AICAD in Japan

This semester was a bit strange for everyone, myself included. The third level class was too large, consisting of half of the program's students. Many people were unhappy and were bombarded with a large amount of busywork. There were also very few organized events for the duration of the entire program, so many students rarely got to interact with the other students, and even the Japanese roommates.

For those other art students, specifically printmakers and animators, this is not the ideal program for creating art. Only plate lithography for printmaking and glassblowing were available this semester. Being an international student, they limit the classes you're allowed to take, especially if you have no prior Japanese language experience. The art teachers were very nice though. But the classes you want to take may not be available.

The Japanese language portion of this program is the main focus, not the art. That said, most of the time will be dedicated to learning Japanese. The Japanese language teachers I had were very lovely, patient, and knowledgable. The best part of the program was the language portion, even if the assignments were tedious at times.

The program itself was not organized well, communication was very last-minute for a majority of the time, leaving both students and faculty confused. Peoples' personal problems were also not handled properly, if not, taken care of too late. Unhelpful, nosy, and somewhat deceitful head staff became bothersome, leaving everyone on edge in the learning environment.

CET's Japan programs also focus heavily on the roommates, but many of the roommates were too busy to dedicate the necessary amount of time to the program.

That said, this was only my experience, and the program will change each semester. Take from this as you would like.