Study Abroad in Japan

With KCP International, you can earn more Japanese credit than you would in an entire year at your university. Plus, you can pick your start date!

Find out more

Learn Japanese Online

Immerse yourself in the heart of Tokyo with a wide variety of courses, flexible schedules and convenient packages you keep your experience easy!

Apply Now

Join Our Newsletter

Read all about Japanese immersion learning and studying abroad. Check out our eZasshi archives for more articles!

KCP student Shenelle King (center) with classmates

The Life of a Summer Short Student! (Part 1)

From KCP student Shenelle King.

During the summer of 2011 I was able to participate in the Summer Short Session at KCP.  I was definitely nervous to come to Japan. The months leading up to leaving America were filled with excitement – and then the airplane took off. It hit me that although I had studied Japanese for one year, I was nowhere near prepared enough to come to Japan. The entire ten-hour flight from Seattle was filled with anxiety. I was scared to be so far away from home, not to mention I hate airplanes – and there was a ton of turbulence.

KCP student Shenelle King (center) with classmatesKCP student Shenelle King (center) with classmates | KCP Flickr

Upon landing in Japan I began to doubt myself even more. I got off that plane and I was surrounded by signs in Japanese telling me where to go to get through customs. Fortunately, the signs were also in English.  Everyone around me was speaking Japanese, so I stayed quiet, determined to get through customs and find Michiko-san.  After connecting with me, she sent me and another student down to the main meeting point where Tanaka-san was waiting. Nate and I trekked for what seemed like ages but what in reality was only five minutes, where we ran into Ryuhei, who took us the rest of the way to Tanaka-san.

Once again, I was immediately intimidated.  Waiting there was a group of students, all on the Summer Short program, chatting animatedly with one another. Ryuhei took my suitcase to be sent to the dorm; there went one comfort zone.  So I sat down with my stuffed animal that I brought with me, my giant yellow duck. This was a great conversation starter; apparently no one had seen a duck stuffed toy before – or maybe they just hadn’t seen a college student holding onto one for dear life.  A man, who I later found out was Saito-sensei, one of my teachers, excitedly pointed at my duck like a kid and began talking to me in Japanese. I’m pretty sure I gave him the deer-in-the-headlights look because he switched over and began speaking to me in English.

Shortly after that, everyone else noticed me and I was motioned to sit in the middle of the group of students while questions, luckily in English, were thrown every direction.  What had started out as anxiety and fear, quickly turned into feelings of comfort. These students were also in the same position as me, leaving home to a foreign country to study abroad in the giant metropolis of Tokyo, Japan. This was my first day.

The beginning of classes!
The day after arriving in Japan we headed to KCP for orientation and our placement tests. A part of the program unique to the summer short students is that we have a week of group sessions, basically an extended review with the other short summer students.  We are sorted out by level in Japanese and have classes for six hours a day going over basic things.  On some of the days we had a fun lesson, like Tea Ceremony and Calligraphy.  I started off in level 1, but after a few days of going over hiragana and katakana I asked to be switched into level 2 for group sessions. Level 2 was a lot harder for me, but I enjoyed the struggle. When the regular summer students came, we would be taking another test and sorted into levels best suited to us.

I was devastated to be put back into level 1 for regular classes, but looking back on it now I am so glad I was in level 1. The fundamental conceptsI learned in America were cemented into me that much more, as my vocab grew immensely.

 

Sign-up for our newsletter

Read all about Japanese immersion learning and studying abroad. Check out our eZasshi archives for more articles!