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Exchange programs at Japanese universitie | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Maximus Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6691 days ago 417 posts - 427 votes  Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Thai | Message 1 of 6 27 March 2009 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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How many people here have participated in exchange programs at Japanese universities for the benefit of language advancement? For example exchange programs with a duration of a year or 6 months. How was your experiences of the program and how beneficial was it for learning the language? What were the results? What were to good points and bad points?
The truth is that from the end of this summer onwards it is highly possible that I with be able to participate in an exchange program with a duration of 1 year at a Japanese university which will consist mainly of intensive language classes. I have studied at a language school while doing an homestay in Japan before, and I have done the same in other countries. However, I have still never experienced life studying in a Japanese university located in a big city. Before I have experienced mainly countryside Japan which in my opinion is the best part of Japan. Also when I go to Japan this time, I will not be doing a homestay and will most likely have to live in the internation students' residence. For sure a negative point. Maybe it could even be called a concern. Because living in a large city and studying at a Japanese university will be a first for me, I would like to hear any experiences, advice, opinions, et cetera. Some of my questions are, "what should anyone in this situation do to get the most out of the program languagewise?" "Are these types of programs generally good and do they work well?" (I heared that foreign language instruction is broken terribly in most places) Naturally I would like to get the most I can out of this program and so if anyone can give any advice or anything in hindsight, I will be all ears. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| joha87 Newbie United States Joined 5688 days ago 14 posts - 21 votes Studies: Korean, English* Studies: German | Message 2 of 6 02 April 2009 at 8:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Definitely a year of intensive Japanese classes in Japan, will help your Japanese immensely, but I am worried about the accommodations. The best thing would be to enter a regular Japanese dorm. This would give you access to lots of Japanese friends and give you the opportunity to actually practice the Japanese you're learning, everyday.
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| Maximus Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6691 days ago 417 posts - 427 votes Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Thai | Message 3 of 6 03 April 2009 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, the accomodation is my concern. I think that almost all foreign students have to live in the internation students residence. Why they even have such a thing I don't know! In the universities of my country, regardless of nationality, everyone lives in the same dormitory. I guess the reason why there is an isolated foreign students' residence is simply becuase of stereotypical Japanese zenophobia. I cannot think of any other logical reason. The truth is the more I study Japanese, the more I love the language. Conversely the more I interact with Japanese people, the more I dislike their values and ideas. This is another concern I have. I am concerned about going crazy when I am there if things don't go well. But maybe with a little luch I might be as happy as when I was in Japn the previous time. Who knows how it may be? The people in the dormitory could be people of pretty much any country. I suppose that there will be a lot of East Asians like Chinese people for example. From my point of view, the fewer the number of English speakers, the better. The more people who can only speak Asian languages the better. I suppose that if my room mates are all non English speaking Asians, it won't be such a problem. If they are all native Anglophones, I will be screwed. If that is the case, maybe I could just feign depression (owed to the fact that I cannot immerse myself properly)or something like that and beg them to let me move to a different dorminatory! The university doesn't provide any kind of homestay programs as far as I have read. If they actually did, I don't know whether or know I who live with a host family again. I have bad experience with hostfamilies in Japan. Some host families are only doing it because they want to bleed English practice out of any students who live with them. Some host families are bullies. Edited by Maximus on 03 April 2009 at 8:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kaikai Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5697 days ago 27 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 4 of 6 04 April 2009 at 6:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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I went to college in Japan for Japanese in Niigata-ken. As I understood it, there was approximately only 200 foreigners in the entire prefecture. The classes move at an exceptionally slow pace. I learned more in the evenings and on the weekends at the gym, in stores, on the street, or in bars than I did in the actual class or around school. I had more problems with the students than the 'native Anglophones' because we were all there for the same purpose. Quite to the contrary, my eight Anglo buddies were great support when I needed it and really didn't bother me otherwise. I lived with a Japanese guy who was never even in the dorm room. It really worked out nicely. We had a male building and a female building. For the Anglos, there were only two white girls and the rest of us guys.
