Japan:
pros: wildly different experience, get pushed out of my comfort zone, tokyo has an amazing culture, people have told me it’s life changing
cons: i don’t speak any japanese or know the first thing about japan. like zero. nada. zilch.
Spain:
pros: college life there sounds super fun, i have a couple friends going, i speak a decent amount of spanish so i’ll probably be conversationally fluent by the end, easier culture to adjust to as an american
cons: i won’t get pushed out of my comfort zone as much, and it’ll be easy to fall into the trap of sticking to my current college friend bubble the whole time cuz a lot of them will be there
anyone have thoughts?? anyone studied abroad in either place? i really can’t tell which experience i want to have. i also can’t tell how much of an issue it would be that i don’t speak any japanese.
8 comments
Tokyo.
Unless you plan on living in Japan for the rest of your life wouldn’t really advise you to study there…
Personal growth vs Personal comfort
You’re posting in a Japan subreddit… people here can’t choose for you, you need to do your research
You’re going through your university to another country right? So you should ask your university about all your concerns before deciding, but usually you wouldn’t be expected to know Japanese for short-term study abroad in Japan as you would take the classes in English (unless you are taking Japanese language classes). As for whether you need Japanese in daily life, it’s gonna depend on what part of Japan you’re in cuz if it’s Tokyo you will get by with just English, there’s an English bubble there but if the university teaches in English then they will most likely help you in English too even if it’s outside of Tokyo. But know that English education in Japan is not very good, and a lot of Japanese people are nervous about using English due to that.
If you wanna work in Japan, studying in Japan isn’t a realistic way to experience Japanese culture since it’s like tourism and university education there is more like a party compared to USA so even if you attend short-term it won’t guarantee that you’ll be fluent in Japanese especially when starting from the beginning… only go if you wanna experience Japanese university life and have fun but don’t go in with high expectations
If you need to speak Japanese as a requirement, you won’t be able to study abroad in the first place so you need to research
I would go to Spain if I were you. Japan can be particularly difficult for people to acclimate to when they didn’t already have a particular interest in the country, even if it’s a short exchange program. And realistically your opportunities for self-development will be limited if you’d be here for less than a year anyways.
I can’t advice about Spain .
As for Japan it depends if this is a short term exchange (a semester or year) or the entire bachelor/master program. If it’s the former, you do t really need any Japanese. It would help in some situations, but you’ll have a lot of support fro the school and most exchange programs will teach you Japanese.
It’s definitely was a great experience for me.
If it’s doing the entire program in Japan, I would not advise that unless you speak Japanese and plan to work in Japan afterwards.
Japan is for vacation. DO NOT live here.
It’s an awesome place to visit, and an awful place to live. Go to Spain.
I speak Japanese, but I still would have chosen Spain over Japan. You already know some Spanish so you’ll have a more enriching experience where you can interact with locals. Force yourself to make friends outside of the one college friend in Spain; I bet it will be a lot easier to do so with Spanish under your belt. You could also take one or two affordable trips to other European countries during your school term abroad.