Can anyone who has studied at Temple’s Japan campus tell me what it was like? From what I’ve gathered, it’s just a single building, more or less. But what are classes like? Did you do a homestay, or live in the dorms? Mostly, I’m curious about the atmosphere, and whether or not learning Japanese there is a good idea.
I studied abroad in the spring semester of my junior year, 2016. I was a Computer Science major and Japanese minor (graduated last year), so I had two and a half years of Japanese classes under my belt before studying abroad. I chose TUJ over other universities in Japanese because it’s scheduled by American semesters, and I wanted to leave my summer open for an internship.
There is a second building, but it is primarily for the law school and other graduate programs. I never set foot in it after the tour on the first day. Both are standard office buildings, so it doesn’t feel like the traditional college experience.
Because I didn’t come from Temple University in Philly, it was hard to judge which classes would be the best for me, but I felt sufficiently challenged with what I chose. I especially enjoyed the intermediate writing course I took. The class is intended as preparation for writing a senior thesis in Japanese, so I wasn’t part of the target audience as a CS major. This class pushed me more than any other, vastly improving my reading and writing skills. My other classes weren’t as challenging, but I pushed myself to make the most of them.
I chose a homestay, so I can’t speak for the dorms. My commute took around 90 minutes each way, but the homestay experience was definitely worth it to me. My host family was incredibly kind and eager to share their culture while getting to know me. The added immersion did wonders for my Japanese as well. The room and board fees cover breakfast and dinner, so I had incredible home cooking each day. I’ll never forget the time I spent with my host family.
I wasn’t a fan of the general student atmosphere at TUJ. I came from a STEM-heavy research university where even the football players are nerdy in their own way, so I can’t compare TUJ to a regular state school, but from my perspective, a lot of my classmates weren’t as serious about their education. Most seemed more interested in partying or watching anime or whatever. Most students at TUJ are international, and all of the native Japanese students I met were raised bilingually. As a result, everyone speaks English out of class, so you’ll need to venture off campus if you want to practice your Japanese in the wild.
This response is longer than I expected, so I’ll try to wrap it up. I knew what I wanted and I was intrinsically motivated to learn, so I was able to get value from my experience at TUJ. I chose challenging classes, pushed myself beyond my coursework, and immersed myself in a homestay, so I was able to make a noticeable improvement to my Japanese. If you are motivated, you can do the same. If you don’t put in the effort, though, you can get through your classes without any results. It’s a cliche, but I can best summarize with “you get out what you put in”.