The Japanese students were a pain the in ass because they primarily wanted me to help them with their English homework. So, after class, I was on the train and out in the town learning Japanese. I made better friends on the outside of school. I recommend that you find a school in a small town away from a big city. It’s generally cheaper and you'll have more finances to travel and have fun. In Tokyo, you’re just another foreigner. In a smaller town, you are a little more special. It’s very easy to find work if you want it. I was the liaison for the school at the local Rotary chapter. Those connections were great. So, you already know what works. I would go back to the small town life and stay away from the big city life. Make use of whatever program just to get a place to sleep and eat. Then get out elsewhere and learn Japanese. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| joha87 Newbie United States Joined 5688 days ago 14 posts - 21 votes Studies: Korean, English* Studies: German | Message 5 of 6 04 April 2009 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Forgive me if the following seems critical. It's not meant to be. I just mean it as possibly the best advice I can give someone. I would really advise to stop thinking so negatively this way if you want to succeed in learning Japanese. Maybe the university doesn't let foreigners stay in the regular Japanese dorms because, probably they know that many foreigners can't speak Japanese very well yet and likewise many of the Japanese dorm students can't speak English well, so communication would be nearly impossible. A lot of dorms have all kinds of campus duties and activities that requires this communication. At my uni, they have a well-known English program, so a lot of the Japanese students can communicate something in English if we don't understand the Japanese. So maybe that's why my uni allows foreigners to enter the dorm. It doesn't have to be because of "stereotypical Japanese xenophobia". There's no way of knowing, so why bother make negative conclusions that can just poison your perspective of Japanese people. It is really important to think positively and be extremely tolerant, instead of negative when approaching other cultures. You might not like their ideas or values, but what does it hurt to try to see things their way a little bit? You could walk with a more open perspective. Think of it this way. To learn the language, you need to make friends with Japanese people, and if you dislike them, you can see that this would be quite hard. As for Japanese xenophobia, I personally think it's way too over-exaggerated. As a minority who grew up in the U.S. and is now living in Japan for the moment, I don't feel Japanese are any more xenophobic than Westerners and at least in the case of the United States, my home country, quite a bit better overall. Many Japanese honestly don't have any or much experience dealing with foreigners, so you need to keep that in mind. Other things is just part and parcel of being a minority. I'm not saying that there isn't racism, but what country doesn't have problems with racism? If you really don't like the culture, then you should just stop studying Japanese. One of the purposes of learning a language is to eventually utilize it, and if you dislike the culture then why would you want to utilize it. Every bit of literature you read, media you listen to or watch, and people you speak to will be inundated with that culture's values and ideas. But yeah, those accommodations could be a problem. Do you have any other options for schools? Other than that, yeah, you need to get out a lot more. As for whether a small town or City is better, that should be a question more of what kind of lifestyle that you would prefer. You shouldn't pick a small town just to feel more "unique", if you hate small towns. I live in Tokyo and I just love everything about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Maximus Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6691 days ago 417 posts - 427 votes Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Thai | Message 6 of 6 04 April 2009 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes I value your advice and ideas. I do want to be positive. I have lived in inaka Japan for three months and really loved it. I don't hate Japanese people or culture. However, I realize that many foreigners who have lived in Japan seem to mention that they have a hard time making friends. Similarly many say that most Japanese are reluctant to befriend foreigners, unless they want something from us. For example free English lessons. At this moment I am just worried about intergrating. Last time I managed to get loads of friends because they were introduced to me by my host family. Most of them were people older than me so I found them interesting. I am a bit on the socially shy side, so talking to youngsters my own age is rather difficult for me. On your comments on whether or not I should be or should not be studying Japanese, I understand your point that the culture of any language is embedded in its literature, or just about anything for that matter. However, even if it were so that I dispised the culture and people (which isn't true at the moment), I don't think that would necessarily mean that my Japanese studies thus far have been a waste or that I have no reason to continue with the language. The reasons being, 1) Because I already have a reasonably high level and I am so close to my objective of gaining fluency in a language completely unrelated to my own. (learning a totally unrelated non-indoeuropean language was always a personal goal of mine. Truthfully I wanted to prove to myself that I could tackle such a distant language) 2) Because I am about to complete my goal of mastering the writing system of a character based language. It all depends on personal goals. As a related topic, I am now old enough to realize that all cultures are full of bad guys. I have stopped liking any culture or any people. Now days I only seem to have interest in language per se. I wish my opinion of humanity would stop being so negative! Anyway, thanks for you advice. I will try to be more positive. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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