Alice Zeng: About Gakusen: Classes & Daily Routines

Of course, the school is a huge part of the exchange experience, it’s why I’m here and probably why you’re reading this. So I’ll be going over my overall experiences at Aichi Gakusen regarding my exchange, the classes I’m taking, resources and services at the school, and a general idea of the daily routine.

 

We got our schedules on orientation day. I’m taking 2-3 periods of class everyday that consists of assigned classes and also electives and clubs I’ve chosen myself. Our assigned classes consists of Japanese language, speaking and grammar class, taught in Japanese, as well as culture, and history classes taught in English. On top of that I’m taking a “design” class which is actually a still life sketch class, as well as participating in Ms. Aoyama’s English seminar, and tea ceremony circle (club).

 

The classes are about 90 min each. The assigned classes are “private” classes, meaning the only students are ourselves and occasionally one or two of the Korean exchange students. This was a little disappointing to me because I had hoped to take classes with other students from the school as it’s harder to make friends when you’re only with each other, so the only way to prevent that is taking electives and participating in clubs.

 

I have classes Monday to Thursday, and then Fridays and the weekends off (hooray long weekends!). I get to school by train everyday (around 50 minutes), there's also school buses that frequent the nearby stations that I take, or it’s a 18 minute walk from the station to the school (but it’s getting too hot, and somedays I don’t go to school until noon).

 

There are various services around the school available such as library, computer labs, and lounges for studying. International students also have their own study room with various amenities such as a sink, fridge, plates, cups and utensils, water boiler, and a shared computer. Unfortunately the wifi service is only available in certain places and even then it’s hard to get connection good enough to use it. (I’ve talked about this in a pervious post regarding the issues I’ve had with internet so I won’t go into detail here.) 

 

Lastly, the faculty and the teachers. The assistants in charge of the exchange students (Moriya-san and Satou-san) are very helpful and patient. Unfortunately few people here speak English so communication with them is difficult but they always try their best and take very good care of us. 

Overall the experience has been positive, my only issue was the classes being a little isolated. Another thing that may be difficult is all-Japanese teaching in the language and grammar classes. Luckily my Japanese comprehension is decent enough to understand what’s going on most of the time, but it can be extremely hard if your Japanese comprehension is not very good and the teachers don’t speak English.

Alice Zeng is a Bachelor of Communication Design student at Capilano University. Alice is currently studying abroad at Aichi Gakusen College in Okazai, Japan.