What's it like to go to University in Japan? I don't really have any idea. Kansai Gaidai is an International University with a large mix of Japanese students and International students. Currently the Japanese students are on Spring vacation and will not return to campus until April. This is good for me because it keeps the cafeteria line down. However it means there are less people to practice Japanese with. There are lecture classes for International students that Japanese students who are about to study abroad attend in order to get used to classes in English. I have yet to run into trouble finding Japenese students to speak with and befriend, so don't let the set up of the course system discourage you. 

 

I'll give you a little information on my classes and course schedule so you can get a feel for what it may be like to study in Japan. The day is split up into morning and afternoon courses, in the morning are the Japanese courses and the lecture courses are in the afternoon. I am currently taking 17 hours and it is broken down into 5 hours of Japanese speaking, 3 hours of Japanese reading and writing, and three 3 hour lecture courses. For 50 minutes everyday I take Japanese speaking level 1. This alternates between the times of 9am, 10am, or noon, depending on the day. Reading and writing level 1 meets 3 days a week for 50 minutes, depending on the day it alternates as speaking does. Between speaking Japanese out in public, with Japanese friends, and practicing in the dorms, coupled with both classes, the language is quickly becoming less foreign. There is no better way to learn a language than being immersed in it day in and day out. 

 

As for lecture courses, they meet twice a week for an hour and a half. All of these courses are taught in English to mainly native English speakers. The three courses I am enrolled in are Japanese Popular Media and Culture, Popular Culture as Social Practice, and Gangsters, Gesiha, and Samurai (Japanese influence in Western Film). In all of the classes we mainly take a look at Japanese media and the influence it has in Japan, in the West, and how it is interpreted. Courses are maxed at 35 students so it never feels overwhelming and classes are much more personal. As for the Japanese speaking course there are probably only 10 students per class. 

 

I am generally expected to be on campus from 9am to 6:10pm not including the 20 minute walk it takes me to get there and home everyday. I have quickly become much more disciplined education wise than I ever have been before. I am also quickly becoming much more disciplined in the way I present myself in public, but we will save that for the next post.