<p>My S has been wondering for the what to do in summer for months. We motivated him strongly to do some volunteer work in other countries to widen his scope. Now he just finished Year 1 in college and came up with the following plans:</p>
<p>a, go to rural area in China to teach English for 1 months in June
b, travel in China for 3 weeks which will last till mid July</p>
<p>Basically we agree to his plan and urge him to prepare well in advance.
- What are the suggestions for him to make his trip more fruitful…</p>
<p>Then in mid July he wants to go to Japan to study basic Japanese for 2 weeks and stay there for 2 more weeks??? He does not have any Japanese knowledge, and we feel if it is worthwhile in view of Japan’s very high cost of living. </p>
<li> I think he has no objection if we give him a better alternatives like traveling to other Asian countries. But I try to figure out for a week and has not any idea yet, so your insights and suggestions are very welcome.</li>
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<p>My daughter always worked- to earn money for school- I expect my younger daughter to do the same-</p>
<p>I happen to believe it is important for kids to be vested in their education, to have a financial contribution toward the costs</p>
<p>However- each family has their own values & agenda- so making a list of possible alternatives and weighting the criteria according to what is important may help him decide</p>
<p>I both worked and studied a foreign language the summer after my freshman year. A month or so of each. :) </p>
<p>I think the time in China will be very enriching for him. Does he speak any Chinese at all? I do think the value of foreign travel is multiplied by your fluency in the language. My experience in Japan, is that once you get at all off the beaten path very little English is spoken. Using summers for immersion experiences in languages you are studying in college is in my opinion a pretty good use of the time.</p>
<p>recycle, does your S WANT to teach English in China? Or is that something he came up with because YOU are urging him to widen his scope? With all due respect, it seems like you're very involved in this whole idea. And at his age, maybe he should be showing a bit more initiative. </p>
<p>As for Japan, unless money is no object, I'd question whether it makes a lot of sense: how much is he going to learn in 4 weeks? If your S really wants to learn the language, I'd suggest he sign up for a college class this summer, show his commitment (and it TAKES commitment to learn a language as hard as Japanese!) and then consider going to Japan. As it is, it sounds like he's using your "strong motivation" to hang out in Asia for a bit. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it doesn't seem like he has much of an agenda other than just to please his parents and "do something."</p>
<p>Remember to think about what he's going to do for the rest of the summer. Three weeks in the middle of the summer means he won't likely be able to work during the other months. He should be doing something other than sitting at home for seven weeks.</p>
<p>I would only want my student to go that far abroad with language barriers if the trip was somehow connected with a group... religious, charitable, academic, friends</p>
<p>Perhaps academic credit could be earned; have your student check with his/her college advisor -- a shame to lose such an opportunity to credential the experience if arrangements could be made in advance.</p>
<p>thanks for reply.</p>
<p>katliamom, sometimes I love my S to take more initiatives...
It was under my 'strong motivation' to guide him to get jobs in the past 2 summers in HS. He learned and enjoyed a lot. He saved up some money for this year's trip. So far he is not paying much attention when formulate his plan. Some he finds nowhere and stuck. That's why he always like our input into his plan, at least up to present moment. </p>
<p>His plan for summer:</p>
<ol>
<li>first 4 weeks study a distant course at home</li>
<li>next 4 weeks work as a volunteer to teach English in China</li>
<li>next 3 weeks travel in China</li>
<li>go to Japan for language course 3 weeks and last week travel in Japan</li>
</ol>
<p>I'm little bit concern about the Japan trip in term of the worthiness.
He like to travel but the point is how can he gets the trip more fruitful and meaningful...is there any other better alternatives than Japan or just go to Japan to travel for 4 weeks instead of learning Japanese as I think learning a language within 3 weeks is just like a joke...</p>
<p>recycle,
Does your son speak Chinese? If he does not, then he may want to spend more time in China itself, improving his Chinese Language. If you have the contacts in China, can he find either service opportunities or unpaid employment in China itself?</p>
<p>Japan is very expensive, in terms of travel, stay etc. And he is not going to come home speaking much Japanese. It seems that he has too many things planned for the summer that are not connected.</p>
<p>yes he can speak little mandarin but read chinese.</p>
<p>Yes Japan is very expensive and learning Japanese in 3 weeks does him no more better communication in Japan. But the point is he loves Japan culture at first sight and he also tries his effort financially to make the trip possible....so..</p>
<p>Well, I suppose he worked hard and earned the money himself. Enough to pay for 4 weeks in Japan. Good for him. If a kid works hard and earns $$, they know the value of it; it would not be fair to stop him I guess.</p>
<p>recycle, it sounds like your son is well on his way to learning mandarin, which is great, and could be a huge professional advantage to him once he graduates. I would encourage him to stay as long as possible in China, maybe take a language course as well, work on fluency and getting to know China. As we all know, Asia is the future, with China leading the way :)</p>