Going to school in Japan for summer?

Hi,

I've been studying Japanese for quite a while (3 years) but now, I don't have anybody to teach me, so I don't speak at all, and as I want to take Japanese seriously, I need to practice conversation. And of course, I would like to visit Japan as well.

Several my friends went to England (Cambridge/Oxford) for summer holiday, to go to school there and practise and learn English. So I wonder, is this possible in Japan? My parents afforded me to pay for this, but I don't even know if it is possible. I've got a distant acquaintance in Japan and I got this link from them - http://www.aikgroup.co.jp/j-school/english/index.htm . I tried browsing information about several schools there, but all I found provided college preparation courses, which take 1-2 years. I don't mean to study college in Japan, so what I am looking for is a short, intensive course of Japanese, which would take maybe 4-6 weeks.

So, do some schools offer something like this? I haven't found such a thing yet (at the web I mentioned). If so, anybody has such an experience? There are several things I would like to know, such as how much is usually the tuition (since I found only 1-2 year courses, I can't guess how much would be intensive one for 1 month), how long in advance should I start organizing all the stuff and so on and on.

I am grateful if someone is willing to help me. Thanks.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:00 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Usually any study abroad type program is done for a semester, so half a year.. I have yet to find a program that is as short as you would like it to be...

Also since the Japanese school schedule is different than in most other places, you usually go in around end of May and come back mid-september.

My only suggestion is to look up Japanese schools and see if they offer a study abroad program.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:17 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

ICU offers a summer course: http://subsite.icu.ac.jp/scj/

Don't know of other universities, but then again there's no real reason why I should so there might be some more.

You could also check out dedicated Japanese language schools (outside of the formal education system) where foreigners - mostly Chinese - go to learn Japanese, some of those might have a summer course or a semester rougly spanning the summer.
A friend of mine studied at http://www.aikgroup.co.jp/j-school/english/school/52447840e.htm from September to December of 2006, no problems, so like I said, maybe it's possible to get in in June and until August or something. You could try contacting the school directly.

Anyway, good luck with your Japanese studies, wherever you end up Smile

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:13 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Strait off the bat you're not going to find any program that lasts 4-6 weeks.

Most language schools are designed for students who plan on enter Japanese Universities, so the programs run from 1-2 years, each year split into semesters of 3-4 months each. Some do offer "short term" courses, where you can enter in one of those 3-4 month courses. However none offer a quick fast 4-6 week course in and out course. No practical demand for it from the schools point of view.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:53 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Yes, I had found out before I posted, that most schools provide college preparatory course. That's why I ask Smile

Thanks for replies anyway.

I have found another school list ( http://murasakishikibu.co.jp/jls/ ) and some of them seem to provide even some summer courses. Seems that I will have to send several mails and ask them.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:08 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Here's a site you may want to take a look at: http://www.yamasa.org/.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:09 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Ignore the people who say there are no short term courses in Japan . They're wrong. There are plenty of schools offering short-term courses.

Here are some examples:
http://arc-eg.com/ryugaku/shortterm.html starting from 4 weeks.

http://www.bcc.zenken.co.jp/japanese/bcc_english/page0201.html also from 4 weeks.

The already mentioned excellent Yamasa Institute
http://www.yamasa.org/acjs/english/programs/length4_6.html 6 weeks or less

WLE Japan: http://www.wle-japan.com/japanese-language-schools/language.html from 4 weeks.

And many, many more. Seriously, just google "short-term course Japanese" and you'll find hundreds of matches. I just copy and pasted the first couple of links I had saved when I looked into short-term courses, I have many more.

A word of caution though: I've often heard that the Japanese language schools in Japan are actually not that good (with the exception of the Yamasa institute for which I've only heard praise) due to their very heavy reliance on dry and antiquitated teaching methods typical and still in practice in Asia (drilling etc.). However you're going to use Japanese outside of the classroom a lot (hopefully) so you'd still learn lots if you put an effort into it, so I'd definitely go for it.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:50 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I attended the WLE-Japan program, and while I had a great time, I wouldn't recommend it due to the price. Also, it's more for people that want a vacation. Plus, there are no tests. That's not to say you won't learn anything though. I'd say you could get about a semester's worth of Japanese out of it.

On a positive note, the teachers were really cool and patient, especially with some of the immature, disrespectful students.

