Study abroad at Kansai Gaidai University Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The Japanese courses I took at Kansai Gaidai were very helpful; however, I did not feel that I gained much from the required (6 hours of) other courses that I took. I would have much rather taken 14 hours of Japanese than 8 hours of Japanese and 6 hours of other courses. So I would give the Japanese courses a 4.5/5 or 5/5 but the other courses only 3/5. I did not care for these classes because, while the workload was light, it didn't feel relevant to the reason I was there.

On-site administration of your program

I had no problems with the administration at Kansai Gaidai. They always seemed helpful and informed and were willing to work with students to help make their stays more pleasant and enjoyable.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

As I mentioned above, this situation made it hard to immerse yourself in the language. Other than that, the dorms were safe, in good condition, and they were only a 5 minute bike ride from school. While there wasn't a whole lot of 'nightlife' very close to the dorms, it was very easy to get around by bike, bus, and train to do whatever you wanted to do.

I loved almost everything I ate there (The exception is notto), the cafeteria in the school had filling, cheap, and good food and there were many places to eat in the city. The only thing I would change if I went back is I would cook a little more for myself and go out a little less. I say that only because now that I am back in America, I want to be able to eat many of the things I had in Japan but I don't know how to fix a lot of it!

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Japan is a very accessible country, even without a car. During my time in Japan I went many different places including Kyoto, Nagano, and Tokyo.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I got food poisoning while I was in Japan and was very well taken care of both by the housing staff and in the hospital (note, you don't go to a doctors office if you are sick, you just go to the hospital - my condition wasn't that severe).

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

The only reason that I didn't give this section a 5/5 is because it was too easy to speak English. This made things much more comfortable my first semester in Japan when I didn't speak any Japanese but as I progressed, I wasn't forced to use my Japanese and therefore didn't use it as much as I wish I would have. This is also one of the downsides of living in the Seminar Houses (the dorms offered at Kansai Gaidai) is that you are surrounded by other international students. This makes it much easier to make friends with other english speakers and more difficult to go out on a limb and make many Japanese friends. Overall though, I know that I am at least 2 years ahead of where I would have been if I had only taken classes at OSU.

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