Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The first thing is, the Japanese courses are OUTSTANDING. You learn a ton of information and everything is taught very clearly. For instance, each vocabulary word that you learn (at least for my level's classes and below) is accompanied by an example sentence so that you understand how to actually use it, and there were literally no exceptions to this rule. The Japanese classes are Tufts-level challenging and require a lot of work. However the teachers were very kind and very willing to help you. Just don't miss class too often because sometimes that can really annoy the teacher. The non-Japanese courses I learned an okay amount but I really could've learned more. For instance, the introductory economics course I took there got counted as EC 2 for credit. Note that they don't even teach a course that low-numbered at Tufts, with EC 5 being Intro to Economics here. And the amount I learned kind of merited that course number. The sociology course I took wasn't very interesting either, and not academically challenging. However, I went on a couple of field trips with those classes, the economics one being really great, and the lack of academic challenge is a very good thing because it enables you to travel, have fun and learn outside of a classroom, something you're going to be doing for the rest of your life after college is over. Plus, the Japanese classes are challenging enough. Lastly the non-Japanese professors were generally foreigners (and all of the non-Japanese classes are taught in English, but if you're really, really good you can test into being able to take classes taught in Japanese for the Japanese students there). They were quite nice and helpful, but their classes could've been more interesting. One benefit of the Asian Studies Program (which is what you enroll in) is that you can meet not only a lot of Japanese students but also students from other countries. I became friends with people from Canada, Russia, Australia, Singapore, Latvia and South Africa, and it was definitely awesome to talk to them about things like the South Ossetian conflict, Québec's independence movement and even Australia's government; can you name its prime minister? This is a great opportunity that doesn't require you be a poli-sci or an IR major to take it up. And speaking of that, I'm a math major that's trying to decide whether he wants to major in French or Japanese (or neither), and I've taken up to Japanese 4, but I'm in 100-level French classes because I've taken French since junior high. I have 4 classes left for the math major, so I could've stayed a whole year if I wanted to, and almost did, but I decided in the end to continue on my original plan to go to Paris the spring semester. If you're a math major, don't expect to fulfill any math credits when you're at Gaidai. If you want to go abroad and you're a freshman who thinks he/she might be a math major, it's definitely possible to go abroad even for a full year, especially if you test out of Math 11 and 12, but try to take as much math as possible sophomore year. Get Math 46 (linear algebra) out of the way ASAP (preferably frosh spring semester!) and take Math 135 or 145 your sophomore year if you can. You can't take either of those if you haven't taken 46 already, although I don't think 46 is really necessary for 135 or 136 at all. You could also take 161 or something if you haven't taken 46. If you're a science major I don't think there's much you can take for your major here either.

