Learning Through Immersion: My Study Abroad in Japan

By Jay Snyder-Phillippoff

Lake Biwa on a sunny day//Jay Snyder-Phillippoff

Last summer, I had the honor of going to Japan for a study abroad. I attended JCMU, the Japan Center for Michigan Universities, where I spent two months learning Japanese and experiencing the culture. I was enrolled in the Language Intensive Program, which compresses roughly a year's worth of Japanese language study into just two months. Each day followed a routine: waking up in the morning, having breakfast with my roommate, attending class for several hours, breaking for lunch, returning for one more hour of class, and then spending the rest of the day on homework, office hours, studying, and sleep. This rigorous course load was certainly not what I thought I was signing up for. However, it provided one thing exceptionally well: immersion. 

My two months were spent in almost perfect immersion. All of my classes were taught in Japanese, my office hours were conducted in Japanese, and many of my conversations with classmates were as well. As a beginner, I found this extremely difficult at first. Like many other students, I struggled to adjust to the constant use of a secondary language. Yet, through that immersion I was learning faster than ever and by the third week I felt confident holding short conversations and even responding to compliments. By the time I left I was comfortable holding a conversation with a service worker at Tokyo Disney about my pin collection. That level of immersion was both vital and one of the hardest things I have ever done. 

Apart from the school work, I spent my weekends doing all the normal exchange student activities like going on bike rides, traveling to Kyoto and enjoying meals in Hikone center. One of my favorite parts of the summer, however, became something so simple: swimming in Lake Biwa. Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, with plenty of places to swim, a small island in the center with a temple, and a boat called the Michigander. Each Friday after classes ended, I would stand waiting outside the classrooms to corral my fellow classmates into going swimming with me. What began in the first week as a trip with just one friend gradually became a weekly tradition that the whole class got in on. Beach excursions then turned into beach lunch and after dinner karaoke bringing all of us together to relieve the stress of the busy week. 

All in all, my time in Japan was some of the hardest and most rewarding work I have had the opportunity to do. If I had to offer a few recommendations (which I will eagerly do), I would leave you with a few things: first, Kyoto is better than Tokyo when it comes to museums, art and traditional Japanese culture. Second, the train system is one of the best in the world, and you will quickly see why. Third, anything worth doing is hard, and anything hard is certainly worth doing.