cope with stress while earning credits (though I was nearly skewered by a student from Iraq named Ahmed when his foil broke during a practice match).
If you don’t find a way to cope with stress, one will find you. Some students inadvertently find themselves binge drinking on weekends. That seems to ease stress for some – in the short term. It is not a healthy long-term strategy though.
When I think of the students I know who succeeded at university in Canada, I see in them four important qualities: just enough smarts, a strong work ethic, an interest in learning, and methods to cope with stress. The first quality, smarts, depends on our DNA and is largely out of our hands. However, if we learn how to cope with stress and maintain a love for learning, that can help motivate us to study.
［カナダ大学で成功するために必須の資質：元々の頭がいいこと、学習への強い動機と態度、学ぶことへの喜び、ストレス対応のスキル］
With that in mind, we are offering our Canada Club students a one-week decompression session at our cabin on the Canadian prairie where we will help them form strategies to succeed at university. We will help our students rediscover the joy of learning and help find coping mechanisms that work for them.
Thanks to developments in neuroscience, we know a lot more about how the brain works than in my university days. Fortunately, my Japanese partner has studied neuroscience through Harvard University edX courses, and is in a perfect position to offer guidance. And a love for learning? Trust us here with that one – it is infectious.
Please contact us if you are interested!
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Post Semester Decompression Session of Canada Club
参加出来る人：カナダクラブ在籍中の大学生（国内・国外は問いません）
*カナダ高校留学中（大学留学生と同等のDecompressionが必要だと思い特別プラスしました。）
時期・期間 ：1週間（臨機応変に対応）、時期は学生の事情に合わせ相談
場所 ：Canada Club EcoCabin on the Canadian Prairie
Session 費用：CA$2,100
(Lesson, Counselling, Calgary空港までの送迎・その他交通費・滞在費・食費を含む）
Want to be in love with learning?
Contact Machiko Osawa!
カナダにいらっしゃい！
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StoryTelling Camp in Canada 2023
「カナダ大学留学への特訓方法」eBook
カナダからのサポートグループ Canada Club
「カナダ高校留学実態総集編」eBook
カナダ発日本人のための本格的英語学習サイト UX English
わかりやすいクリティカルシンキング講座
Podcast [カナダにいらっしゃい！]