On-site administration of your program

The bureaucracy was relatively unannoying, and you could ask the front desk of the Center of International Education pretty much anything. They were very helpful with taking me to the hospital when I needed to go there (note: the hospital and the doctor's office are equivalent in Japan. They use the word "byouin" for going to the doctor's too), and whenever I needed help with pretty much anything, like train routes or my homestay family or understanding Japanese customs, I could just go there. Very accessible. Oh, and they were VERY helpful in dealing with things that involved the Japanese government, like registering at the local city hall and getting your alien ID card.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I lived 15-20 minutes away by bike from the campus, in a relatively small house with two floors in Hirakata, the city where Gaidai is located. I had my own room, Internet access (some people don't get internet with their homestay!!), and a bike that I borrowed from the family. Very convenient location, because unlike what I feel is the majority of homestay students, I didn't have to take the train. Some people had an hour's commute. <br /><br /> Well, I'm pretty satisfied with the homestay experience. I think I got what I could out of it, especially in terms of what it offered in regards to language, since I talked in Japanese the whole time. However, since my homestay parents' kids were all grown up and the dad was retired (and awkward) while the mom was a busy piano teacher, there wasn't much I could do with them, so I pretty much spent a minimal amount of time in the house. This made getting along with them a more gradual process, especially over the first month where they didn't understand how I might be allergic to dust. I didn't write that down on the form for what my allergies were, so that caused some calamity and stress, and I ended up having to go to the hospital to get an allergy test, which in Japan means they draw blood (in the US they just put plastic with allergens on the plastic on your skin and see whether your skin has a reaction). So now I can officially say that I am almost three times as allergic to dust as the normal person! It didn't help that I only played piano at my homestay once, not even two times, since I played frisbee all the way up until 5:30 or 6 o'clock every day. This meant I got home at about dinner time, after which it was too late to play piano because the noise would bother the neighbors. I have been playing piano since I was 5 and I did want to have the opportunity to practice when I was there, but that didn't end up happening, so one of the only opportunities I had to interact with my host family was cut off. So basically as far as a social experience goes it could've been better, but it was certainly a learning experience. The time I spent with my friends more than made up for the lack of time I spent with my host family, however. I recommend the host family housing option strictly to ensure that you get the language experience. A couple of my friends had bad experiences, one of them even moving out, and everyone had some form of difficulty with his/her family at some point. But most people found it worthwhile and a lot of fun, especially those who had kids in the family. Another option is independent housing. You can find a house somewhere in the area, and I'm not sure if the university helps you do it, but you should be able to find someplace cheap. If you don't know anyone there yet, however, you're probably going to be living alone, so that might not be a good idea because you might get lonely when nobody's around. Most people, however, do homestay or dorm housing. Dorm housing puts you with other foreigners. Most people have fun with this experience too, but you are not going to get the same language experience unless you dedicate yourself to hanging out with Japanese friends all the time or talking every day with the few Japanese students (usually just an RA or two) living in your dorm. And even then you are going to be talking much more in English. Also, you have the freedom of living in a college dorm, but please note that homestay definitely in most instances does not really take away any freedom. Most people I know, myself included, didn't have curfews. I couldn't even name a person who did, and only heard of one person having one! Also, I had a free (borrowed) bike due to homestay, so that was another huge benefit. Most people bought bikes. If you have problems with living in a host family, then you can work those out at the Center for International Education desk with Mrs. Hashimoto there. She's very helpful, and thanks to Japanese culture where people don't tell people things directly, the process is kind of awkward with having to talk with her over the phone, but this way problems get resolved pretty quickly with her help. The language and culture barrier is a pretty huge problem and she helps enormously. Also, the food that my homestay mother cooked is the best I have had in my life, period, and I miss it dearly. By that I mean both the best-tasting and best for my health out of anything I've ever had. I knew I was eating healthy so I ate a lot, and when I came back I learned that I had gained 5 pounds, but none of it was fat (frisbee probably helped me out here too). I wish I asked her for her recipes, though I probably wouldn't have been able to pull them off as well as she did. But the food looked relatively simple to cook so now I'm going to try to learn how to cook the Japanese food I had. Either way, AMAZING food and I could hardly eat American food when I came back. As far as safety goes, well, Japan is a really safe country, so my neighborhood was certainly very safe and I felt pretty safe going home at night. The things you need to watch out for are bike theft (lock your bike!) and drunk people in cars, motorbikes and regular bikes or just walking down the street. One of my friends was riding down a bike one day and crashed into a drunk dude who was walking and stumbling all over the place. Drunk dude walked away fine, friend got a concussion, a broken jaw and his teeth knocked out; he could barely eat for 1-2 months and for four weeks they wouldn't let him leave his dorm. He recovered, though, which is a testament to the effectiveness of Japan's medical system, but just please be careful at night as a lot of people get really, really drunk in Japan very frequently. As far as people robbing you on the street, well, they say that if that happens, it's a foreigner. You really don't need to worry about anything like that.

Again, my host mother cooked the best food I've ever had, both in terms of taste and how healthy it was. The school had several cafeterias but the main one was the best, and it was really outstanding. Mmm, curry rice, udon, katsu don, "club lunch," kara-age, sesame seed balls with red bean in them, I miss it ALL. If you're a vegetarian or a vegan, you might be able to get a host family that can accommodate you but expect to have some difficulty here. Still, my host mother said it's relatively easy to be vegetarian in Japan, and most of what we ate at home was a bunch of really healthy vegetables. Occasionally for meat I would get about four small pieces and that was all for that night, with the rest of the meal consisting of miso soup, tofu, konnyaku, oden, lettuce, brussels sprouts and other things dipped in dashi or with other sauces that made everything so delicious. Outstanding meals, again. One guy I knew had a host family that couldn't really cook, however...

