Exchange

Japan: Post Program – Ethan McConkey

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   mcconke  Uncategorized

Structure

I struggled greatly with how to organize my thoughts in this final post. In the end, I have decided that I will be answering some of the questions proposed in the prompts as written. I wanted to come up with something more creative, maybe some kind of timeline or something, but everything resulted in a messy string of words that seemed to do the opposite of my goal; to inform those who come after me. I’ve also included a section where I reflect on some of my travel experiences, in hopes of inspiring others to try their hand at some of the things I’ve done.

What were some of your biggest takeaways from your international experience?

I think my absolute biggest takeaway from my time abroad is that it is really important that people make efforts to educate themselves about countries and cultures that are different from theirs, as I think it can be a very eye-opening thing. Being able to escape the vacuum of your own culture and see it through a new lens really helps to make you a more well-informed and independent person, in my experience.

What advice would you pass along to other interested students considering studying abroad?

This isn’t really advice, more so just something that I wish more people knew, but studying abroad can be affordable for many people. I never would have thought I could afford to study abroad, no matter how much I wanted to, but in reality, with a bit of help from people around me (and financial aid), it was very affordable.

Is there anything you would do or plan differently based on your experience?

I wish I would’ve put myself out there a bit sooner. While I did end up meeting a great group of friends, it took me a while to adjust and move beyond the one or two people I met within my first few days. It can take a lot to put yourself out there, but I implore anyone studying abroad to make an effort to do so!

Have you considered going abroad again or researching international internships and careers?

I have wanted to teach English abroad for a long time, and spending time in Japan has made it all the clearer to me that Japan is the country I would most like to teach in. However, being able to meet people from different countries I may have never considered before has opened my eyes to some other opportunities. Namely, Taiwan. I was able to make a few Taiwanese friends, and now that I have been introduced to the wonderful culture and people of the country, I would really like to go there someday, even if it just ends up being for travel.

We have multiple identities that cross the boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, class, age, ethnicity, religion, ability, veteran status, citizenship, and more. Describe your experience exploring identity in your host community.

Japan is a country almost notorious for its rules, and its “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down” approach to individuality. However, I wouldn’t say that this reputation is necessarily true. Of course, my sample size mostly consisted of people included those specifically attending an international school, so perhaps it isn’t a good reflection of the population as a whole (I mean, I can only do so much) but I met many people at my school and throughout the country who broke the mold of traditionalism and who lived happily as truly themselves.

This may be the first time you lived abroad as a guest in another country—a country for which you may or may not have citizenship. How did it feel to be “the foreigner”?

Japan is a very tourist-heavy country, so while the population is nearly 98% ethnically Japanese, being a foreigner isn’t honestly all that uncommon. In my experience, I was often painted a scene that I would stick out in any crowd as the only foreigner, but I only found this true on occasion. Of course once you leave more touristy areas this does become increasingly more true, however, I think speaking some of the language really helps to close this perceived gap.

My best experiences

One thing that wasn’t really on my radar when I started realizing I was actually going to be able to go was one of my biggest interests. If at all possible, I would highly recommend attending a sports game in Japan, or really in any country you find yourself in. It’s a great way to immerse within the local people and share a common ground, especially when the sport you go to watch is niche in the country, in my case I caught a Tohoku Free Blades ice hockey match in Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture. It was entirely worth the trip, even if it was a bit out of the way of the main bullet train lines.

The other thing I really highly recommend is actually something I did on my final bit of travel in Tokyo before heading home, and that was going to a concert. I attended メメタァ･ザ･ワールド･フェスティバル 2024 (Memetaa the World Festival 2024) in Shinjuku, Tokyo which consisted of many bands I didn’t know, but also one of my absolute favorites, KALMA. I was incredibly fortunate to be able to see them live, something I may never get the chance to do again, and also got introduced to another great band in the process. I highly recommend catching a concert or a festival if there’s something you’re interested in seeing. Trust me, it will be worth it for the memories!

(Small tip about concerts in Japan; Many are picture and video free! Keep an eye out for signs PERMITTING phone usage during shows, not ones disallowing it! From what I can gather, it is pretty much the standard for it to be disallowed. Speaking from experience!)

