To all international students out there from the student body at Kansai Gaidai University, Hirakata, Japan
We have chosen to address you because you are just the first in a long line of artists, writers, friends and coworkers to whom we are sending this message.
We are the voices representing all of you out there studying overseas, everywhere.
We write to you because we are struggling communicating not with foreign students, but with our own compatriots.

Some lack empathy and basic understanding of our struggles. Albeit no fault of their own. Many of us cannot speak fluent conversational English yet. However, though be it sloppy, we can manage it. This is a problem because when we ask lots of questions in classes for example, classmates think we are being mean.
But we are not just being cross, though we might sometimes actually be less than nice. In reality we are simply like all of you, a curious bunch. It’s only natural for us.
Though still, we don’t hold this against our fellow classmates. They are just students themselves and naturally inquisitive about the words surrounding them.
So now we wonder if in some fashion you might be able to help us with our mission. This is a mission whose goal is to Simply spread a message to students.
Mission statement:
It is our goal simply to empathize with ALL people in other countries studying foreign languages. We want to show them that though the languages they are learning are vastly different from our own, all is well. When you are learning different languages whose dialects are so hard your head wants to collapse in on itself, you need to know more than anything else in the world that what is important is not how much you memorize or what grade you get on your test. What is important is context, communication, empathy and feelings.
If you speak someone’s language at all, if you know what foods they eat, what books they read, what streets they take home after a hard day at work, and if you know how to pronounce their daughters and sons names, that is what is important.
Most of all, at the end of a person’s sentence, if they can say “I understand” then you are okay. Despite what people may ignorantly utter behind your back, ignore it. Please know that even those who don’t understand you now, tomorrow they might.
And that possibility is what makes knowledge beautiful.
Sincerely,
Kansai Gaidai Student Body