<p>I’m a junior now and all of sudden I want to study abroad in Japan
but i want to do study abroad in Japanese local high school
i think that’d be really cool</p>
<p>BUT THEN</p>
<p>it’s too late for me to sign up for this year (09)'s studying abroad
so i have to wait until fall semester or next year spring semester</p>
<p>i’m going to be a senior and i need to take SAT’s once more (October)
and get ready for college apps
so i don’t want to leave the states
and i want to be in school for graduation</p>
<p>sigh…</p>
<p>i liked how Intrax had the summer program
but my school doesn’t offer Japanese… and Intrax requires you to take 6 months of Japanese before going to Japan…</p>
<p>and all studying abroad programs says like… 14-18years… blah blah
but i’m turning 18 this summer!!!
does that mean i can’t go next year?</p>
<p>so… summing it up … here’s my situation and my question:</p>
<li><p>I’m going to be a senior this fall… so i want to stay home for college apps and stuff. Should i stay for fall semester and go during spring semester? Will I be back by graudation?</p></li>
<li><p>What should I/ What can I do if my school doesn’t offer Japanese but the program requires minimum japanese experience?</p></li>
<li><p>I’m turning 18 this summer but all programs are aged 14-18. Can I still do it next year?</p></li>
<li><p>Is there any programs that you can go to local high schools only for summer like Intrax?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) Whether or not you’ll be back in time is going to depend upon the length of the specific program. Unless you leave at the beginning of Spring semester you won’t be in Japan long enough to really gain much from it though (in my opinion).</p>
<p>2) Either you can enroll in classes at the local community college, or do some intensive studying yourself for most programs’ prereqs.</p>
<p>3) As long as you’re still 18 when you apply there shouldn’t be much of a problem. There are programs without that strict age cap as well.</p>
<p>4) If you have no previous experience with the Japanese language, why don’t you wait to study abroad in college? In the meantime you could begin taking coursework and doing self-study so that you’ll be at an upper intermediate level by the time you go to Japan. In all honesty those who go to Japan without any previous language experience usually come back with little more than what they went there with. It really hinders being able to immerse yourself in the culture.</p>
<p>Do you know if Intrax will let me in if i just study by myself?
b/c you need to pay for course in community college right? (from what i searched…)</p>
<p>As far as I know it just requires a year’s experience of Japanese study. Whether or not that’s through college coursework, high school coursework, self-study, tutoring, etc, shouldn’t matter. I’d suggest getting started pretty soon though, because even with 2 years of college courses in Japanese (about 300 hours of instruction, and even more of studying) you would still only understand/be able to speak far worse than a kindergarten Japanese kid. As long as you put in the time and effort on your own you should be able to speak rudimentary Japanese well enough to have fun in the country though.</p>
<p>Regarding the age issue, will you be turning 19 during the study abroad?</p>
<p>I started to learn Japanese from my Japanese friend since last year and I’ve been watching dramas which helped me a lot… but i still have SOOO much more to learn lols</p>
<p>um… my birthday is in late july 1991
so, i’ll be turning 18 this summer but i would want to go to study abroad next year (spring semester or maybe summer)</p>
<p>Investing in some beginning Japanese grammar/vocabulary books might be a good idea. Watching dramas/movies/anime, etc, can help you pick up on random words, and it’s definitely more enjoyable for most people than studying, but honestly it’s quite possibly the least time-effective method of foreign-language-learning ever devised
Are you mostly interested in experiencing the culture/country, or in learning the language?</p>
<p>Hmm, Spring will work for Intrax, but they won’t let you into the summer session if it carries into the date you’d turn 19. There are a LOT of study abroad programs out there, though, so don’t be too set on a certain one. Intrax, for example, doesn’t let you choose where you end up, as far as I know. And there are definitely places in Japan that it’d be pretty damnable to be stuck in.</p>
<p>Most Japanese high school students often want to go to California, for example, imagining themselves in the more scenic/famous areas, and then end up getting sent to a rural town in Northern CA and hating their lives for a few months.</p>
<p>My personally opinion is that college study abroad programs are far superior to the high school ones. I went to Japan in my senior year of high school, ended up having a pretty crappy time, then went to Tohoku University my junior year of college and absolutely loved it. The higher level of freedom in the college study abroad programs really can make a world of a difference.</p>
<p>i see…
At first i was interested in the language… and then after I got closer to my japanese friend, i wanted to know more about the culture and history…</p>
