Diary of my stay in Texas

University town College Station

I lived in College Station, Texas for nine months in 2018.
It's a small town, two and a half hours drive from the nearest city, Houston.

As the name suggests, it is a town with nothing but a university.
However, the university was larger than I had imagined.
Starting with an American football stadium that can accommodate 100,000 people, there are baseball, basketball, cricket, and golf courses.
It covers 5,200 acres, which is equivalent to 40 Tokyo Disneyland! !

When you think of Texas, you think of cowboys, and you can find them on campus, too.
BBQ sets are installed on the university campus and next to the benches in the park.
No one will use it in the rain, right? I thought, but it was quite active.

Students, researchers and their families from all over the world gather here.
Therefore, there was a lot of support for non-native English speakers.
The university has an international spouses forum where you can not only consult about problems, but also provide information about living here and participate in seasonal events. Outside of school, I was able to take English conversation classes taught by volunteers at libraries and churches.

An environment where it is not embarrassing to be unskillful or make a mistake

I'm not good at English, so I was timid about speaking in public.
But when I went to America, not everyone could speak fluently,
People are used to people who speak poor English. To me who was stuck many times and almost gave up telling,
Many people told me, "It's okay, I'm listening, so talk to me."
To be honest, even when speaking in Japanese, I think it is rare to be able to say such kind words.

What surprised me when I went to an English conversation class.

Anyway, everyone raise their hands.
When the teacher says, "Somebody read it," many people immediately raise their hands and actively speak.
They don't just look at their surroundings and act quickly.
There is no such thing as being confident in English or being good at it.
Instead of raising your hand because you have the confidence to read smoothly or understand,
I'm just trying to seize the opportunity to learn.

I was able to realize that "it's okay to be bad" and "it's not embarrassing to make mistakes".
Gradually, I became able to speak more positively.

It was a true feeling of “psychological safety”.

“Psychological Safety” Necessary for “Learning Places”

As a planner, I am sometimes involved in the work of creating employee training facilities and innovation centers. I think about support that facilitates learning and breakthroughs from both the soft and hard sides, but I think that there is no right answer for the method, and it is a worthwhile job.

One of the things necessary for this “learning place” is “psychological safety”.
In a team that doesn't feel like it's okay to say anything, people tend to shrink, be reluctant to speak up, and find it difficult to discuss new ideas.
I knew the importance of it, but it was the first time I could really feel it.

It's hard to change your mindset.
But if you have an environment that accepts you, you can easily change.
It was an experience that I was able to rediscover that through interacting with people from different cultures and putting myself in a different environment.

Of course, it is difficult to create a new environment, but we have no choice but to start by changing our own behavior towards those around us.
And just as there is a book that says that all the wisdom necessary for life was learned in the sandbox of kindergarten, I think that the important things are simple and already known.

bonus

Lastly, the only disappointing thing in my happy life in America.
Only the sensibility for sweets did not seem to be able to get used to it.
The photo is a cake sold at a nearby supermarket, but the color, taste, and appearance were all shocking.