Conclusion

Now that studying abroad exists only as something in the past for me, I can’t help but wish to return to the many great moments and great people I had met along the way. I want to sincerely thank everyone who helps the study abroad programs through Western run smoothly, it was truly a life changing experience for me and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Thank you!

Japan: End of Program – Ethan McConkey

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   mcconke  Uncategorized

What Have I Missed?

I think that there’s two things I have missed the most while I was gone.

One is food. As much as “American Food Culture” is an ever-debated topic on the internet, I have missed the foods that were normal to me. Of course, I’ve become accustomed to much of the food here, but I miss things like my mom’s cooking, and the restaurants I used to frequent, both in Bellingham (The Black Cat!) and in my hometown.

More importantly, I have missed people. As much as I have enjoyed (nearly) every second of my time here, I do feel ready to go back home and spend time with friends and family. A few of my friends started going to school, and another moved into a new place, and I have missed these things which I would’ve preferred to be around for. This is a natural concession of going abroad (luckily, nothing bad has happened while I was here) but I think it is important to make sure to stay in touch with people while you’re away!

Reverse Culture Shock

To answer the question; I’m not sure if I will experience reverse culture shock. I initially believed that I wouldn’t, but a friend of mine (a fellow Western student who was also studying abroad at the same university) told me that he was feeling some upon his return.

Regardless, I’ll have about a month after I return before I go back up to Bellingham, so I should be able to readjust back to the US (and fix any jet lag) with no real problems. That’s the goal, anyways!

Study Abroad as a Memory

Many of my friends unfortunately left at the end of Fall, so there are only a few people left as of now. Just last night another friend of mine went back home for Spring, so I had to say goodbye to him. The rest of everyone I talk to is staying for Spring, so I will be saying my farewells over the next few days, as I head home in about 48 hours, as of writing this.

I plan to continue studying Japanese for the foreseeable future. In December, I’m planning on taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, a government recognized test for (as you can guess) Japanese language proficiency. In the future, I want to teach English in Japan, but I am also considering applying to graduate schools here.

I want to try my best to maintain connections after I leave. I am making sure that I let everyone know when I leave that if they ever end up in Washington, to let me know, so we can try to meet up again. I want to try to at least message people occasionally, as I’ve met many cool people here that I hope to remain friends with in the future.

Wrap-Up

Apologies for a bit of a short entry, I’m pretty busy packing up and meeting up with people in these last few days. This has been a wonderful experience, thanks in no small part to the people who make WWU Study Abroad run smoothly!

Japan: Mid-Program – Ethan McConkey

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   Ethan McConkey

Consistency is Key

To say I’ve been on top of writing these entries would be an overstatement. It might actually be an outright lie. While I would love to be able to say that I’ve been busy diligently studying, a more honest answer would be that I’ve been having a lot of fun. I’ve been thinking about how to write this “Day in my Life” type entry for a while now, and I’ve found myself too caught up in trying to contain every thing I’ve ever done in one post, and frankly I don’t think anyone wants to read through that!

A Day in My Life in Akita

Though I got here in the Fall, I’m going to talk about more recent stuff here in terms of my daily activities.

For the Winter, I bought a single pan and a single spatula and have been cooking eggs, sausage and toast for breakfast, which I have almost every day. Very traditionally Japanese, right? Some of my roommates left after Fall ended, so now I currently live with 6 other people, but our suite is somewhat like two apartments glued together, so it’s not crowded at all. Usually it’s pretty quiet everywhere after many people left in Fall.

Akita gets lots of snowfall, some of the most in the entire country, in the country with the highest snowfall by land area, so often times there is snow on my walk to my classes.

Snowfall under an overpass near the library on campus.

In Winter I’m only taking two courses, but they are double-timeslot, intensive courses. Intermediate Japanese 1, from 9:00-11:45 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and Japanese Film Studies from 3:30-6:15 Monday and Wednesday. As a testament to how “quiet” (I’ll stick with that) the intensive Winter program is, my Japanese class has a grand total of 3 people. The film studies course is a pretty normal size, probably around 25-30, though.

In the gap between the two classes on Monday, I will typically go back to my room and work on any homework or assignments I got in Japanese that day after eating lunch, or occasionally I’ll head over to the library and study there.

