Studying abroad - yes or no?

[elmopoker]

just don't get arrested

[einbert]

I studied in Japan for a semester, and you should definitely do this. Study as hard as you can before you go though, it is definitely a tough language to pick up. If you can, study in Tokyo as way more people speak English there than the smaller cities, and the Japanese they speak is more standardized. It can be hard to understand the smalltown dialects of Japanese when you have studied only the standard stuff.

But don't let that stop you! Most of the young people will speak a good amount of English, and being on a university campus it will be very easy for you to make plenty of friends that do. Also you get a chance to learn a martial art, or if that's not your thing there are a ton of other cool traditional japanese things.

Ohh, and if you're American and white or black you will be able to pull mad tail at the international clubs. Japanese (obv) girls go to these clubs specifically looking to meet foreign guys and a large percentage of these girls speak good English (all of them will speak at least a little).

Re: illegal drugs. I wouldn't do them while over there, their govt is a lot more strict about that kind of thing and you really don't want to end up getting in international trouble.
The only real downside to living in Japan is it's very expensive. But if you live efficiently and get a good deal for oncampus housing it's not that bad. Also you can supplement your income by teaching English for $20+/hr (can be a lot more). That figure is assuming no previous knowledge of Japanese and no university degree.

[orange]

bumped because two of my roommates are doing this next year and i'm heavily considering it.

does your major have a huge affect on this decision? (i'm a secondary ed major).

[lippy]

orange,

I know through my Study Abroad office, you can fulfill major requirements in many of the possible locations.

[orange]

lip,
thanks. still considering it.

to those who went,
did you miss america during this stay? do you have to be necessarily super outgoing to enjoy this experience? how much site seeing did you see during the semester, and how much freedom would you say you had?

[BombayBadboy]

Just do it. I went to Sweden and I've never regretted it for a moment.

[in48092]

i reccomend going somewhere off the "Study abroad" beaten path. no matter where you go you'll be able to party, but if you stray from the western europe route you'll prolly get a better cultural experiance. seems to me that japan fits that bill.

also if possible i recomend NOT going through your schools study abroad office. if you go on a school sponsored program you'll likely end up hanging out wiht kids from your school. kinda silly to travel half way around the world to chill with the same people.

see if there's an American University of Tokyo or something like that and just enroll in classes. credits will transfer

[sebbb]

do it, you'll learn alot

[Unoriginalname]

I'm 24, soon to be 25, graduated 3 years ago. I'm currently doing the corporate 9-5 office thing and really, really, really regret never studying abroad. Has anyone ever done, or heard of someone doing a post-graduation semester abroad? Are there programs for that kind of thing? I don't even know if that would make sense since I already got my degree. Also, I'm not sure if I'd seem too old at this point and wouldn't really fit in?

[JP OSU]

I've never met anyone who went and regretted it...