IES Abroad Nagoya

Before I provide my review, I would like to highlight that I speak Japanese well, which made my life in Japan easier than for others. My study abroad with the IES Nagoya program was enjoyable. Since it involved direct enrollment at the Japanese school (Nanzan University), I really needed help filling out tons of applications. However, IES guided me through filling out all of the applications, and there weren't even many things to do at my level. Even though I could speak Japanese, I was definitely worried about adjusting myself to the new places. However, IES provided field trips to its students, which was actually an awesome experience for me. I took thousands of pictures on those field trips and even experienced many authentic Japanese places that I couldn't visit just in Nagoya. Adding more here, Nagoya is just the perfect place if you are first visiting Japan. Nagoya is a city with good authentic Japanese food, historical sites, and even a well-managed downtown area where you can enjoy East Asian culture with your local friends. In terms of learning, Nanzan offers great language classes where you can actually improve your Japanese skills. They also have a program where you can meet other Japanese students and exchange your own culture with them. Since you cannot meet local Japanese students in class, that program was really helpful for me to make some Japanese friends with whom I could practice the Japanese that I learned in class. I chose the homestay program while I was studying abroad, and I would say that was the highlight of my stay in Japan. You can engage with your host family who are willing to exchange their culture and help you practice your Japanese while you are at home. That helped me to understand Japanese society and people more deeply. I learned lots of etiquette that I need to know to live in Japan.

I went abroad to improve my Japanese, and I was not disappointed. The Japanese program is intense and rewarding; it took a lot of work, but I learned a lot! I loved being able to learn alongside other passionate students. The professor's were caring and helpful, which made it easier during difficult classes. One of the ways IES was helpful was the practical advice about the area, and the time spent with other international students. I especially liked having the orientation before the classes started so I had adjustment time. Also, the trips they coordinated were really fun and helped me learn how to travel safely so that later I was able to do my own trips as well.
The only thing I found a bit frustrating was it was nearly impossible to participate in clubs at the university. But overall, the program was amazing.

I studied abroad with IES Abroad Nagoya in the Spring of 2019.

The IES abroad program at Nagoya is amazing. the staff for both the program and the university are very kind, and very helpful. they understand all of the struggles you might go through while studying abroad. Nazan also has counselors for international students.

Nagoya is a small but very nice city. In the areas where you will live, host family or dorm, there are very little foreigners so you don't have to worry about being treated like you know very little to no Japanese. it's also a very convenient city to make trips from. There are a lot subways, trains, and bus lines in the area to go almost anywhere of interest. And you can easily take the bullet train along the eastern coast which goes all the up to Hakodate and all the way down to Kagoshima. The airport is also a major one so you can easily take a domestic flight to a lot of cities.

The trips you are broad on are amazing as well and super generous. You get to go to some really cool locations, stay at very nice hotels and Ryokans (Japanese inn), and eat very good food.

The convenience and cheapness of the public transport system in Japan really encourages you to explore. I've made many solo trips. If your Japanese level is good enough, you can go almost anywhere.

Overall, this program completely change me. I was able to grow a lot as a person, a student, and a professional. My Japanese ability also skyrocketed.

I highly recommend this program for anyone who has the chance.

If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be studying abroad in Japan, I wouldn’t believe you. My application process was surreal: I’d looked up a countless number of photos, blogs, and reviews of study abroad in Japan, and I couldn’t believe that I was applying to go to a country so different from my own. When I applied and found out that I was accepted into IES Abroad’s Nagoya Summer Program, I was ecstatic: I was going to Japan! I had a new perspective about the photos, blogs, and reviews that I’d seen and read. I would gather my own memories and photos just like those in the past who’ve studied abroad have done.

What I loved the most about studying abroad through IES is the support system that I had from the minute I was accepted and even now as an alumna. I remember feeling butterflies (a bit from excitement, a bit from nervousness) when I thought about my upcoming study abroad trip, but my advisor sent me a weekly newsletter and answered all of my questions (no matter how small or unimportant they seemed to me!).

The minute my plane touched down in Nagoya, two IES staff members greeted me in the airport. This was such a relief for me, as I had never been in a foreign country before--let alone one where the native language isn't English! The staff members were so polite and helped me and two of my fellow participants to the hotel that we'd be staying in for the weekend. On the train ride there, we introduced ourselves and talked about various aspects of American and Japanese culture (in a mix of Japanese and English) and just our initial reactions at being in Japan. It was comforting to have them there with me, and they assuaged any lingering fears or worries that I had about being in a country so far from home.

My first weekend in Japan was an orientation guided by two IES staff members. They gave us emergency resources, talked about some cultural differences and difficulties that we might face, and organized a traditional Japanese meal for us. It was a perfect transitioning weekend that helped me and the other participants become comfortable with our new home for the next 6 weeks.

