Hello everyone!
I've received an e-mail (and also a phone call haha) from Kobe City University of Foreign Studies today! It seems they're ready to accept me but I need to make up my mind and contact them until tomorrow. I'm glad but a little bit dumbfounded lol
First of all, KCUFS was actually my third choice. My 1st was Tsukuba and 2nd was Tokyo Gaidai. I wonder if KCUFS contacting me earlier than those 2 has something to do with the fact the term starts in the middle of September there and they have some paperwork to do right now? I thought I had great chances with the first two, cause I had perfect GPA, N2 certificate as well and my exams and interview weren't too shabby, either... Not that I'm complaining, Kobe seems like a great place as well, I just wonder what's the reason?
The wording in their e-mail seems a bit uncertain as well. Things like "if you want to study at our university..." or "if you will study...". I wonder what should I do~
Does anyone here have any feedback on KCUFS or Kobe in general? I don't really have any acquitances who studied there. They accept a really small amount of Nikkensei each year, 1, maybe 2 students. I'm a bit scared cause it's my first time in Japan. Wouldn't it be a bit too intense? Lol
Thanks in advance for your replies~!
Unfortunately I don't have any specific information about KCUFS or Kobe, but I can tell you about my experience with my last study abroad in Japan just to give you an idea about what you might realistically encounter.
The first time I went, I was maybe N3-ish level and not a Japanese major, though I had been studying for a while. It was a 1 year program. When I went to the university (Dokkyo University in Saitama-ken) for my new student orientation, one of the first things they had us do was take a placement test. I got placed in the intermediate class. I remember feeling very overwhelmed the first few weeks by the pace of the class. It was my first time having classes taught 100% in Japanese.
We were given a small number of kanji per week to memorize at first (50 or so compounds per week. Until then, the largest number I'd been asked to memorize was 10 individual kanji or so at a time), and we were tested weekly on the reading and writing of those kanji, in addition to other things we'd covered in class. After a few weeks, we started getting 75-100 compounds per week to memorize and be tested on. Not every compound appeared on every test, but it was random which ones we'd be asked so we had to know most of them if we wanted to do well.
There was little homework, except test prep and prep for our monthly presentations. Classes were from about 9-3:30 (I think? It's been a long time) and each class was an hour and a half long. Our classes were all language-learning centric, not core subjects, and covered all the main areas of language learning.
Little critical thinking was asked of us, and we covered everything we'd be tested on (except the kanji) in class so there wasn't independent study required in order to do well, but we'd cover as many as 10-15 new grammar patterns per day. The pace was intense and I often felt like I was drowning, but it was kind of balanced by light workload. I learned a ton, though, and remember being really frustrated by the incredibly slow pace of Japanese classes when I came back to my home country.
I expect it to feel like the impossible is being asked of me, but the grading probably won't be that harsh, because in Japan university is typically considered a time to recover from demanding high school years and have a break before the highly stressful career years start. You'd be surprised how much you can learn when you have to, especially since you won't be learning "in a Petri dish" anymore. The stuff you learn will be useful and necessary the minute you leave the classroom. There's no better feeling, in my opinion!
If anyone else has studied in Japan, I'd be really interested to know how much your experience meshes with mine.
