Student Report
Name of the University: Kansai Gaidai University
Exchange Semester:
Fall 2012
I. Practical Information
Before leaving Norway
Due to the time zone difference, I only exchanged information with the
exchange university over e-mail. They were very effective in sending out
information as well as replying to anything you might ask them.
In the preparation, I felt everything went smooth and did not have any
difficulties. Some of the classes had been made changes to after I started the
semester, but the application process could not have been any less
frightening.
Applying for a visa
The student visa for Japan cost NOK 220. I went to the Japanese Embassy in
Oslo with a passport photo, my passport and any document Kansai Gaidai
had sent me. As I did not put much pressure on the process, it took about a
week until I could pick up my passport and visa.
Travel
I travelled by plane using KLM. I had one stop in Amsterdam and then a 10hour flight to Japan. A very simple travel and I landed at KIX, Kansai Gaidai
International Airport in the morning. I then took the local train and bus to
Hirakata Station (A station you will get very familiar to when you come here).
It took me some time to find my hotel as I came before the Seminar Houses
open, but it was only a 50m walk from the Train Station. The hotel I (and
many other students and families) stayed at was called Hirakata Sun Plaza
Hotel.
Housing
Kansai Gaidai offers the international students to stay in one of the four
Seminar Houses they have a few hundred meters away from campus. Some
students also were provided with their own housing. I stayed in Seminar
House 1 and I loved it! I applied for one of the two single rooms as every other
room is shared between two students. Seminar House 1 had a good size with
one “girl-floor” and one “guy-floor”. Each floor had a large kitchen, showers
and toilets as well as a laundry room. On the first floor, also called the “guyfloor”, was a lounge where everyone could bring friends from outside, watch
TV or study. We could of course be on each other’s floors.
Costs
Rent
The housing fee was paid all in once at the beginning of the
semester. A single room in Seminar House 1 cost me NOK 21
580.
Books
The only book I had to buy was writing and reading book for
Japanese. About NOK 300.
Food
Going to the grocery store is about the same price in Norway.
Going out is generally cheaper here.
Transport
A ride on the bus to any stop will cost you Y220, about NOK 14.
Subway and train tickets vary from Y200 to Y360.
Culture and Language
The faculty of the school could speak English very well, but the general
English level in Japan is very low. There are many English major students at
Kansai Gaidai and they are often interested in talking to the international
students in the CIE Lounge. It is a great, simple and easy way of
communicating with them either in English or Japanese.
The Japanese culture can very easily be experienced. The school offers
Homestay for those who want to live with a Japanese family, they give you a
chance to have a Japanese-speaking partner and you can also sign up for
home-visit programs and visit a family. It all depends on how much you want
to experience yourself. Japanese people are very open to show you their
culture.
I have lived in Japan before and also studied Japanese in high school so this
dramatically reduced any language problem I might have faced. But seeing
those who could not speak Japanese, they seemed to never have any
obvious problems either.
Cultural and social effects from the exchange experience
I went to a local school in Japan during elementary school, I went to high
school in Singapore in an international school and so coming back to Japan
on exchange only made me realize how much more enriching it feels to study
and live abroad. Over time, I think I have become a more open-minded
person and you will be able to see beyond the news and information the
media feeds you about the world. It has helped me see Norway from a
different perspective and it has also made me appreciate home more as well.
As I wish to have a career that involves international travel and
communication, I think this will be great for my future possibilities. Many major
work places now also require students to have been abroad. I would
recommend it to anyone.
II. About the school
The school is located outside of the downtown Osaka. It is a beautiful campus
with several buildings, a Japanese garden, a large open grass space in the
middle, three sports fields and now also a new building called the ICC where
students can eat Italian food, study and have great presentations. The bus
stops right in front of the school and it is a 10-minute bus ride from Hirakata
Station. The area has a post office, several places to eat, bars, a hospital etc.
The school currently holds about 70% female students. There are about
15,000 students in total at Kansai Gaidai where approximately 500-700 of
these are enrolled in the Asian Studies Program.
The international building, the CIE, holds most of our class rooms and we
have a large student lounge where we can relax, mix with Japanese students
or do homework.
Course Registration
I got the classes I signed up for and we had some time where we were able to
change classes if we were not satisfied. I registered for classes in Japan after
each teacher had given their introduction. There were no difficulties in the
registration process.
Academic calendar
Check out their website as some dates might differ from year to year. We had
a few long-weekends but no proper holidays that last a week.
Arrival
I arrived by myself, but I know there were pick up services for other students.
