Cross-countries Homework

One thing most people won't tell you about studying abroad is about the actual studying part. For a lot of people who do, or are planning, a study abroad, you will probably be going to a country that speaks English as it's first or second language (either way, native speakers abound.) For those of you who aren't going abroad in Eastern Europe, and don't speak the language fluently, there probably won't be that many classes taught in English. This means putting quite a bit more effort into your run-of-the-mill courses, just to get by. Or if you're as bad as me in the language (2 semesters) only taking the English classes and hoping they transfer.

My school in Japan offers 6 majors that involve international communication or the English language specifically, but in any given semester there are only about 10 classes actually taught in English. Add to this the fact that half of those are "Basic English Writing and/or Reading"  and it gives me little opportunity for credit transfer. Especially so because my school back in the states is small and out in the sticks and doesn't offer Japanese in it's comprehensive 5 choices of language major/minors.

This is a problem both I and my European classmates all seem to be facing. We are in mandatory intensive Japanese language classes 3 hours a day 5 days a week, plus a Saturday (as some of these classes take long field trips) traditional culture class. What to do for those of us that have to keep 12 credit hours to remain enrolled in our home universities? Well one option, that my British friends have taken up, is online courses. Now I'm no expert on how British unis operate, save for knowing that they're different than American ones, so I suspect that the course they all seem to be in despite coming from 4 different schools is mandatory. I for one though, absolutely loathe online classes. So that was a definite no for me unless I had absolutely no other option.

Or I could go the way of my Colombian friend who signed up for all the English classes she could fit in her schedule and was allowed to take (the office made her drop 2 courses because she had too many hours.) I'm not that dedicated, and most certainly more lazy than that so I signed up for a couple of English taught classes that looked like they might fill electives and while poking around on my uni's website, discovered a handy thing that no one in my school, be it teacher, adviser, or international office staff thought to tell me about. There is a "Study Abroad" course I can register for! It is worth 12 hours and there are 2 separate modules, so if worst comes to worst and "Independent Study in Foreign Language" and "East Asian Culture" can't cover my bases and give me actual credit toward graduation, then the studying abroad module will at least keep me enrolled, which means keeping my scholarships and keeping my flat rate tuition from when I first enrolled 2 years ago. よかった！

So if you plan to study abroad, also plan to do more study than you probably do currently, also look through your school's course registration listings to see if there are any useful things like a study abroad module you can sign up for, just to show your school that you do, in fact, still exist. (Unlike my school that has threatened to put me on academic probation, then shut down most of their offices for summer break so I can't get in contact with anyone to argue the point.)