Toshiko Kamada

"I studied for four years and was awarded my BA in Literature from Kobe Women's University, Hyogo, Japan in 1995 and I majored in School Education and minored in Japanese Teaching. I also have a postgraduate Diploma in Language teaching from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. After this, I returned to Japan and worked as a Primary schoolteacher for a year and at the same time I did a correspondence course for teaching English at Bukkyo University in Kyoto, Japan and I was awarded a licence for Level 1 and High School teaching. When I finished this course, I past another examination to be a Secondary school teacher and I started to teach English which I did for the past seven years in Japan.

As I had done as much as I could in my studies, I was looking for another way to develop my teaching skills in a practical course and was advised that courses in the UK were very practical, so I looked at courses available in England. I researched and found London Met had the course I wanted to do (MA International ELT and Applied Language Studies). I applied for this course because I noticed that London Met had many international students. Once I was given an unconditional offer to study for this course I applied for the London Met graduate scholarship and I'm pleased to say that I was awarded this.

To enable me to fulfil this desire to study in the UK, I had to resign my job in the public school sector and this was a big risk as these jobs are not that easy to find; however, I hope that following my studies here, I will be able to bring all this knowledge and experience back to Japan and share it with my countrymen and women. I hope to be able to return to the public sector, as the students are keen to learn English and most will understand the importance of learning from someone who's actually lived and studied in the UK. If I don't, I will also look for a job teaching English in a private school and these students will definitely benefit from my UK studies. I believe it is very important to learn a language and culture from within that country, rather than just from theory, as the practical side of languages is of the upmost importance to learn.

Classes are generally very large in Japan (250 students in a lecture hall is normal), so I really like the smaller classes at London Met as one gets a better quality of one-to-one tutoring and London Met is good at this. I like the fact that we can ask our Lecturers questions and we also learn a lot from other students from all over the world. The Japanese would benefit from learning more about the other cultures in the world, as well. There are many different nationalities studying and working together at London Met and we all speak English, so it is interesting to hear the many different accents and the different ways people speak English. I have to read many books for my course and I really enjoy this, as this wasn't the normal way we studied and learned in Japan, as most teaching is done via lectures. We are all treated as equals here, too, and this is great. The lecturers are interested in us and try to guide us by recommending ways to learn, they always give us a well thought out individual answer to a specific question, which is excellent, informative and very useful.

If one wants to learn more about any subject from the Sciences to the Arts, I recommend they come to London Met, as the learning here is not just 'teaching via lectures then having an examination', but thinking about those who really want to study and learn, they should come here and I recommend London Met to all my Japanese friends and everyone. There are so many good modules, one is spoilt for choice and I'd like to do all of them!"

back to scholarship page