BY SHIHO SASAKI

Nick Faddle and Diana Ingermanson came to Sapporo University as exchange students from Ball State University in Indiana last September. They came to Sapporo University to get better at speaking Japanese and to study Japanese culture.
When I began this interviewing with them, I was very surprised to hear them speak Japanese. I interviewed them in both English and Japanese. Both Nick and Diana are from Richmond, Indiana. They began to study Japanese when they were seniors at Richmond High School. They said that they were interested in the Japanese language, which is considered very difficult and they wanted to give it a try. To my question of what they thought when they began to study Japanese, Diana answered, "It was exciting and fun." Nick said, "I felt excited too, but I was discouraged because I did not think I would be able to speak Japanese at all." It has been four years since they started studying Japanese. I was surprised that their fluent Japanese is the fruit of only four years of study. Now they do not have much trouble in their daily life in Japanese. They are enjoying life in Japan. Recently they went to a hot spring for the first time and seemed to like it very much.
At BSU there are about 17,000 students and many different kinds of departments. Diana belongs to the Accounting Department and Nick belongs to the Foreign Language Department and his major is Japanese. After graduation, Nick wants to become an Assistant English Teacher (AET) and teach English at elementary school in Japan. Since he likes music very much he wants to go to music school and work in the music business. Diana wants to join some accounting company and work in the international department to assist Japanese companies in America. It is admirable to hold a clear purpose and work for it during college days.
Their hobby is music. They like punk rock and going to concerts. Nick plays the guitar and drums. Diana likes skiing, golf and outdoor life, too. Speaking of sports, basketball is one of the most popular sports in Indiana. There are a lot of open areas and big arenas at BSU and students play games there on weekends.
Nick said, "Sapporo University is small but the buildings are new." Diana said, "It is better to have a car in Indiana, but the transportation is very good in Sapporo." They have 13 classes a week from Monday to Friday. They enjoy their life because they have plenty of free time.
However, Nick said, "Our university has a big library, land, trees, and the buildings are very big." And Diana said, "There are a lot of clubs to make friends. I belong to a Business Fraternity. We do volunteer work like cleaning up the community and bringing in speakers from business, and other things. In our school, there are a wide variety of different people and they are very nice and friendly. And I think the programs are also good." On weekends, Nick and Diana usually go to watch basketball or baseball games at BSU, or go to rock concerts. They said that there are a lot of things to do on weekends. "You can do more than party," said Nick.
We had a good talk about music, movies, language and culture. It was interesting and I was impressed by their charming smiles. Though they will be leaving Japan this December, we hope that they enjoy the rest of their stay in Japan.