by Whitney Bowers
I’ve been to the area that I’m planning to go to for my study abroad experience. I really wanted to put my Japanese to the test, so I saved and saved at my part-time job until I had enough to experience Sapporo, Japan, for two weeks. I already had friends in this area that I met while they were studying abroad at MC, but I also made a good number of new friends in this short stay. I feel that my comprehension and use of Japanese became much better in those two weeks, simply by being surrounded by native speakers. I hope that a semester abroad will help my Japanese skills improve even further.
I’ve been to the area that I’m planning to go to for my study abroad experience. I really wanted to put my Japanese to the test, so I saved and saved at my part-time job until I had enough to experience Sapporo, Japan, for two weeks. I already had friends in this area that I met while they were studying abroad at MC, but I also made a good number of new friends in this short stay. I feel that my comprehension and use of Japanese became much better in those two weeks, simply by being surrounded by native speakers. I hope that a semester abroad will help my Japanese skills improve even further.
I’m really excited to see old friends again, but this time
in their home and in their language. I also really enjoyed the city of Sapporo
and the experience of Japan as a whole. However, I’m incredibly nervous about
having a host family. While I feel that it will be great for my Japanese, I am
nervous about living with people that I’ve never met, in a foreign country and
tongue, no less. But I have hopes that these fears will dissipate after I
arrive. I am also nervous about communication problems, but I believe that this
problem will become easier with time in the country.
To maximize my experience, I want to:
1.) Use as little English as possible. This may be hard to
do considering the amount of Japanese students that study English, but I will
try to stick to only Japanese unless specifically asked.
2.) Study hard! I worked harder on my Japanese language courses
than any other course since arriving at MC, and I want to continue to improve.
If I do not continue to study, I know that what I have worked so hard to
acquire will begin to escape me.
3.) Socialize. I’ve always been terribly shy about using
Japanese with native speakers for fear of making a mistake. I know that if I
want to improve, I need more experience communicating with native speakers, so
I hope I can overcome this while I’m abroad. If I could become friends with
Japanese students in their native language, I would be very happy.
View of Odori Park from the Sapporo T.V. Tower (Sapporo,
Japan)
The famous symbol of Sapporo, The Clock Tower (Sapporo,
Japan)
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