Summer Trip to Japan 2011

Well, one more step has become official: I have the go-ahead from my home university to travel to Japan next summer for a 2 month immersion language study of – you guessed it – Japanese! I will be able to participate in many social and historical activities, as well as some optional weekend trips that I will be taking advantage of. One of these I’m looking forward to is the Tea Ceremony. 😀

Beppu is one of the places that I may be going, but it is not yet set in stone, as I am considering a couple of different schools. Once I select a couple of universities there, I have to turn those over to my home university who will then give me approval. After that, it’s a simple matter of doing my independent, Japanese language study over the next few months, doing well in my Spring courses, and getting ready for an exciting, thrilling, educational and fun trip!

The course is roughly 35 hours per week for 2 months, and covers all main modern aspects of the language, for business, travel, and work – conversational Japanese. I have been increasing my Japanese music collection lately as well as viewing more modern Japanese films to help me get my mindset changed some.

Anyone have any suggestions, feel free to post them, please! I would welcome any tips that could help me with this endeavor. My goal is to be fluent in Japanese one day, and from there, I would love to move on to Chinese dialects, as well as Korean. Even if you have an excellent Japanese film or TV show, post it!

Excited & looking to the future,

-Brandon