Kansai Gaidai University
Fall 2013
Practical Information:
I received my very first message from Kansai Gaidai University 03/22/2013. The
message contained information about how and where to fill out their online application. I
received my official FALL-acceptance at the end of the spring semester in June 2013. I had to
fill out a bunch of documents such as housing arrangement, health condition and arrival
information documents. In addition to this it was very important that i obtained a VISA and a
Certificate of Eligibility. Finishing the processes related to these items before you left Norway
was mandatory. In order to get the VISA I travelled to Oslo from Bergen to the Japanese
Embassy. I also delivered my COE at the embassy. The Kansai Gaidai staff clearly stated that
I were to be extremely careful with my COE document when I received it, the reissuing of
this type of document was apparently a very lengthy procedure. When I applied for the VISA
I had to choose between different types of VISA’s, but it was in my best interest to pick a
VISA that lasted for no more than half a year seeing as the other alternatives did not fit “my
profile”. I paid approximately 210, - NOK for the VISA, including the travel expenses on
transportation from Bergen to Oslo, I spent a total of 1500, - NOK.
When departing from Norway I used the German Airplane company ‘Lufthansa’. I
bought my flight tickets through the travel agency ‘Kilroy’. The trip to Japan lasted for about
20 hour’s total. When I arrived at the KIX airport I had to wait for 2 hours until a pick-up bus
with Kansai Gaidai representatives arrived and picked me up. The University gave students
the opportunity to either stay with a Japanese family or to live in a dorm with other
international students from all over the world. I chose the latter, in addition to this I also chose
to be part of a home-visit program that the University recommended for any international
student arriving at Kansai Gaidai. This program is made so that you will be able to experience
the everyday life of a typical Japanese family. I chose to visit this Japanese family once or
twice every week during my stay.
The necessary costs I had to endure, considering housing, food, traveling, books and
others, were fairly low compared to what I’d spend in Norway. I paid about 13.000, - NOK
for 4 months of stay at my Seminar House. Weekly I roughly spent about 1000 - 2000, - NOK
on food, drinks, bus tickets and others. On weekends I would usually spend a bit more than I
would during the weekdays, seeing as I travelled with other international students almost
every weekend. The only books I had to spend money on at the University were the Japanese
study books for the Japanese courses; in all the other courses I received printed handouts,
books and other study material for free.
During my first month in Japan I had some difficulties communicating with some of
the Japanese citizens, mostly due to my lack of Japanese speaking skills, but the spoken
Japanese lectures were very good and educated me quickly so that I became able to make
myself understood within the first month. Most students at The University knew how to speak
English, but the average English speaking skill level of the Japanese students was fairly low. I
didn’t have any problems with the English courses; I didn’t have any problems when I
communicated with other visiting international students or teachers either. The dorm staff had
pretty decent English skills so I didn’t experience any difficulties with them whatsoever.
Some of the administration staff didn’t speak English at all so most of the times I needed to
bring along someone from the CIE office staff to translate for me. Even though I got lost in
translation sometimes, the possibilities when it came to traveling within Japan were endless,
mainly because of the well-organized train system that they have. I used either local trains or
“The Bullet Train”, better known as the ‘Shinkansen’, depending on where I was headed. The
Shinkansen was a bit expensive, but it moved across the country amazingly fast. Also I would
use the Japanese flight company ‘Peach airlines’ sometimes. They had the cheapest flight
tickets ever, going pretty much anywhere within Asia.
About the School:
The Kansai Gaidai University is Located in Hirakata city and the University can be
found within a large Campus just besides the city core. Mostly the University educates within
the subjects of business, language, manga and arts. The classrooms and study areas are pretty
decent, some buildings are more modern than others, and most of the business courses are
held within the more recently built and/or renovated structures. The Japanese courses, on the
other hand, were held in smaller old-school classrooms within the CIE-building where the
language labs also, strategically enough, were located.
A couple of days after I arrived (23rd August), I received the message that I could enter
Kansai portal, the Japanese answer to “it’s learning”, and add/drop courses. The deadline for
adding courses was 17th of September and the deadline for dropping courses was 24th of
September.
