Name: Going to HIGH SCHOOL in JAPAN [Our Experiences]
Uploaded: 2016-06-30T09:00:25.000Z
Duration: 16 min 12 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hey guys! I'm here with these cute girls Emily and Mel today!

They have a channel called Mango Vlogz - Linked below so go check it out!!

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They are doing a high school exchange here in Japan for one school year

I also did a short exchange for 2 weeks when I was in high school

So I thought it would be cool to have a conversation together

and answer your questions about doing high school exchanges in Japan!

I asked you on twitter this morning and I got so many replies!

So I'm just gonna go through your tweets and we're gonna answer your questions!

Do you have to know Japanese really well to go on an exchange?

So they said you have to learn it for at least 2 years for my school

And even when I came it was still quite hard

And I studied for 2 years so it's probably better to be at least intermediate level

So they had an exam and you had to be able to pass a certain level to qualify?

For me, I was only here on a 2 week exchange

and there were no requirements whatsoever

I actually spoke zero Japanese, I knew like 3 words

Because everything was new to me, I picked up lots of Japanese while I was here

So if you're just going on a short exchange and they don't require a certain level of Japanese

Don't worry at all if you don't speak Japanese

I thought it made the experience more exciting

But in their case they're here for a year and they required it, so

It looks like every case is different, but you may be all right not knowing Japanese

Are exchange students expected to learn the same curriculum as Japanese students?

I'm on a slightly different program to Emily

Because I'm a proper foreign exchange student, I have tests but they're in English

So they're aimed at someone who's not native in Japanese

Oh really, you're taking the same ones as the Japanese students?

If you don't get a score as high as all the Japanese students, they're okay with it?

We have teachers that will write the furigana on kanji for us

Again, it looks like it's different for everyone and you'll probably have choices about what you wanna do

I did some schoolwork in class and they gave me some homework

How much did it cost? Did your school pay for it?

I had to pay all of it because I'm like a normal student

And private school here in Japan is pretty expensive

Our school is the most expensive in Tokyo

Does the price differ for foreign students?

Do you pay a different price than Japanese students do?

I think mine cost a bit more because I had to do homestay

And you have to pay for your uniform, and a fee to get into the school

Because I don't take tests, so I have to pay to get in

And textbooks, they never give you the textbooks

As a student, are you allowed to work part time?

You could, but it's gonna be like a whole big meeting

Ahh to discuss if it's okay to do it or not

They say sometimes for foreign students they can make exceptions

because you might have run out of money, before you finish school

Yeah you have to apply for special permission

I've never heard of any year long exchange programs that are free

If you're planning on doing one maybe get a part time job

So you can help pay for it, maybe your parents will pay the rest

If you don't know Japanese can you still make Japanese friends?

For me it was really easy to make friends

Everyone's interested in you because you're like the cool foreign person

There's lots of people interested in foreign music as well

So they'll be the first to come up to you and be like "Do you know Beyonce?"

I don't think language is really a factor in making friends

If you don't speak Japanese and you're trying to make Japanese friends

and I feel that that will really benefit your language study

Because I wanted to talk to these people but I couldn't

So I would try to find phrases that I could use with them and study a bit

So I finished school and then I decided to take a year off and go to Japan

Because I wanted to get better at Japanese before university

When I was looking online, all the programs were for America and Canada