Other than that, my day typically consists of studying, reading or hobbies.

Saturdays are typically the days where I go into the city these days. I used to have a club activity every Saturday morning in Fall, but that club has suspended operation for the Winter. In the city, I’ll typically go thrift shopping for camera gear or clothes or something like that. Getting to the city takes a little over an hour, since there is an infrequent bus followed by a train to get there, so actually going there is somewhat of an all day thing. Gotta make the trip worth it.

On Sunday mornings I do my grocery shopping at a local mall which has a supermarket on the bottom floor. The mall also has a very large arcade in it, and I’ll usually spend some time there as well, playing crane games or rhythm games usually. Recently I’ve been playing a lot of a drumming rhythm game called Taiko no Tatsujin! After I get back from shopping, I’ll typically talk or play games online with friends from the US.

On some weekends, I’ve taken trips to mostly nearby places. So far I have been to a few cities and towns on the northern island of Hokkaido, and I’ve also been to Aomori prefecture, Sendai City in Miyagi prefecture, part of Yamagata prefecture, and I’ve spent some time in nearby but not very well known Iwate prefecture. For an upcoming national holiday, I’ll be going to Tokyo for a few days. Of course, there are a million other places I want to go, but time and money only allow for so much. Regardless, I’m really happy with just about everywhere I’ve gone to.

Goals, and How They are Going

One of my main goals coming here was to learn and use more Japanese. A lot more. I believe I have been succeeding at this to the best of my abilities. One thing I didn’t anticipate (which has been a blessing and a curse) is that the other students here mainly want to learn and practice their English, so more often than not my conversations are in English. Outside of Japanese class, of course. The upside of this, of course, is that communication is easy and frequent. I’ve never really felt isolated on campus. In the city or at the mall I’ll occasionally feel like that a bit, but that is only more motivation to continue studying.

Community Engagement

One thing I have learned from my time here is that people around Japan know about Akita International University, and people in Akita seem to really appreciate its presence. One time, when speaking with a very kind worker at a tea store in Sendai city, I told him that I was a student there and he turned to his father (also very kind!) and said in Japanese, “Did you hear that? He’s a student at AIU, that Akita school where they teach all the classes in English!” To which his father seemed surprised to hear.

AIU runs many community outreach opportunities for their students, and my Japanese class in Winter also had their own outreach thing that we did with some of the other Upper Elementary and Intermediate courses. Most of the time they involve going to a local school, and teaching the students about English and about the culture of the country we come from. It is very exciting and very rewarding, and the students are always so engaged and excited to participate. Through these outreach opportunities, I feel as though I have been able to interact with the “real Akita,” outside of campus.

Conclusion

While I had really hoped to become more consistent with these posts, it seems as though time is escaping me. This whole experience has been so rewarding so far, and I really hope to make the best of what time I have left here.

Life in Another Country: Settling in Japan, by Jade Harding

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By: Jade Harding

High rise buildings, walls of people, events for every season, massive gardens and surprisingly quaint parks; anything you have the will to look for.

Shinjuku image city tokyo cat

Settling-in

For a refresher: I studied abroad in Tokyo, Japan for half a year via an exchange program. There are a multitude of ways to study abroad and even more places to go, but I hope that by describing my time abroad, I can provide some expectations to people who are considering the same path. This is the post for anyone who wants an example of what studying abroad was actually like for someone who went to Tokyo.

I am generally a pretty quiet person, and if left to my own devices I’ll just stay home. I wanted to make my time in Japan a little different, using it as an opportunity to grow. A lot of people have some goals for their time abroad, and aside from academics I had two: exploration, and actually talking to people, which were especially important while settling in. 

Getting out there and exploring the city was a neverending font of fulfilling activities. Quick tip, if you expect to be doing some exploration and don’t have a portable power bank to charge your phone with, I recommend getting one. I didn’t until after arriving, but it saved me on multiple occasions. I was lucky enough to land in an incredibly walkable city with widespread access to public transport that is easy to learn and use, but spending a long time away from the house is bad for battery. It’s difficult to express the dynamic of the sheer density of Tokyo with its surprisingly tight scale, or at least that’s how it felt to me, an American used to having plenty of wide open space. You have access to just about anything you could want within an hour or two by train, or if you want to see the sights, a few hours by foot. Both are great! That is exactly how I spent my weekends, particularly in the early days of my program, getting a grasp of what the city is actually like by going to new places, from touristy spots like Asakusa or Ginza, quieter neighborhoods like Sangenjaya, or areas lively with locals like Kichijoji.

