Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hello, I'm new to the guild. :3

I've been curious for quite a while now, and I would really appreciate it if you guys could tell me about universities and home-stay/exchange programs.

I've heard stories of people doing these things, but I'm curious as to how the unfold. So, if I apply to a university which had Japanese as a language to take, how many levels are there? How long is this course for, in general? At what level do they allow you to take part in some sort of exchange/homestay program? What type of programs for this do they have?

If I have any more questions I'll be sure to post in the thread. Thanks a lot for your help!

EDIT: Sorry, I live in Ontario, Canada...

All that information varies based on what program you join. Safest bet is to find an adviser who is familiar with various study abroad programs in Japan and do personal research.

the program I'm in has 3 levels, can't help you with much more than that though

Well, I go to a University of California school, and the UC system has exchange programs with a few universities in Japan. They usually reccommend that we take two years' worth of Japanese before going abroad. From what I remember off the top of my head, the UC system exchanges with Tsukuba, Sophia, ICU, Keio, and a few others.

Just ask your university what their exchange programs are. If they don't have one, inquire about other ways you could go study in Japan. I know in the UC system, if we can't find a program we like in their system, we can strike it out on our own and exchange via another university.

As for Japanese at my UC: We're split into First Year Japanese, Second Year Japanese, and so on. There's specific Japanese courses for those fluent in the language. You're not deadlocked into taking Japanese for a full year; you renew your schedule three times in an academic year, so if you can't take the rest of First Year Japanese, you can resume again next year.

Sophia and ICU, along with a few other universities, instruct in either English or a mix of English and Japanese. Those are the universities you'd probably be aiming for, since the others are taught only in Japanese and you have to pass a Japanese test to get into the courses or something (either way, I'm sure it would be difficult with just two years or so of learning the language).

I hope this helps!