A Year Abroad (non MFL) - help please

[Malbecfan]

DD2 has just heard that her year abroad will be going ahead. Her course allows her to study elsewhere between years 2 & 3. It has been her dream for years to study in Japan and she has been accepted by a university out there. With Covid, there has been a lot of uncertainty and her UK uni has reassured her that she could do y3 here, then go, but for now, it's all systems go.

So wise MNers, with 3.5 months before the course starting, other than flights, what does she need to sort? If anyone has experience of studying in Japan, I would love to hear from you. DD has been studying the language this year and is post GCSE standard, according to her tutor. Lectures etc. are all in English. She has applied for her accommodation. All help and advice gratefully received.

Visa?

Health insurance, travel insurance, additional immunisations, quarantine sorted in Japan if needed, investigating the weather in the bit of Japan she’s going to go she knows what to expect, brush up on cultural expectations, find out the situation with medicines she might need, plug adaptors...off the top of my head.

But really, the study abroad team at her uni should have a full and comprehensive checklist!!

Banks account: can she use the British one? Post GCSE is not a very high standard. Did shew not have to pass a competency exam? So phrase book might be needed.

There should be a very comprehensive briefing website on her university website, and quite a few (online at the moment) face to face briefing sessions. Your DD needs to get in touch with the Study Abroad people at her university.

Health insurance
Travel insurance
Guide book
Quick translation/tourist phrase book
Maps
A credit card and/or pre-loaded cash card
Adequate warm clothing for the hard winters in most of Japan.

GIFTS! Typical English/Welsh/Scottish/NI things with some beautiful wrapping paper. But gifts! They don't need to be lavish - sometimes universities will provide university-branded items.

Also think about what would help with the inevitable culture shock & homesickness. I'm used to travelling to all sorts of places now & like being surrounded by languages I don't really understand, but when I started travelling in my 20s, I found the first couple of days anywhere new almost paralysing - I'd want to just stay in bed - so have a favourite book or comfort item - for me it was sweets: chocolate, and fruit pastilles or the like. So also a guide book helped - I'd play being a tourist for a few days before I had to work.

University exchange students would not be expected to take gifts. For whom? It’s not a business trip.

Of course it's not a business trip, but Japan is a place where gifts are almost ceremonious, and most travellers (other than tourists) might think about being equipped to participate in exchanges. That is the sort of cultural detail that the OP's DD may want to consider.

Who would you give a gift to? Lecturers? Cleaners? Fellow students? How much space does a student have in their luggage for gifts? I’ve never heard of any exchange student doing this. Take a union flag tea towel for the student flat maybe?

Does her UK Uni offer Japanese as part of MFL Dept or one she could contact? If so, they will be used to students going to Japan for a year and should be able to advise on what to take, gifts, etiquette etc.

Thanks for the ideas so far. She is in touch with the study abroad people but her term has finished and she is coming home tomorrow, so it will have to be done remotely.

@PresentingPercy, whilst GCSE level might not be very high, in my original post I did say that all lectures and university things were in English.

She already has a guide book and phrase book. I have found an insurance policy online which we will look at together once she is home later in the week.

I was hoping someone might have specific advice for Japan, so please do post if you can help.

Having been to Japan it’s absolutely not a given that many people speak English. Anywhere. However as I cannot help I’ll bow out.

Gifts would only really be appropriate if she's going to stay with a host family.

Look into the banking system. Not all bank ATMs will allow you to withdraw cash with a foreign card. I think post office ATMs do though.

Japan is amazing and she will pretty much find everything she needs there. They have amazing 'pound shops' (100 yen) that sell everything you need. The only thing she might miss and want to take with her is her favourite snacks.

Also if she has a medical condition or needs medication, she needs to check with her doctor that she's fit to travel and will be able to take all necessary medication with her. And if she does have to take medication, make sure it's something that she's allowed to take into Japan.

Oh and maybe some plug adapters, though again she can get those in Japan. They use a lower wattage there so if she charges her phone, for example, it won't charge as fully or effectively. She could maybe get a wattage adapter.

Ooh @crayray that's a really good point about chargers & adaptors, although I'm pretty sure phones will charge anywhere - I managed fine in S Korea with my iPhone. Thank you.

I collected her today. She has already been in touch with her GP and produced all the documentation for the university out there. She is not on any medication and has no medical issues, but a hepatitis B vaccination is recommended. She is going to contact the local GP at home about that as she will also need to sort out Covid vaccinations.

She has done a bit of research about money. She has a monzo card which apparently she can load up with sterling from her current account and then spent in yen. DD thinks that they will give a preferential exchange rate, something she needs to check up on.

In my original post, I explained that all lectures/tutorials would be in English, and reiterated this in the subsequent one, so no, PresentingPercy, she does not need to pass a competency exam. DD has been studying Japanese informally for around 3 years and doing a proper course via her university this year. Her standard was approximately GCSE last term but the tutor, a Japanese national, has told her that she knows more than enough to get by, to make herself understood and to ask for help. By the end of the course, she should be around Cambridge level B1.

DH has been to Japan twice on business. He did some independent travelling on his own whilst out there. He literally knows about 3 words of Japanese but managed fine. Unlike him, DD can actually read both variants of the language, so can read place names.