Inokashira Park

How did you get around?

It’s worth checking into the quality of public transport at your destination, or whether your program provides any transportation. An easy way to gauge the public transport is to find a bunch of places nearby you want to go to, and look into the travel time to get there using the different options available. In the case of my program, exchange students had the option to rent a bicycle, though I would say that you don’t need one given the walkability of the city. Whatever options there are, learn them and make full use to explore new places. That’s a big part of studying abroad, after all.

Finding opportunities to use Japanese

The other goal of actually talking to people had a lot to do with my study abroad location being a non-English speaking country. I won’t say that going straight abroad is the best way to learn a language from scratch, but if you go in with a strong foundation, it is easily the quickest way to increase your vocabulary and confidence with speaking. But, in order to do that, you have to actually interact with people (and things) in the language, without sticking inside a bubble of exchange students, and preferably without relying on English as a crutch—a language I assume you know if you are reading this. A quick way to find local students is to join a club. I did, and that was one of my best opportunities to interact with them outside of, say, structured events arranged for exchange students. Some programs may also put you into homestays, or, as my program did, a dorm that’s shared between exchange students and locals. That was an opportunity to see people every day and interact with them, and also helped get me out of my bubble.

Do I actually need to know Japanese?

As a tourist, you can get by in Japan with English alone. But, as a resident, especially for a longer period, you will have a tough time without speaking the native tongue. For this reason, a lot of longer programs will require a basic level of language ability, but bear in mind that textbook learning is different from the real thing.  I studied Japanese for about four years before my abroad program, and it benefitted me immensely. You do not need to be fluent in a language to study abroad, but the more you know, the more you can make use of it to make the time you spend abroad more effective. And if you are still relatively new to learning the language, adjust your expectations–don’t go in with the expectation of walking away fluent, just try to understand as much as you can and see how far you go.

Personally, being able to interact freely with locals, go out on my own with confidence that I could find my way or do what I wanted without needing help, and use that as an opportunity to strengthen my skills further was incredibly beneficial. 

Next time, I’ll talk about what changed as I continued with my program.

Why Study Abroad? by Jade Harding

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Who is this for?

By: Jade Harding

Studying abroad lets you grow as a person by allowing you to experience living independently in a new culture, and is highly dependent on both program and location. Today, you can study abroad anywhere on the globe, and all programs are different in terms of factors like length, rigor and cost. I’m hoping to give some specific information on the kind of program I attended, along with my thoughts on why studying abroad is good. If you are curious about what kinds of options are out there, looking into something similar, or just want to hear someone’s experience, I hope I can answer some questions!

Here, I’ll be covering why I think studying abroad is good and introducing how exchange programs work.

Hello World!

Should I go Abroad?

A lot of students worry whether they can or should study abroad, so I think that’s a good place to start. I’d recommend it, and there are many reasons to do so. You may have heard some of them from your local study abroad department or other students already. The reasons I’ve heard are:

I’ll be breaking them down below.

By studying abroad, you can learn and gain new skills. A lot of this comes from immersion in a new culture, but a lot comes from the classes you’ll be spending most of your time on while there. If you have a destination or destinations in mind, it’s important to research what you will actually be doing. What courses can you take? Are there any courses you would take at your home university that you won’t be able to by studying abroad, or any that you could only take abroad? Always keep in mind that studying abroad is education, not a vacation.

The most common subject to learn abroad is language. If you are interested in traveling to an area that speaks a language you don’t, be aware that many universities have courses for exchange students that are taught in English. In my experience, these are generally language courses or about the host country’s culture. These classes are a great option if you want to learn a language by going abroad, but need some structured learning to supplement the pure immersion. If you do speak the language and aren’t interested in strengthening it in class, taking courses that apply to your major or minor may make a study abroad program easier to fit into your college path.

