While thinking about the topic for this blog post, I realized that a lot of people don’t have a good grasp of the daily routines and activities during study abroad programs. I know that I personally came to Nanzan with no clue how my day’s would go.
For my program, you can choose to do either homestay or dorm life. Both have their pros and cons, and I actually got to experience both during my time here. For homestay, you’ll typically live quite a ways from school. Thus, as is typical in Japan, a long commute is required. For me, I had to take two subway lines and a bus, plus a 10 minute walk to get to and from school. All in all, it usually took around an hour and 15-30 minutes, depending on whether I could switch trains fast enough. During this time, I recommend you study for the daily quizzes or review useful vocab. It’s a bit hard to do actual homework during the trip during the trip since it’s not usually the smoothest ride.
Some of the best parts of homestay are the authentic Japanese dinners and the interesting conversations with your host family. If you want to improve fast and get a real experience of Japanese home life, homestay’s the best way to go. Last year, thanks to my host family, I gained a real grasp of colloquial Japanese phrases and the Japanese life style. They can also help with any issues you run into during your study abroad.
On the other hand, I recommend dorm life for people with experience in their target country. Despite the benefits of homestay, there is a certain element of restriction on the types of activities you can experience during your time abroad. Just like with any family, there are curfews and rules that you need to maintain as a member. If you’re interested in hanging out with local university students a lot or want to be more in control of your time, dorm life is more suitable for that kind of experience. It’s also easier to make friends and spend time with them in the dorms.
Apart from the living accomodations, your typical day consists of classes in the morning with free time in the afternoon. Every other week, we have field trips after our Wednesday class. For summer study abroad, we usually have more homework than at Notre Dame, although it usually wasn’t any more difficult. I recommend doing the homework together with a Japanese friend, so that they can help you discover which phrases are natural and which aren’t used very often. In exchange, you can help them with English homework.
At Nanzan, I spend a lot of time at World Plaza and Japan Plaza. World Plaza is a place where any language BUT Japanese can be spoken. Since Nanzan has a lot of students studying foreign languages, it is a great place to become friends with local university students. On the other hand, Japan Plaza is a location where you can only speak Japanese and thus is really helpful for conversation practice.
Outside of those set activities, I usually get in touch with my Nanzan friends and other foreign exchange students to go out to eat or have fun together. Some of these activities include the following: day trips to nearby towns, late night runs to the arcade, club trips on Fridays, and shopping. It really just depends on your interests what you decide to do during this time.
That should cover the general schedule I follow for my study abroad. Until next time,
Logan Yokum