I won't lie and say transitioning to life in Japan was easy; being in a foreign country for the first time, especially when you don't speak the official language fluently, is tough. Tasks that I wouldn’t give a second thought to in America like doing laundry and buying groceries were challenging. My advice to overcoming these challenges is this: observe how your Japanese classmates carry out their day-to-day lives and never be afraid to ask for help.

My time in Japan was short, but I felt like I had seen a lot and learned a lot about the places that I visited. Because of IES, I was able to see my host city in a new way, through several different cultural events like the community Tanabata celebration and the TAO drum performance. I also explored more of Kyoto than I ever thought I would; Kyoto is such a historically and culturally rich city with an abundance of shrines, temples, and historical landmarks, and our weekend field trip to Kyoto allowed us to visit a handful of the most famous landmarks in a short span of time. Although I was extremely tired after the trip, I'm glad that I had the chance to see so much of such a beautiful city. IES Abroad field trips supplemented an already incredible study abroad experience by helping me to see more of Japan, both geographically and culturally, than I ever thought possible.

One aspect that I loved about IES is that they organized these field trips and events, but the time commitment was never overwhelming. I still had free time so I could hang out with my new friends and go to karaoke or a local ramen shop, or plan small field trips of our own to museums and castles.

As far as academics go, Nanzan University provided a rigorous and highly beneficial language learning environment. We had classes 5 days a week, around 3 hours a day with a 15-minute break in between, and then homework on a daily basis. What I loved about Nanzan was that they provide so many opportunities for international students to interact with Japanese students, both inside and outside of the classroom. Every Friday, our sensei would invite Japanese students to our class and we would start off the class by having conversations with them for 20-minutes. There were also daily events such as the Japan Plaza where you could go and get homework help or just informally converse in Japanese, and other frequent events such as Coffee Hour where you could converse and play games with Japanese students. They also organized several field trips (some just for international students, some for international and Japanese students) to various places such as Shirakawa-go, a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site nestled in the mountains, and even a sumo championship held in Nagoya! The environment that Nanzan University provided was so inviting and fun.

If you attend, I highly recommend staying in the International Student Dormitories. For the girls dorm, you’re guaranteed one Japanese roommate, plus up to 2 other roommates from anywhere in the world! The dorms are more like 4-bedroom apartments with a shared bathroom area, kitchen area, and common area. The guys dorms are single rooms, but there is still at least one Japanese student on each floor, so you won’t lose the opportunity to converse with native Japanese speakers, even when you’re settled in for the night.

Despite only being in Japan for 6 weeks, it felt like a lifetime because of all of the incredible people that I met and places that I saw. Overall, I highly recommend studying through IES Abroad if you’re looking to get the most out of your time abroad and explore every nook and cranny of your host country, with the support of a genuine and caring staff.

Participating in the Nagoya Summer--Language and Culture program at Nanzan University for seven weeks this past summer truly transformed my Japanese language ability and increased my confidence. Initially terrified to travel alone for the first time in my life, I was incredibly nervous, but the IES facilitators provided so much support that I was ability to immediately make friends and quickly come to call Nanzan University home. By both intensively studying Japanese and being fully immersed in Japanese culture every day I was able to improve more in my language ability then I ever could at my home university in the US. I left the program conversationally fluent and able to navigate the city by myself. I made lifelong friends with both other international students and the Japanese students at Nanzan. We still keep in touch to this day. This program made me realize just how much I love studying Japanese and has motivated me to continue to further pursue these studies.

Living in Nagoya was an absolutely amazing experience I will never forget. Living in Japan and with a host family, I was able to use my Japanese all the time and because of that, my language skills greatly improved. Traveling and seeing Japan was one of the highlights of my experience. Every city I visited in Japan was not only beautiful, but also, had something unique to offer. The people I met in my daily interactions and at my university were extremely kind and helpful.

The IES experience was truly beyond what I expected from studying abroad. While we were given great cultural classes in addition to our regular classes, they assured that students were truly immersed in exploration, creating international friendships, and having a working understanding of the language and social aspects. The trips included many cultural experiences that even normal Japanese people do not get to do (i.e. very nice tea houses!).
Even when I was going on side trips with friends, Nagoya's location is perfectly located so that you can easily get to visit tourist favorites, such as Tokyo and Osaka, with ease. It also is a big city with many attractions within itself, but you get the feeling of it being legitimately Japan. Especially among my friends who were really searching for actually learning the culture and improving their language skills, Nagoya's Nanzan University the best program fit.
If you're still deciding which program to choose, you won't regret choosing IES Nagoya!

I really couldn't have imagined my experience without going abroad with IES! IES provided so much support and opportunities for all of us during the semester. My friends who also studied abroad at Nanzan (but not with IES) were always really jealous of all of the incredible performances we saw and field trips we went on as a part of IES! Furthermore, the upper levels at Nanzan for Japanese studies are incredible, I learned so much and my Japanese improved dramatically. Would DEFINITELY recommend this program, and I do!

Choosing this program is such an incredible investment in your life and future! :)