You can also apply study abroad experience to your career. This is true even if none of your classes are directly applicable to your major—as was my case. Studying abroad can give you more diverse skills outside of your major, like language ability. Some use their time abroad to do internships and gain work experience, although that is highly dependent on the intensity of the main abroad program and the destination. More generally, cultural understanding, communication, and the ability to adjust to new circumstances are all valued soft skills that I learned abroad!

How Does an Exchange Work?

I studied abroad on an exchange program in Japan for six months. I’ll be speaking more about life there later, but to describe the program type in more detail, an exchange program means that two students, one from each university, study abroad for a semester or full year, generally each paying the others’ tuition for that period. Therefore, the tuition for an exchange program is equal to the tuition of your home university, unlike short-term or independent programs which often require the student to pay tuition while abroad in order to hold their place as a student. Because the cost of tuition is the same, it is actually possible to save money by going abroad instead of studying at your home university. 

An exchange program is longer term, so they offer a lot of opportunity for taking a variety of classes and experiencing a high level of immersion in a new culture. Because I went to a country where I speak the language, I was able to take courses aimed at local students, as well as the language courses set aside for exchange students. This, combined with living in a dorm whose residents included local Japanese students, allowed for consistent contact with locals. This interaction, as well as a focus on exploration and trying new things, helped me change a lot as a person over the course of my program, becoming more outgoing and able to handle myself in unknown situations. And of course learn some Japanese too!

Australia: Pre-Departure” “Are we there yet?” by Bree Daigneault

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Elizabeth Quay Bridge in Perth at sunset.
I plan on experiencing not just Perth but Western Australia (okay well maybe not all of it, as it’s a pretty big state). I hope to make friends that are just as interested as I am in seeing the city, the beaches and the more rural areas. So I’m going down under with a big ole smile on my face and tons of charisma baby. After all, how could I not?

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Mexico: Mid Program by Mason Waller

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I have reached about the halfway point of my stay here in Mexico and I think it’s time I address some of my day to day experiences here. By choosing to come to Mexico I put myself in a position where I have to live in a culture that’s pretty different from my own. While it’s an amazing experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world, it did take a little getting used to.

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England: Post Program Reflection by Luke Griffin

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I want to stay connected to my friends internationally as much as I can, which is far easier today than it’s ever been before thanks to the internet (but I still want to send a postcard here and there, because I’ve always thought they were fun to get)

 

 

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England: Exchange: Mid Program By Luke Griffin

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In terms of meeting new people I’m having a great time. I’m getting to know people that I like from all over the world and learning so much about different cultures and lifestyles. In my flat, my classes, in hostels, all over.. . There’s so many people to talk to and learn from and about and I’m really excited to get to go somewhere new for 6 months and meet even more people!

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Finland: Exchange: Mid Program By Matthew Papaly

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Life in Jyväskylä

As my time in Jyväskylä is coming to an end, I just wanted to reflect on what life is like here. First of all, Jyväskylä is a city in central Finland. With a population of 138,000, it is the largest city in the region and I think the 5th largest city in Finland (Finland only has a population of 5 million). It actually feels about the same size as Bellingham and as I’ve mentioned earlier it looks similar too, so my environment is not too different. Part of me regrets choosing to study in Finland because of this, but I’ve made so many amazing friends that I can’t really complain.

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England Arrival: Host Country and Cultural Immersion by Luke Griffin

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The university is one of the UK’s most international, which creates an interesting atmosphere. There are many different languages spoken and campus, and a myriad of cultures represented. Many of the other students I’ve met are international.

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Finland: Arrival: “Orientation Week” by Matthew Papaly

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Orientation Week

“So I kinda freaked out when I first got here. I was overwhelmed by being halfway around the world all on my own. I convinced myself that I wasn’t going to make friends and that I would be miserable here. But everything changed once my suite-mate arrived and orientation week started.”

 

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England: Pre-Departure: ISEP Exchange – One Year Studying Abroad in Europe” by Luke Griffin

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“When you think about all of the things that you need to get done before you depart it can seem really overwhelming. But if you make a list (for example writing down all the papers I have to collect or what I need to pack) it can seem much more organized and you can start working your way through it. Once I got started with a list like this everything became much more manageable and in the long-term the paperwork and preparation is a momentary (but still important) stress that’s nothing compared to the excitement that I’m going to be able to study in Europe for an entire year.”

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