What I Learned from Immersion

I knew signing up that the program would be work-heavy and very intensive--and it was! We were at OGU for five hours a day, four of which were dedicated to class time. On top of that I did homework for 3 - 4 hours a day. Of course, depending on what you want to get out of the program, this can vary. If your intentions are to learn as much as you can and really take advantage of the resource of academia, then you will be doing lots of homework and pushing yourself mentally. If your goal is to explore Japan while getting a little learning on the side, then perhaps you will do less homework and more adventuring. Personally, I really wanted to improve my language skills, so I spent more time on homework and studying than other students. I would advise incoming students to know exactly what they want to get out of the program before going into it. In studying abroad, you are going to want to do everything--try all the foods, visit every cool shop, make lots of new friends, get straight A's, and still be able to sleep. Well that's tough. Prioritize your time with what you most want to do; figure out what is most important. Maybe making a lot of local friends is more important than spending time exploring the country. Keep that in mind when you plan, because it's impossible to do everything. The summer session was 9 weeks, which might sound like a lot of time, but for an entire country, it's miniscule.