I lived in Japan (Saitama) so can possibly help.
I went speaking pretty much zero Japanese but quickly learnt quite a bit. I presume she'll have some gaijin where she is? Nobody speaks English in Japanese generally and it can be quite overwhelming at first.
good for her though, it's a fascinating country. I'm guessing with covid visiting her while she's there might be difficult but do try if it becomes possible.
Do warn her about the weather. Really muggy and horrible in summer - June - Augustish. However the rest of the year is really nice, in most of the country anyway. Lots of sunny days, and rarely gets very cold.

It's definitely possible to get by as a student in Japan as a non-speaker or a beginner. It's possible to do this in many countries in fact.

She may also need a chest x-ray but I'm sure the university will tell her that. Which uni is she going to in Japan? I'm very envious!

PS i really wouldn't bother with gifts unless she is going to stay with a host family or will have a very specific Japanese contact looking after her.

I'd be interested in how your dd gets on. My dd is also keen to study in Japan if possible. She's on a 4yr masters Biomed degree and there maybe the opportunity for her to spend her 4th Yr in Japan (although realistically I think she will play safe and look for a placement in a Cambridge Pharma Co).

She has visited Japan and really loved it... Although she said it was fairly expensive. She looked at a summer internship this year but dates were not great (started early June). How exciting...

Thanks again @crayray and @Frazzled2207, most helpful.

She's (hopefully) going to Waseda University in Tokyo. Her uni has an exchange programme with others around the world. This was her first choice, but she would have happily gone to Canada too.

@Daisysway, she applied to summer programmes in S Korea & Japan late in 2019 for the summer of 2020, but Covid put paid to it. I'll ask her what they were. I think we only had to pay for flights & food. They were around 4 weeks long and would give her the chance to learn the language more intensively and do a bit of travelling. What year is your DD in?

I'm sure she'll have an amazing time. Waseda is very well located and Tokyo is just wonderful

Is she on the pill? I know it can be really difficult in some countries to get the contraceptive pill so if so she needs to make sure she has a good stock long enough to last the trip.

@PinkPlantCase

Is she on the pill? I know it can be really difficult in some countries to get the contraceptive pill so if so she needs to make sure she has a good stock long enough to last the trip.

Very good point. I found myself at that age abroad (not Japan) having to undergo an unexpected horrendously intrusive internal exam to access contraception.

Reading a little about the culture (not just a tourist guide) is helpful too. For example about Japan's gift-giving culture, which is different than ours.

Waseda itself should also have info online about what is needed for foreign students who come (such as here: www.waseda.jp/inst/cie/en/life). Perhaps they also have an international student society your daughter could write to for advise?

@davidrosejumper I had a friend who did a year abroad and gave up trying to get the pill in the end and came off it. Then she found that the morning after pill was even harder to get hold of 🙈

@PinkPlantCase

Is she on the pill? I know it can be really difficult in some countries to get the contraceptive pill so if so she needs to make sure she has a good stock long enough to last the trip.

Absolutely this. Medical care is very good in Japan but far more medicalised and often more intrusive than it is here.

I've lived and worked in Japan and taught students from Waseda. Many of them had quite weak English speaking (OK reading and listening) and were reluctant to use it so I would strongly advise her to learn as much conversational Japanese as she can. Really cram it - a couple of hours a day at least if she can, with plenty of listening and speaking practice. B1 is OK for familiar situations, more spontaneous interactions or unfamiliar topics will be tricky.

You can arrive in Japan with almost no Japanese and get by OK. I did. But in general, English isn't widely spoken (or people often don't let on as they aren't confident). So the more Japanese she has, the more she will get out of her stay particularly if she goes off the beaten track or gets invited to someone's house. Learning Kanji for eg hotels, bank / post office, food, menus and transport eg ticket and train types will also help. It's extremely easy to travel around, I went all over the country and it's not as expensive as it's made out to be.

Re: Monzo, Japan always used to be a cash society and she might consider opening a Japanese bank account althoguh i don't know if it would be worth it for a student - I worked for a J-company and had to. Bureaucracy can be complex and a Japanese person might need to help her. Her uni should help.

Culture: Japanese culture is very different and to an outsider, complex. But Japanese people are extremely polite and forgiving of foreigners' mistakes. She's probably already aware of some basics eg manners, taking shoes off, not eating or talking loudly on your phone on public transport or blowing your nose in public, how to address people, how to hand things over politely, bowing, gift-giving etiquette. I assume she is a chopstick pro or she'll have a hard time!

It's a fantastic country and I absolutely love it. She will have an unforgettable experience. Gambatte kudasai!

OP, I have just been looking at the Foreign Office travel advice for Japan as DS is supposed to be going there for the second half of his year abroad. From what I can see, Japan is not currently letting foreigners in from most countries (including the UK) other than in very limited circumstances that do not include entering for the purposes of study. Has your DD been told that the rules are expected to change soon?

@Malbecfan @SouthKoreaquestion yes I would like to know this too. DD is supposed to be going to Japan for a placement at the beginning of 2022 and as far as I know they still aren’t letting UK nationals in except in very rare circumstance ( Some English language teachers only I think).

DD still hasn’t booked her ticket yet and is very cautious as she needs to be booking by September but not sure how Japan is going to be looking after the Olympics.