Preparing to go abroad

When I received my packet of information about studying abroad, there was a list of things I have to do before I can go abroad. One major thing is that I have to get a Visa for my long-term stay in Japan, which is more than 90 days, since I’ll be there for a whole semester. Another thing I have to do is pay for housing, otherwise I’ll be homeless in Japan, which wouldn’t be good. I have a whole list of things I have to do that were included in my mail. Some things have to be completed before I go abroad and some things were just giving me advance notice of what I’ll have to do when I get there.

Lately, I’ve been working on that list of things I have to do, so that when it is time for me to leave, I’ll be prepared or at least more prepared than the average person going abroad…I’m not sure about other international students so I won’t compare myself to them, since they’re probably more organized and prepared than I am. In addition to the advice and to-do list given to me from my college in Japan, I’ve been doing my own research using YouTube and reading other blogs about Japan that I hope will better prepare me for whatever situations I find myself in when I go to Japan.

U.S. Travel website: Travel.State.Gov

I recently discovered a travel information website while looking at the U.S. State department’s website. It seems there’s a lot of government websites and resources that no one either knows about or speaks about. This website is a free service for U.S. citizens, where you can look up information about all sorts of travel information from getting Passports and Visas to adopting a child from another country. The feature I’m interested in is STEP, Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, which provides information to U.S. citizens traveling or living abroad about the specific country they’re going to and with specific information about the U.S. embassy/consulate in the country they’re traveling too.  There’s also an iPod/iPhone application, but from the reviews and the screen shots on iTunes I gather it isn’t updated frequently and basically not a very good app.

Resources:

http://travel.state.gov/

iTunes: Search Smart Traveler

Booking a flight

Finding and booking a flight to Japan is one of the things I had to do at some point during my three month break from school. Luckily, I follow a bunch of great blogs and websites that give me great information about these types of things.

I was reading an update by another blog that I follow (Surviving in Japan), which has a lot of great information, and somehow from there I got on Facebook and saw an update from Clark Howard, which led me to his website. On Clark Howard’s website I started watching videos, which led me to Mobissimo, a website that is good for finding and booking international flights. Long story short, sometimes when you think you are not being productive, you learn important things that can help you out later.

I actually started writing this post about a month ago, but since I recently received my packet of information from the university I will be studying abroad at, I decided to post this. While looking at other blogs and getting advice from many of my other friends who have studied abroad, I wound up using Kayak and Priceline (Negotiator) primarily, to look for and buy a round-trip flight to Japan. It was a little nerve-wracking because buying the ticket makes everything seem so final, but at the same time it was exciting.

Resources:

http://www.survivingnjapan.com/

https://www.facebook.com/

http://www.clarkhoward.com/

http://www.priceline.com/

http://www.mobissimo.com/

http://www.kayak.com/

JLR: My Japanese Coach

I have not played My Japanese Coach in a while, but it was one of the Japanese learning products I used before I could take classes. My Japanese Coach is a Nintendo DS game that starts teaching you Japanese through lessons and mini-games. The game is also available for iPod/iPhone users.

What I like:

• Structured lessons at the beginning of the game
• Cultural Facts
• Builds vocabulary
• Audio
• Japanese writing practice
• Mini-games that help you with listening, writing and reading practice
• Dictionary and Phrasebook

What I dislike:

• Structured lessons stop after a while, which means this game is only good for Elementary level grammar
• This game is mostly for building vocabulary (I think it is suppose to teach about 1,000 words or so)

Conclusion:

It is okay when you are starting out learning Japanese, but should not be used as your primary language learning resource. I do really like the writing practice…somehow the interactive writing mini-games help me a lot with remembering characters and stroke order. However, this game becomes repetitive really fast, so you have to motivate yourself (especially when the structured lessons disappear and you are just given the ‘open lessons’ full of random vocabulary words).

Resources:

My memory (no joke)

My Japanese Coach (Nintendo DS version)

JLR: Life in Japan iPhone App

I discovered a new iPhone application for learning Japanese called Life in Japan. Sometimes I do random App Store searches and this was one of the applications that popped up when I did a Japan related search. Life in Japan is a short app that gives you Japanese dialogue that you will probably have similar conversations about while you are in Japan. It is an intermediate level application so it is best to know some Elementary level Japanese if you want to benefit from this application.

What I like:

• Japanese audio
• Japanese and English text for the dialogue (in Merger mode)
• Different modes to read text: Japanese only, Merger (both languages), English only
• Vocabulary list
• Reasonable price
• Restore purchase button under settings icon

What I dislike:

• Short app. There is only 11 ‘books’.
• No grammar explanations
• Sometimes the Japanese text gets cutoff in the Merger mode

Conclusion:

I think it is a good application so far, but I have only went through the first ‘book’. It is a good app for Japanese learners that are at the intermediate level.

JLR: Surviving in Japan

I found this website through Tokyo Podcast (I put the link below). Surviving in Japan is primarily a blog to help foreigners living in Japan with problems they may encounter living in Japan. I listed this as a Japanese learning resource, because the author of this website includes vocabulary lists in some of the posts.

Resources:

http://www.survivingnjapan.com/

Tokyo Podcast