Hello everyone,
I'm a sophomore at a university in Philadelphia, and I'm getting ready to study at ICU for the duration of my junior year. I will be in Japan from the end of August to the beginning of June. My major is Japanese Studies, and my only experience with Japanese language is the four semesters of Japanese (Beginning Japanese I-IV) that I've taken at my school.
We've finished the books Yookoso I and II as well as BKB I. My hope is that from my time in Japan, I will develop a better grasp of the language and be able to achieve at least conversational fluency. I enjoy studying Japanese history, particularly modern history (from Meiji on), and I do well in my Japanese history courses. However, I'm a B student in the language courses, so I definitely want to improve while I am abroad. My main issues are with speaking and listening (I often hesitate when I am trying to say a complex sentence or use advanced grammar patterns, and I also tend to need things repeated to me a lot). While my reading and writing could also use help, I don't struggle as much with these as I do with speaking and listening.
I have a few questions particular to ICU:
1) Has anyone studied there before? What is the atmosphere like? I know it's an international school, but I've been told that many Japanese attend as well and that the student body is predominantly Japanese. However, I'm worried that I might fall into the bad habit of spending too much time with other English-speaking students if they make up a large portion of the campus. Will this be an issue, or is it one of those things that will only be as much of a problem as I let it become?
2) As I said above, right now I'm about a B student in Japanese. I want to attend law school after I finish undergrad, and one of the things I am trying to do is boost my GPA. I know that ICU offers language courses and I'm sure that they're very good. However, I've also heard that they are quite intensive and can be very difficult. I have a gut feeling that I would have an easier time taking the intermediate language courses at my home school after I return in my senior year, with (hopefully) a better grasp of the language.
My question: Is it reasonable to expect my language skills to improve enough just through everyday use, provided that I make an honest effort to spend time with Japanese speakers, immerse myself in the language, and avoid using English as much as possible, that I would return from Japan in better shape to take Intermediate level Japanese at my home school? Or, would it be foolish to not take the formal Japanese courses at ICU if my goal is to improve my language skills. I do want to get better, but I also want to boost my GPA. I feel like I could continue to be a B student in Japanese language at ICU, but I also feel like I might be able to come back from ICU, take the courses in America, and get an A.
As I said above, my goal is to improve my listening and speaking skills eventually; I don't have many opportunities to converse in Japanese outside of the classroom here in America, so getting those opportunities are important to me.
Thanks for your time, and sorry for the long post. Cheers.