Past Review

By Katy H (Archeology., Indiana University of Pennsylvania) for

Kansai Gaidai University: Hirakata - Direct Enrollment & Exchange

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?

I learned alot from being here. Not just Japanese language and culture but from the other international students from all over the world. I got many good friends (as well as a boyfriend) and I love it here. It was nice to overcome bias that we here in our own countries by living with the actual people. I honestly do not want to return home. I like the Japanese lifestyle, especially the food!

Personal Information

If you took classes at multiple universities, list those universities here:	Kansai Gaidai University
The term and year this program took place:	Full-Year 2009

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.	As I said before, The Japanese courses are amazing. They are hard with a ton of work but in the end the rewards are great!
* Host Country Program Administration On-site administration of your program	They are well organized but a bit slow to get things done that you need. Overall they were very helpful and if you needed anything they were more than willing to help. For example if you needed to go to the hospital someone from the program who spoke both English and Japanese would accompany you to help you.
* Housing: How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?	Safe and beautiful neighborhood. It's a bit far from campus (30 minute walk or 5 minute bike ride-there is also the bus but it's expensive). Not much criminal activity..there is some things like purse snatching but it was pretty rare and the police were quick to act on it. The dorm caretakers were very nice and helpful.
* Food:	Very good food. Vegetarians could get food easily without much difficulty (as long as you knew how to request what you want and read labels), the food is good but a bit pricey compared to America. The campus food is better than my home cafeteria and surprisingly much cheaper.
* Social & Cultural Integration: How integrated did you feel with the local culture?
* Health Care: How well were health issues addressed during the program?
* Safety:
If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program?	No

Finances

* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget? (1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Language

How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program?	None
Language acquisition improvement?	Before I came I could barely buy anything at a store or order food..the class at my home university only taught me basic sentence patterns and mostly vocabulary but now I can do almost anything I need to do as well as have conversations with the Japanese people.