Faculty-led Study Abroad in Osaka

As many of you know, one of my big goals for the past year and a half has been the creation of a Grand Valley faculty-led study abroad program to Japan. I put the proposal in last year, received initial approval to go to Japan this past summer, and on Monday went before the committee with my proposal... which was approved! As long as I can get the required minimum twelve students to commit by February, I'll be taking them to Japan next summer! A lot of the details have been up in the air, so I've been deliberately vague when discussing the eventual form the program might take, but now that we've gotten approval the details are pretty well set... and here's how they look:

The program will be based in Osaka, at Osaka Gakuin Daigaku, and include attendance in an existing summer language program at that school run by a company called CET Academic Programs. Basically, I will be going to Japan with the group of students at the beginning of May, teaching a traditional Japanese theater course during the first month, and then returning to the US while students begin the intensive language program, which lasts eight weeks. That's right, it's a full three months in Japan, from the beginning of May to the end of July! That's a bit longer than most faculty-led programs and the program also unconventional in other ways. For one thing, the hybrid faculty class/language program model is not like any other faculty-led program offered through the Padnos International Center and, while there was initial excitement about the possibility, there was also some resistance to the implementation. In the end, I am very excited about it, since it will allow me to open the program to students at all levels, from absolute beginners to students who have gone as far at Grand Valley as they can, and also allow students to make real progress toward the course of language study at Grand Valley rather than being merely supplemental to our language classes. It also gives students almost a full month in-country before beginning formal language study, something which I think will help with the transition from our classes to the intensive program. All in all, I'm excited to see if it works as well as I think it will.

The 3-credit traditional theater course I'll be teaching will focus on both the "big three" of Japanese theater: nô, kabuki, and bunraku; but also a wide range of other performing arts such as kagura, gagaku, biwa, kyomai, butô, Takarazuka, and modern theater. It will include four "field trips" in which we explore the entertainment districts of Osaka, Kyôto, and Nara before watching live theatrical perfomances of kabuki, nô, and whatever else is available at that time in the Kansai area. Combining readings and discussion of plays prior to watching them performed live, I aim to give students greater insight into the performance traditions than can be achieved otherwise.

During the intensive language portion, students will work through a full year of our coursework in eight weeks. CET uses the same textbook series we do, Genki for first and second year and Tobira for third year, but the pace is much quicker, with two hour classes in both the morning and afternoon five days a week. In addition, one class session per week is spent with the instructor outside the classroom, pursuing tasks in the community which force students to make active use of their language skills. Finally, CET maintains a strict language pledge during the eight-week time period, requiring students to use only Japanese not just in the classroom, but at home as well.

"Wait a second," you ask. "Japanese at home too? How can they possibly enforce that?" Well, the housing used throughout the three months is not in dorms or homestays, but in Japanese apartments, each student living with a Japanese roommate. The language pledge is not enforced in the first month, while students are taking the theater course, but during the eight weeks of the language course roommates sign a pledge that they will communicate with their roommate only in Japanese. I can speak from personal experience when I say that "all Japanese all the time" is the way to really learn the language. And, of course, it allows you to speak with great authority when you tell people, "Yes, Japanese apartments are really really small."

So twelve weeks in Japan and twelve credits worth of classes... that's the equivalent of a full semester abroad. And, of course, the price reflects that. My calculation for the program fees come in at $8,787, which includes airfare, housing, field trips, insurance, etc. However, students will also need to enroll in 12 credits of GVSU tuition (part of which goes to pay for the language class, of course), as well as paying for meals, groceries, personal expenses, etc. With my estimate of your needs over three months, that jacks the total price up over $16,000. That's not an insane price in comparison with comparable Japan programs, but it's still a good sized chunk of cash, and one of the big obstacles to getting that 12-student minimum. I'm going to be spending a lot of time over the next several months looking into scholarship options and encouraging students to apply for all that are available. If you're interested in the program but concerned about the price, by all means come talk to me about it.

Well, those are the details. Please feel free to ask whatever other questions you might have, and let me know if you might be interested. We'll be promoting the heck out of it for the next three months, so I'm sure this will not be the last time you hear me talk about the program. If you'd like to know more about the living and studying situation, CET has a student or two per semester writing blogs about their experience, and you can check them out here. Just click on the "Japan" tag. See you in Osaka?

Update:
After talking with the Padnos International Center, it seems they want to divide the program into two separate components: the theater class in May and the language component in June-July.

So what does this mean to you? Well, for students who were planning on studying for the whole summer, it doesn't mean much of anything. The budget, time frame, and content are all the same as they would have been before. It does, however, open up the possibility of just taking the May course and skipping the June-July component. Students who choose to do this would end up paying about half the total price for one-third of the time, and they would also not be considered full-time, with only three credits. However, it might be an option for students who can't swing the tuition for the full program or aren't interested in language study. It does mean that there might be a better chance of getting to that minimum 12-student threshold more easily, though. I decided to eliminate the Japanese roommate program for students who weren't going on with language study, but aside from that the experience during the May component would be the same for all students, regardless of whether or not they pursue the language portion.

Update:
The official flier is available here, and students who are interested in applying can do so here.