Editor's Note: Throughout the regular season, Patriot Profiles will highlight women's volleyball players off the court. Today, senior middle blocker Sydney Fanoga talks about spending seven weeks in Japan this past summer in order to expose herself to the Japanese culture.
Previous Patriot Profile entries include: Emily Haak, Pihla Jarvenpaa, Emily Konchan, Licie Leite, Mikala Wells

It's of common belief that the best way to learn about a foreign culture is to visit the country it's prevalent in and be exposed to its authentic characteristics. Senior middle blocker and global affairs major Sydney Fanoga spent this past summer in Japan with the intentions of increasing her Japanese culture awareness.
 
"I was interested in going to Japan to compare and see how the culture is similar to my background of Polynesian culture," Fanoga said. "I figured this was the best way to do so. If I could go there, I felt that I could build my foundation and strengthen it by going there and being around actual Japanese people and native speakers of Japanese."


 
Fanoga spent her time in Akita City, a countryside town in the northern portion of the county, and was there for a seven-week period that lasted from early June to late July. The opportunity was made possible through the Akita Japanese Language Program here at George Mason University.
 
The Hawaii native was inspired to spend time in Japan due to the Japanese influence in her home state and being raised in that environment. In the mornings, Fanoga would take Japanese classes and then, in the afternoons and evenings, had the freedom to explore with her classmates and do other activities with them. Some of those activities included taking a bus to a nearby mall, going to the park and playing pickup sports or there was even the option to take a train into more populated cities and explore.
 
With the primary focus being to hone her Japanese skills, Fanoga was pleased with the inevitable Japanese speaking opportunities that presented themselves.
 
"We were paired up with roommates and students that are already there from the university, and the first thing they would do was greet me and speak to me in Japanese," Fanoga said. "It kind of threw me off at first but it kind of forced me to speak with them in their native language if I wanted to communicate."
 
Fanoga mentioned every now and then the natives would attempt to speak English since they were interested in learning a little English as well. While she called those rare occurrences refreshing, Fangoa preferred their conversations to be in Japanese as much as possible to help her skills.

"I felt more comfortable trying to get out there and trying to speak the language," she said.
 
One specific cultural characteristic that Fanoga was caught off guard by was how nice and welcoming the locals were. A story that happened with her friend really stood out.
 
"One of my friends lost his bag in the mall and he didn't know where to go or what to do," Fanoga said. "So we went to the information desk to ask for help and the information lady left her desk, put up a sign saying she would come back in a little bit and walked with him back to every single store to help find his bag until they were able to find it like somewhere down the road. She went with him the whole way and was able to translate and tell them what he was looking for."
 
That story of kindness to that extent was something Fanoga says would never happen in the United States.
 

 
Fanoga's plan for post-graduation is to apply to the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET Programme), a Japanese government program that brings recent college graduates to Japan as language teachers in Japanese schools. She has also entertained the idea of attending graduate school in Japan. Whatever ends up happening, Fanoga is clearly interested in continuing to incorporate Japanese culture in her life. While she mentioned her goals of entering the JET program and earning a master's degree in Japan will be extremely difficult to make a reality, Fanoga has confidence in herself thanks to her experience last summer.
 
"The study abroad program helped me with my ability to communicate with different cultures and people of different cultures, so my inner-cultural communication skills were definitely strengthened through this trip," Fanoga said. "At points we did have barriers where there was miscommunication. But instead of getting frustrated or wanting to back away, I learned how to communicate and get a point across that they were able to understand and that I would understand them as well."
 
Along with the friends Fanoga made last summer, the way the trip changed her perspective about what she wants to do after her time at Mason has contributed to what she describes as a life-changing experience.
 
"This trip definitely helped me to shift my gears in terms of what I want to do and helped me put things into perspective about my career path and made me think about what I want to do after the season and my time here at Mason concludes," she said. "I still keep in contact with a lot of the students from there and the friends I made over the program so it has definitely been life changing and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in studying abroad."