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Gaidai is also a very immersive experience. They make it pretty easy to make Japanese friends. You take all your courses in the Center for International Education (CIE), a building that has a huge lounge where foreigners and Japanese students both come in large numbers to hang out, and there's tons of opportunities to make Japanese friends. Sometimes (this happened to me 3 times) they'll just sit down and say they want to talk to you, maybe to speak English but more likely because they want to make friends. There are a decent amount of clubs (the Japanese use the word "circle" for what we'd call a "club" and "club" for what we'd call a "team," by the way), and you can just ask at the front desk of the CIE if you're interested in joining one. But what I did that really got me immersed in the whole experience was I found people to play frisbee with. Frisbee was incredibly fun at Gaidai and I do miss it and the great friends (foreigners and Japanese) that I met playing it pretty much on a daily basis. We sometimes called our thing the "frisbee circle" but really it wasn't formalized (in the great spirit of Ultimate). We played most of the time on a weird artificial field that had bricks and metal grates (to drain it!) running through it, so it wasn't the best option but it sufficed. We didn't play hardcore (like running plays and certain defensive strategies; didn't keep the turnover or throw-it-without-looking rule for if you drop the pull) but it was still Ultimate, still a great workout and a lot of fun. There's also basketball and soccer, a rather inadequate gym, and tennis (I think unfortunately you have to join the club [maybe a circle exists?] to use the courts). Also, a running circle led by an American professor. But frisbee gave me my awesome friends and being with those friends, whether it was frisbee or hanging out or singing our lungs out at karaoke or going places, was definitely the best experience of my trip there. One thing to note is that I do wish I'd hung out with my Japanese friends a little more. Furthermore, there's a great deal of social reluctance in Japan and if you're reluctant to just call them to hang out and get to know them more, then your reluctance and theirs isn't going to be a good combination. That's something you should keep in mind while you're there. Also, the language barrier really isn't that big of one at all, even if you constantly trip over your Japanese like I did at first. If anything, getting across it has given me some of the most meaningful friendships I've ever had. As for cultural experiences, well, see the section on housing for that, and also there's tons of free time to just grab some friends (or go alone!) and hop on a train to Osaka or Kyoto (25-40 minutes to Osaka, 30-60 to Kyoto depending on where you're going) and see a lot of temples, shrines, festivals and performances at those temples and shrines and elsewhere, landmarks, amazing stores and just enjoy the beauty of the scenery, especially when you first get there and when the autumn leaves start to change color. The university itself offers Japanese-student-led programs but people sign up for them fast, so check things like Kyoto's official tourism website and make your own plans. The train system is very good so even if you're not used to or afraid of making plans like I am, you don't have to worry much.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

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

Like I mentioned above, the language classes are outstanding. You learn so much in so little time and you are given full reign to apply what you've learned. At Gaidai you must take a Spoken Japanese course, while the Reading and Writing Japanese course is optional. [Note: Their idea to split these into two separate classes was a very good one.] If you want to receive credit from Tufts you had better take both courses. There are 7 levels for each course, and I placed into Level 4 for both. (Note: I had taken JPN 1 through 4 at Tufts; Level 4 at Gaidai is basically JPN 21 and maybe 22, I don't know yet, at Tufts.) Gaidai uses the Genki textbooks for Levels 1-3, and Level 4 uses Gaidai's own textbooks instead of The Japan Times's Intermediate Japanese. Since Gaidai uses Genki, Tufts JPN 4 was certainly enough to prepare me to go there. In Gaidai Level 4 (I hope I haven't thoroughly confused you by now) I learned about 1000 vocabulary words, maybe more, and about 350 new kanji, as well as tons of grammar points, for use in formal/informal conversation and in writing. This required a lot of work to keep up with the class; there were times near the end of the semester where I had to memorize about 80-100 vocab words just for one quiz, with little time to do it. It's all worth it, though, because you can use everything you learn with the Japanese friends you meet. I had a field day using keigo (honorific speech) with my friends jokingly including during frisbee matches, but you really learn how to communicate in Japanese, and this is more than just vocabulary and grammar. It's really fantastic, and the Japanese classes enabled me to make some really good friends while I was abroad, in the regrettably short four months that I was there.

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• Host Family

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• International Students