Japan-Palau Alumni Series: Vol.21 Ms. Sherma Nagata

Ms. Sherma Nagata is one of the successful alumni of the Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship. Ms. Nagata studied Hotel Management at Trajal, the Osaka Railway and Tourism College.
 
After graduating from Palau High School in 1996, Ms. Nagata applied for the Japanese Government Scholarship. Her interest in Japan began at an early age, as her grandfather was from Chiba Prefecture. This connection inspired her to explore Japan's culture and language further.
 
During her first six months in Japan, she focused on language studies, building on basic Japanese learned at Palau High School and familiar words from the Palauan language. The initial months were challenging, but she was “determined not to give up.” The language barrier made things difficult at times, but she diligently studied, with guidance from a “senpai” Ms. Alison Masami, and her teacher, Ms. Maruoka. Her teacher only spoke Japanese to Ms. Nagata during their time studying together even though she was fluent in English. By the end of her stay in Japan, Ms. Nagata had mastered the ability to read, write, and speak Japanese. She tells us that, technology has advanced but back then it was “difficult to access different study materials”. Many of the international students would not finish their studies and returned to their countries because of the language barrier. They could not contact home quite as often, but luckily for Ms. Nagata her father worked for Continental Micronesia Airlines (now, United Airlines) so she was able to visit Palau more frequently.
 
Ms. Nagata enjoyed attending festivals and traveling around the Kansai area. She was even able to travel to Shibuya in Tokyo to visit another Palauan student and also her relative. Another place she visited was Mie Prefecture where she went with another Palauan student to meet with the President of Palau at the time, the late Mr. Kuniwo Nakamura. She tells us that she “enjoyed the food…crowds…and exploring.” Ms. Nagata is very outgoing and sociable, so she was able to make friends with many of her classmates from Laos, Cambodia, Mexico, Morocco, Fiji and many other international students even though they didn’t speak the same language. She really likes Japanese food, her favorite being okonomiyaki.
 
After Ms. Nagata’s return to Palau, she worked for Japan Airlines as a ground agent from the year 2000 to 2013 when they ceased operation to Palau. She and another Palauan were the only two people working for Japan Airlines, she would make the boarding, screening, and paging announcements in Japanese. She was able to travel several times to Japan for trainings at Haneda or Narita airport. She said that back then she utilized her Japanese language skills quite often. In 2014, Ms. Nagata started working at her current job at Koror State Public Land Authority as a Realty Specialist. She enjoys her work, but the downside is that she does not use Japanese language at all which is why she now feels less confident in speaking Japanese.
 
Beyond the 30 years of friendship between Japan and Palau, Ms. Nagata wishes for the good relations between the two countries to grow stronger. She says, “Japan and Palau’s relationship is the best. Japan has helped our schools, reconstructed our bridges, fixed roads.”