Oh, if anyone is interested in WLE programs, you should just apply through this place www.langubridge.org because it's the same programs but cheaper. I found this out from one of the friends I made in Japan. He applied through LanguBridge, and I applied through WLE, but he stayed for two months for just a little more than what I paid.

Anyway, had I known about the Yamasa Institute beforehand, I would've applied for their programs.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:44 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Most of these courses mentioned start at 4 week and run to 3 months.

Even though they say "Starting at 4 weeks" look at their schedule, 3 month courses!
Don't believe me? Go and look at the links provided and actually look at the dates of how long the short term courses run.

If you google "short term japanese courses" and actually look at the scheduled dates offered, most of them are for 3 months. Why 3 months you ask? It is because most people can enter Japan for 90 days under tourist visas, so they try to stretch the program as much as possible to fit 3 months in.

I never said there were NO short term courses, I said there were not many that offered the date ranges they wanted "4-6 weeks". I did say many short term courses are 3 months, and if you look at the dates offered by many of these schools it is 3 months.

Though of course you did find some Yasama, in Nagoya and possibly WLE, however from my understanding don't do it through WLE as they charge you more and they actually use the services of another language school. I would put my bets on Yasama if you want to try out a course, they have a high reputation.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:36 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Néa Vanille, NJunNuity, thank you for your comments. It is a good news, but I forgot to mention one maybe important thing. Several schools accept only high school graduates, I still have one year left in high school. But other schools don't mention that, so I am not sure, whether or not it is required generally. And some of them also required any certificate of knowledge of Japanese from the teacher ... I don't have any.

Yamasa anyway looks best from everything I have seen, but on the other hand, they accept only 1 in 3 applications ... my chances would be greater since I am not English/Chinese native speaker, but the fact that I haven't finished high school lowers the chances again... erm. And moreover, the school is located in Okazaki .. I was thinking about school in Tokyo but ... I guess I shouldn't mind.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:30 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

@spacecommand, whether it was your intention or not, your answer was very misleading and discouraging because you made it sound like the boy had no options at all when in fact he has plenty of possibilities.

@zenitse: not having a high school diploma may indeed be a problem. I can only suggest you read the entrance requirements carefully at every site and e-mail when in doubt.

As for Yamasa, I think without a diploma you may indeed be out of luck. Sad

I recently talked to another friend who studied in Fukuoka for 4 weeks and he highly recommended this school:

http://genkijacs.com/

The courses start every Monday and you can study for as little as 2 weeks (shortest time I've seen). My friend especially highlighted the fact that you can take such original courses as "Japanese through Pop Culture" and can have a very flexible and varied curriculum.

The price seems quite hefty but this seems to be due to the extremely small class sizes (2-6). It seems like small-sized classes are very expensive in Japan, so considering that the price isn't too bad (and you're guaranteed to learn a LOT more than in bigger sized classes!).

And: they specifically mention on their website that they accept high-school students and minors. Smile

So unless you don't want to go to Fukuoka, it sounds like a good option for you.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:25 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

http://www.eurocentres.com/en/

try this one, its in kanazawa, i was there in summer 04 for about a month, they're pretty flexible with curriculum and such.. we had people staying from several months to only 2 weeks.. downside is that you'll be spending most of your time with your classmates, e.g. will be communicating in english a lot

otherwise, i can recommend ALA in tokyo (http://www.ala-japan.com/) , was there for 3 months, but if you want to go for a shorter term, it should be possible too.. good thing here is that you're together with mainly korean, chinese or other people from throughout asia, of whom the most don't speak english, so you'll be forced to communicate in japanese, which in turn is better for your studies imho ;)

in both cases, because i went there for up to 3 months, i entered japan on a tourist visa, so many of the prerequisites for the different visas are not necessary..

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:30 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

i found this really good one. http://www.firststepworld.com/ http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/study/language/language_schools_in_asia.shtml ... i've check out the site and it offers short term such as 4 weeks. Wub

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:59 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Yesterday, I filled out application form for Yamasa's SILAC for 7 weeks starting June 26 Smile

I'm really looking forward to that! Smile

Thanks once more for your help Smile

And by the way, I forgot - I mailed to Yamasa beforehand about high school diploma and I was told that I don't need to worry about that.