大学でAIESECに入り、漠然と"社会起業家"になりたいと考え、いつかは世界で貧困や地域活性化に取り組む...なんてことを考えていた自分。だが、その頃の自分はあまりに世界を知らなかった。なのに大きな夢を描き、勿論それを実現する能力なんて持ち合わせていない。そんな中、偶然出会ったスウェーデン人留学生と友達になり、一昨年の大学二年の夏、その友達を訪ねて海外に飛び出した。

スウェーデンの面白さ　
初めての海外がスウェーデンだなんて...誰も想像しませんよね(笑)。でも、スウェーデンについて知れば知るほどすごいことがわかってきた。まず、スウェーデンの経済モデルや国際競争力、国民の幸福度が常にトップクラスであることや、スウェーデン人は非ネイティブで英語が最もきれいだと言われていること、男女平等の考え方が浸透しているといったことなど...。（余談ですが、スウェーデンに関しての本は『スウェーデンパラドックス』がお薦めです^^）

　この初の海外経験は、確実に当時の僕を変えていった。そこで見て、感じ、考えたことは僕の大学生活を加速させた。そして、その大きな夢を掴めるまでの自分に鍛えあげるために、１年後、僕はまたスウェーデンにいる。

"社会起業家"以前に、ひとりの人間としての器がいる
　将来、海外でやりたいことがあるが、その前に僕は世界を知り、単純に語学も磨く必要がある。だが、いまそれ以前の問題に悩まされている。どうやら僕には異文化に対する寛容性や受容性ですら欠けているようなのだ。

そう思い始めたのは、あることでインド人と口論した後である。僕は自分の意見がいかに正義であるか説明するが、相手には理解されない。逆もまた然り。だがその時、論理というものは互いの経験から組み立てられていると気づき、異文化の人と理解し合うには、互いのバックグラウンドを深く知る多様性が大事で、それこそが異文化理解なんじゃないかと思った。異文化理解が簡単なようで難しいことだったのは衝撃だった。

　いまの僕は汚い悪の世界や理解不能な物事に対して、拒否してしまう癖がある。そんな小さな器で世界の貧困などと向き合えるわけがない。そこにはより受け容れ難い状況があり得るから。しかし、こう思えてよかった。これは自分が変われるきっかけになったから。

頭の中の世界からでなく、体感した世界から人生を切り開く
　ここで実際に感じることはどれも以前の「こんな感じでしょ」という想像を超えていて、楽しい。そして、この留学でいま僕は多くのことを得ようと奮闘している。その過程で様々な自分と向き合い、既にいくつかブレイクスルーもあった。まだ未熟な部分は多いが、確実に成長してると感じ、それを通じてより自分がどんな人間であり、将来どういった道に進みたいのかが見据えられたように思う。

　残すところ半年となった留学生活だが、僕はこの半年が人生を大きく左右するものだと捉えているし、そのレールを自分の力で切り開くべく、今はスウェーデンで力を溜める...夢を掴むために。

プロフィール
吉村直哉
山口県宇部市出身。初対面とか関係なく、気軽に話しかけていただけると高確率でとっても笑顔になります。
Blog: http://revlis708.blog90.fc2.com/
Twitter: @revlis708
Facebook: Naoya Yoshimura

Progress Report in Sweden - On the way to make my dream come true-

Naoya Yoshimura
The 3rd of business administration department in Kobe University

1. Misvalueing the depth of the world
I had never heard of the phrase "The recommendation to take a leave of absence from school by design" until the Non-Profit Organization (NPO) called AIESEC sent out information with its mailing list. I thought myself I already knew what it is to get into the world at the time. "Experiences in other countries for a year while in university broaden my perspectives somehow." This was my initial thought over the global experiences and with that impression in mind I had evaluated it "just based on theory." I didn't know how ignorant I was at all at the time.

I joined the AIESEC club in my university. Owing to the days in the club, I learned to have the dream to be a social entrepreneur so as to deal with poverty and local revitalization problems around the world at the back of my mind. However, there were far too many things I still didn't know about the world. Despite of not being capable of accomplishing anything I had set out for, I was bold enough to have a grand dream of the future. Meanwhile, a Swedish exchange student with whom I had unexpectedly encountered, encouraged me to take off and visit him during the summer two years ago, while I was still just a sophomore student.

2. The great country Sweden
While there are many attractive countries in the world such as France, the U.K. and so on, who could imagine that the first foreign country you visit is Sweden? I guess few. However, the more I learned about Sweden, the more it turned out that Sweden was worth coming under the spotlight. Not to mention the Swedish economy takes advantages in its economic model and global competitiveness, level of happiness is in the higher position in the world. As if that wasn't enough, it is said that Swedish citizens among the countries in Europe where English isn't the mother tongue, speaks very fluent English. Equal society between women and men is also worthy to be stated.

My first experience abroad gave me a new perspective on things. What I saw, felt and thought there has made my life go forward and forward. Now, I'm in Sweden again in order to grow and take another step towards realizing my dream.

3. I'm not qualified to be entrepreneur yet
There are things I want to do in the future, but before that can happen there are a lot of things to do such as extending the knowledge about the world and improving my language skills. However, before I deal with that I noticed that I had a fundamental problem. It seemed as if I lacked tolerance and acceptability for other cultures.
It was just after I had a discussion with an Indian guy that I came to reflect on that. I tried to persuade him that my opinion was the definitely right one, but he didn't get convinced and vice versa. Then I noticed that each one of our logics came from different contexts and experiences. In my opinion, all we need for a cross-cultural understanding is to have a good overview of the said person's background and that would be the core for an cross-cultural understanding. The fact that it was much harder than I had expected came to me as a shock.

I have a bad habit of denying the filthy, bad side of the world and matters, that to me, are incomprehensible. It would be impossible for me to face and solve the problem of poverty or other problems in the world with such an attitude because there could be more challenging situations which are hard to accept. Anyhow, I appreciate this discovery since I felt that this could be a fresh start for me.

4. Opening up the way to the future not on theory, but on my experiences
Everything I had experienced here for real has gone beyond what I had imagined previously and is quite interesting. I'm doing my best to acquire fresh interesting experiences as much as I can. In the course of my growth, by facing myself, I have found myself about what I didn't know before. I made some breakthroughs. Although I have a lot of room for improvement, I'm sure that I've definitely been growing. Thanks to these experiences, I can consider who I am and which way to go in the future.

What now remains of my exchange life is no more than a half year in Sweden, but I believe that the rest of the time will have a critical influence on my future. In order to pioneer my possibilities, I'm now doing my best to seize my dream.

（Translated 　by Hirokazu FUJINO, and revised by Naoya Yoshimura）