For context, I attend high school in Canada and will be entering 11th grade this September. I have completed the basic level of my school board's international language program (Japanese) and will continue to take it next year, while also studying Japanese on my own. The university I will be applying to has an exchange program to Japan which I plan on taking, and there are multiple options for it. For example, if your Japanese is proficient, you could take your major in Japanese, or if you're still learning, you could take a Japanese course. In the university exchange program, they actually ensure that you are learning during your exchange period.
Recently, I saw a youtube video by dylantazawa about being an exchange student in a Japanese high school through SCCE exchange. Since I have two years of high school remaining, it got me interested in the idea of going through a high school exchange first to learn more Japanese, since I think it's easier to learn a language when your environment revolves around it (that was my experience with English, my first language was Chinese but I became fluent because the environment was all English). However, following the exchange period, a Q&A video was released. When asked how to learn Japanese/the program in general, he said that it didn't really matter if you understood the lessons, or even how much Japanese you actually pick up during the period as long as you learn about the culture.
Is it true that high school exchange programs simply throw you into a local high school without expecting you to actually learn anything? Is this the case with all programs or are there some that actually help you learn during your time in Japan? I would like to experience high school in Japan, just for a short while, but I wouldn't sacrifice my education to do it, especially because the next two years are important for university.
If there's anything else you can tell me about exchange programs or even just Japanese high schools in general, please do.
by cqredownbad