My Academic Calendar looked like this:
Arrival date:
Aug. 23rd
First day of the semester:
Sept. 2nd
Last day of classes:
Dec. 13th
Examination period:
Dec. 9-13th
Any special events/holidays:
Sep 23rd, Oct 14th, Nov 3rd, Nov 23rd
Other:
Dec 21st (Deadline for moving out)
As soon as I had arrived and settled into the dorm facility I was introduced to the
masters of the household, I then received a big folder containing all the important files needed
in order to fully settle in there. At the beginning of the stay most of my time was spent going
back and forth between the dorm and the University, this was so that I could get any of my
necessary documents approved and signed. In the midst of signing papers all the students
were delegated in to different orientation groups; so to learn about the campus and other
important sites in Hirakata city. Sept. 2nd the University held its ceremonial opening of the fall
semester, this was very entertaining and gave you the opportunity to mingle with the other
students.
The international office provided most of the information that I needed in order to get
started, whenever a problem occurred they would always help me to solve it within reasonable
time and/or find good secondary solutions.
As far as social activities goes, it was extraordinarily easy to become acquainted with
the other students, be they native or exchange students, it didn’t matter. It was fun to see how
every other student would show an explicit interest in you as a person and were very curious
as to how you had ended up at the same University as them. The school had its own student
activity circle programs; here I was able to nurture my talents within either sports, music, arts,
dancing or all of them at the same time if I preferred that. Also there were a lot of
spontaneous activities along the way where I got to meet other students and to socialize with
them. I joined the very first initiative they made and travelled to Kyoto together with some
randomly plucked students; both native and exchange.
Academics:
I picked 5 different courses at Kansai Gaidai during my FALL-semester.
Course code & name
Master/
Exam form
Prerequisites
Bachelor
GBT: Global Business
Bachelor
Teams
Approved
Comments
as
Multiple-choice
None
Elective
Course is
tests and
worth 3
presentation +
credits
Final exam
IB: International
Bachelor
Business
Multiple-choice
None
Elective
Course is
tests and
worth 3
presentation +
credits
Final exam
MAC: Marketing
Bachelor
across Cultures
Multiple-choice
None
Elective
Course is
tests and
worth 3
presentation +
credits
Final exam
SPJ1: Spoken Japanese Bachelor
Mid-term
None
Elective
Course is
level 1
exams, oral
worth 5
exams and in-
credits
class quizzes +
1 final exam
R&WJ: Introduction to
Bachelor
In-class quizzes,
None
Elective
Course is
reading and writing
mid-term exam
worth 1
Japanese
and final exam.
credit
The professors in the Japanese courses were always Natives and their teaching style
was theoretical, the teachers also expected a formal approach from the students with morning
greetings and assignment hand-ins every morning. Also when we left the classroom it was
expected that we’d say bye in a very formal way, in other words “shitsureshimasu”.
The professors in the English courses were very relaxed, mainly informal and both
theoretical and practical in their teaching styles. The level of the English courses was fairly
easy and the workload small, meanwhile the level of the Japanese lectures were tough, and the
workload huge. In each of the courses, except SPJ1, the professor handed out the course
material for free. In SPJ1 I had to buy the Genki books that correlated with my level of
spoken Japanese. All of the paper hand-outs that I received in the English courses stemmed
from Harvard University. Otherwise hand-outs seemed to be made by the teachers
themselves.
The exams in the Japanese courses were mainly based on course materials; meanwhile
the professors in the English courses based the exams on both course materials and lectures.
All of the courses were evaluated on the basis of class attendance, in-class quizzes, mid-term
exams, final exams, group assignments, small assignments and papers, power-point
presentations, class participation/debates and sometimes even on basis of activities held
outside of the classrooms.
When it comes to the library, it was secured with electronic card register gates so in
case I wanted to get in I would need my student card. The library was pretty big and it had a
wide selection of books as well as a computer/video department that was available for the
students to use, but even so it must be said that all of the computer technology at the
University was relatively old and the internet at the campus was very slow on busy school
days. Hopefully the Kansai staff will upgrade this somewhere in the future.
Some complementary last words:
I would like to add that I am now able to speak Japanese on an elementary level, also
my degree of knowledge regarding international business has increased and I feel that my
positioning in the world job market is stronger than ever. My network has without a doubt
increased during my stay seeing as I have made contacts within 20 + countries all over the
world. I am especially happy that I had a lot of presentations in my different classes, seeing as
this has helped me on my way to become a better pitcher. I would advise anyone to take a
leap of faith when it comes to studying abroad, it doesn’t matter how unsure you are, because
when you arrive and your stay has begun all you will see and experience is excitement and
possibilities rather than doubt.