The introduction week included being introduced to the different important
areas such as where the grocery store was etc. We got everything that had to
be done, done this week and there was one introduction party.
The International Office
The CIE building is the International building where you can get help with
anything you may need, whether this is in regards to documents you need to if
you need someone who can translate for you during a hospital visit. I felt I
always got enough information about what was going on, in English.
Promoting BI and Norway
We had the International Student Festival where people could promote their
country, but nothing was done for Norway. The promoting of Norway was
rather done through informal speech among students and friends.
Social activities
I had a good relationship to the native students, but an even better
relationship between the exchange students. There were several clubs in the
school where exchange students could take part and further make more
native friends. They also had several festivals, celebration of Halloween and
so on.
III. Academics
In the classroom
The classes were all very small, all from 11 to 20 students. The Japanese
classes were taught in Japanese (Level 3) while international teachers taught
other classes in English. The teaching style strongly encouraged students to
actively participate and it is the best learning environment I have ever been in.
I ended up taking more credits at Kansai Gaidai as I found many of the
subjects very interesting. I studied many hours every day, but I enjoyed it as I
found a very encouraging study environment in our Seminar House lounge.
There are several group works and pair works as well as presentations, but
this all depends on your class. Teachers were very helpful and would always
help you if you needed anything outside of classes. They were also interested
in talking to students so most of us got a good and close relationship to our
teachers.
Course material
The Japanese classes used the Japanese textbook and workbook called
“Genki”. These included English writing describing the Japanese material. For
the business classes, we got an article collection made by the teacher.
Materials for all other classes than Japanese were in English.
Compared to BI, we had a lot less reading material. Instead, we had shorter
and more concrete chapters or articles that would allow us to think and
discuss and learn more in class. This way, it was easier and more fun to learn
and I also think it helped us learn more. It gave us details in order to help us
understand the overall subject.
Exams
As I had writing and speaking Japanese, I had one written exam for each
subject as well as an oral exam for the speaking class. For Global Business
Teams, we had two rather large and complex group works with papers we
handed in. For Sumi-E, we had a final piece and an exhibition while for
Japanese Management, Innovation and Education in the 21 st Century, we had
a research paper as well as a TED-style presentation in class. All we were
tested on was given to us either as homework or in class.
For the Japanese classes, we frequently had vocab and kanji tests. We also
had writing homework for almost every day we had class. Also for Japanese
speaking, we had a skit performance, an individual speech and twice we had
Japanese students come to our class so we could truly practice our
Japanese. Class attendance counted for all classes and also participation and
willingness to learn. Even though I did not have any field trips, I know that
several other classes had field trips during weekends to a Zen-temple etc.
Other students could take part of this if space, something I got the opportunity
to do and I highly recommend this.
Library and technology
Students have easy access to the library and its resources and you will see
sleeping Japanese students all over the space. There are several computer
rooms in the school. The one that International Students would mostly use is
in the CIE building. They also have free printing machines and also copy
machines but these cost a few yen to use.
Be aware, the internet at Kansai Gaidai and in the seminar house is SLOW.
Japanese classes give notes on the website but they will also give hardcopies
in class.
Description of courses
Course code Master/Bachelor Exam form
& name
Japanese
Bachelor
1.5
hour
Speaking
written
Level 3
exam. Oral
exam.
Prerequisites Approved
as
For Level 1, Elective
no
prerequisites
needed
Japanese
Bachelor
Reading and
Writing Level
3
1.5
hour For Level 1, Elective
written
no
exam
prerequisites
needed
Global
Business
Teams
2
group None
projects
Bachelor
Strategy
Comments
This is a course
all
Exchange
students need to
do. But you will
be assigned to a
suiting level in
the beginning of
the
semester
through tests.
This is a course
Exchange
students
can
drop. It will then
only give you 2
ECTS
(Norwegian
points)
This
class
consists of one
mid-term paper
with
multiple
choice and two
major
group
works including a
paper and a 40minute
presentation for
each project.
Sumi-E
Bachelor
Japanese
Bachelor
Management,
Innovation
and Education
in the 21st
Century
Final piece
None
20 minute None
presentation
and a paper
Elective
Finansiell
Styring
A very interesting
course where I
learned to paint
with
Japanese
ink. This course
will most likely
not be offered
next semester.
A
highly
discussion based
class where you
also developed
good
presentation
skills as well as a
new view on
Japan and the
world.
Any other experiences/comments about your exchange experience?
IT HAS BEEN THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE! It could not have been any
better and I really hope you choose Osaka. If you can choose between Osaka
and Tokyo, you will regret not going to Osaka if you go for Tokyo.