My study

I started my higher education in September of 2025 at Zuyd University in Maastricht. The study of International Communication with Languages drew me in because I always knew I wanted to pursue an international career, in whatever shape that could be. Also it stood out because it’s the only HBO study that offers Japanese in the Netherlands. Growing up I always had a fascination with language and cultures, especially Japan, so it was a great match from the start. My parents said jokingly that it was like this study was made for me.

When it came to picking a course I was very picky and confused. I knew exactly what i didn't want but was still lost trying to figure out what it is that I did want. I wanted something international, with the possibility to travel and to work with some people but not too many. I went to see a lot of tourist studies but none of them felt exactly right. I felt lost and frustrated until my mom found the course International Communication with the possibility of studying Japanese. It was far away from home and sounded nice online but I wasn't fully sure if it was the right thing. At the open day I found out it was exactly the course fit for me. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to find something that is practical and professional yet also creative.

At first I was still going back and forth between Japanese and Chinese. Japanese had been my dream at that point but Chinese is the most spoken language in the world. That's when my mom told me that a coworker of hers advised me to pick Japanese. He said that the business world is currently being dominated by the Chinese so it's a big market. But learning Japanese would mean specialising yourself and making yourself even more useful, especially seeing as the Japanese are very culture oriented. So when the time came to make a decision I chose Japanese.

Classes in my course

In September school started and so did the Japanese classes. I was told at the open day that the class is truly for beginners and it indeed was. Some people prepared over the summer but I hadn't had the opportunity. The class has a bit of a tough start because you have to learn and get comfortable using a lot of characters in a short period of time. On top of that, some characters look very different handwritten which can get super frustrating at times. After a while you start to really know the characters and from that point on the work is mostly grammar and vocabulary. The Japanese language is so beautiful and simple to me and I love learning it.

"Practicing Japanese characters in class."

The subject I was the most nervous for was communication. This has so far also been the subject that I have struggled with the most in my course. I appreciate precise instructions for big projects which the teachers usually don't give. I like to have visual examples but i understand that they cant give that due to us having to learn how it works ourselves. Outside of the pressure I get from it I am having fun trying to figure out the projects. I have gotten the opportunity to work in different roles in a team and see what suits me best. I never really liked having a leading role but I am starting to realise that I'm more comfortable leading than I thought. I like that the course is helping me learn things about myself.

So far my absolute favorite part of the course is Intercultural Communication. I always had a thing for trying to figure out how people think and why they act a certain way. It is so fascinating to me that a “simple” thing like culture can explain why people do things the way they do. Even my daily life is impacted by what I'm learning. I have a very multicultural friend group and environment, and it's so interesting how my friends are exact representations of their culture. And when disagreements happen in the group I can understand every person so much more than before, because our culture impacts us all so deeply. Sometimes you can't even tell you’re being insensitive until you learn how to deal with cultural differences.

Guest lectures

1st semester

Mrs Koolmees - Libelle Magazine

This guest lecture was something I was really looking forward to because my grandmother loves this magazine. The Libelle always has a cartoon on the back and my grandmother would cut them out and give them to me to read. Growing up I also adored magazines so it was super interesting to find out how they create new issues. Seeing how they created pinterest- and mood boards really inspired me for the magazine we created.

Lot Niessen - Writing a magazine

During this lecture I learned a lot about the structure of a magazine. Whereas in the previous lecture it was more about the inspiration and theme of a magazine issue. She talked about the different kinds of articles and where to place them to create a comfortable reading experience. She brought up points that I didn’t even think about when brainstorming our magazine concept. Together they really guided me through all I needed to know when it came to creating our magazine.

"My group and I with Mrs Koolmees"

2nd semester

Jordi de Wijs - Persona's

The theme of this semester’s project was making a customer journey and using communication tools to attract a specific audience to your event. To start our project we had to do internal and external analysis and make a persona based on our research. He showed us examples of what persona’s can look like, and he gave us in depth examples on what kind of communication tools we can use based on the demographic we are working with. Even though we had to make a persona in the first semester, I really like that we got an extra lecture on it. And on top of that, I got a bunch of inspiration for my communication tools that I had to write later on.

Sander Ruijters - Presenting

Sander Ruijters gave us a guest lecture on presenting. He was a very excited and bubbly guy and clearly loves his job. He was telling us how he started doing presenter work and what kind of jobs he works now. It was really cool to see what his job was and I understood why he got invited to give a lecture. Yet I found the lecture to be a bit disappointing. He didn’t actually explain how to present or how to get over stagefright, it was more a lecture about himself. I had a great time listening to him nonetheless.

WeAreRoermond visit

"At the event in Roermond."

In December we got invited to visit the event WeAreRoermond had set up in the city, ROERMONDVOL Licht. This was the event that we had to do our project on so it was really nice to get some insight and see the event for ourselves. There were a few downsides to the trip. First is that ROERMONDVOL Licht is a night event and we went to go see it in the morning. The second issue was that the WeAreRoermond staff weren’t able to answer our questions. Which was a bit frustrating because we were missing critical information for our project due to that. I still had a lot of fun in Roermond, I just wish it was organised a bit better next time.

3rd semester

Ingrid Grimbergen - Maastricht Convention Bureau

Ingrid Grimbergen works at the Maastricht Convention Bureau and came to tell us about the company. MCB was our client this semester and in her lecture she was giving us more information about the project that was awaiting us. It was a little overwhelming because we had just learned what our project was going to be, and as much as I appreciated the information, it was just a lot. After the lecture I found out other students felt equally overwhelmed. It had nothing to do with Mrs Grimbergen, but the planning could have been a bit better.

Carine Sijbers

Mrs Sijbers came to give a lecture on how to create a business stand for a convention. She also explained how storytelling could be used at your stand. Carine is an event-professional and works a lot with storytelling herself. She guided us and gave us a bunch of useful information I was able to use and apply in the project. It was interesting to learn how much influence storytelling subconsciously has on us, and how much it impacts our decisions.

Fenix museum

In March we went on a field trip to Rotterdam to the fenix museum. We started off in a cafe where we got served authentic Indonesian food. The Japanese exchange students were also there so we got to practice our conversation a bit more. After lunch, we got to learn about Chinese immigrants in Rotterdam and their culture, which was super interesting. They are working on an exhibition about it to preserve that part of their culture and to share it. I love what they are doing and I hope it works out amazing for them.

The second part of the trip was spent in the actual Fenix Museum. We saw an exhibition highlighting the art of immigrants and their impact. As a child of 2 immigrants I loved the exhibition. Some art pieces really moved me. I was walking around with one of the Japanese girls リセ (Rise), and as broken as my Japanese was, it was one of my favorite conversations ever. The more we spoke I felt more confident and excited talking to her. I had so much fun with my friends learning about culture heritage and it was a great field trip.

"My friends and I with the exchange students at the Fenix Museum."

Kennedy Sarmon

Kennedy Sarmon is an alumna of Zuyd University. She studied Japanese, the same way I am doing now. She told us about her experience doing the course and what we should be expecting. It was super interesting hearing about her experience doing the exchange! It was unfortunate to hear that an average of 2 students go to each school. I would’ve liked going with my friends, and it seems a little daunting going alone. Outside the information about the exchange, I didn’t fully understand the purpose of the lecture. She made it a bit personal and the tone was a bit hopeless. She talked about the difficulty of finding a job, even with all of her internships. I would’ve liked her to be a bit more positive during the lecture, aside from that I appreciated a lot of information I received.