I want to be a foreign exchange student to japan 4 a year?

Question

i m currently a 8th grad that's going to be a freshman the end of summer. I've always wanted to know more about japanese culture, and i am planning to take japanese all throughout highschool. So there's a lot of questions that i want to ask before i decide to go.

1. which yr should i go? soph? junior?

2. won't i missed a yr of school then? what about my school credit during the year?

3. does it look good on college appl.? a year stay or a semester?

4.*** i m an immigrant from taiwan, i came to the US when i was10, so I am not a citizen, and I've heard that most exchange program tends to avoid sending asian-amer. student to another asian country? does this fact lessen my chance of being an exchange student?

5. i am fairly good w/ japanese consider that i havent take japanese yet, but i hav learn the most basic of basic from watching a lot of j*p drama, and i'll try hard in my j*p class, but if i m going to take classes over ther, what level of j*p should i at least know 1st?

THANKS~~~

Answer 1

I think you got the wrong idea for this. This all depends on the school you are going in. Do they have a program that you can do that? In my old school in El Salvador, we had an exchange program with a school in Nashville. A Japanese school and your school need to have this program on order for it to work. It's not like magic.

If your school has this program, I suggest you go for your Junior year. Senior year will be almost too late for collage stuff and you need to work on your grades, scolarships, etc. Junior or Sophomore, actually. Def not Freshmen, man. Freshmen is the hardest year because its your first year. Until you are used to high school, you might get used to a foreign one.

Good luck!

Answer 2

1. Definitely go your Junior year, sophomore's a bit too young and going as a Senior is too complicated.

2. You won't miss school if you go on an exchange, all the year long/semester programs that I know of require you to attend school. Getting credit from the classes you take depends on what your High School is willing to except. Like if you take a math class in Japan, your credit could get transferred to your school at home.

3. From what I've heard it looks very good on your application if you've studied abroad, it shows that you're a more diversified person and have experienced something totally new. I strongly suggest going for the full year.

4. I've never heard about that before, but the fact that you're not a U.S. citizen might be a problem, maybe you can file for citizenship before you leave? But other than that I wouldn't think it'd be a problem.

5. If you go through the AFS exchange program which I HIGHLY recommend doing, they've been doing intercultural exchanges for 60 years and have a great support system! AFS doesn't require you to know the language of your host country at all although they do say it helps a lot and will reduce a lot of stress during your stay so I think that since your already planning on taking Japanese classes you should be fine.

Good Luck! :]

Answer 3

you wont miss a school year you go to the japanese school for a year also it might lessen your chance because americans are closed minded and would totally disregard how different japanese and taiwanese are lol i also adore japan and am considering the same thing!! good luck =]

Answer 4

You usually have to wait till your a senior to do so.. You can still get credits by going to a foriegn school.  Not sure what level.. But you probably wont be able to go if you havent taken any japanese courses.  Should probably talk to your counsiler about that one.