Olympic & Paralympic Games Class Opens! Stories of Experiences at Rio

June 20, 2017

On Wednesday 7 ^th June 2017, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies opened a series of lectures entitled 'Thinking about the Olympic and Paralympic Games'.

In the first session, we welcomed as speakers three students who were involved in the Rio Olympics last year as a volunteer staff members as well as Prof. Tsuruta Chikako (TUFS Institute of Global Studies, Interpreting and Translation Studies), who acted as commentator on the Rio Study Tour, and heard them speak about their experiences volunteering in Rio de Janeiro last year.

The students spoke about various aspects of their roles at the Olympics and Paralympics and about the things they learned through their experiences. Prof. Tsuruta gave a lecture on topics such as the requirements for student volunteers, things to consider during the study tour (in terms of health and safety), and the significance for students of participating in such activities.

65 TUFS students and 3 graduates (language and cultural supporters) attended. During the question and answer session, countless participants raised their hands to ask questions about the students' life and work at the location and their experiences of volunteer applicant selection, among other things.

Including this session, TUFS's 'Thinking about the Olympic and Paralympic Games' lectures are planned for a total of 6 sessions. The next session will take place on Wednesday 21st June, and will be titled 'Paralympic Accessibility'. We will be welcoming Mr. Nakamae Shinji (organising committee member and director of Paralympic Games Integration) as speaker. In addition, Prof. Tomotsune Tsutomu (TUFS Institute of Japan Studies) will act as commentator. We hope for your active participation.