Annie's study abroad in Japan
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Hello, my name is Annie, and I am a junior at Mount Holyoke College, double majoring in Sociology and East Asian Studies.
I have been studying Japanese for seven years now, ever since my first year of high school, when I fell in love with it so rapidly that I studied abroad in Japan for my fourth year of high school. It was financially hard for my family, but I received a great amount of financial aid, and we were able to make it work. My year in Japan was full of the greatest experiences of my life thus far. It was very hard for me to leave my Japanese host family to come back to the States. I comforted myself by counting down the days to my junior year of college when I could study abroad again.
I was recently accepted to my top choice study abroad program, CET Osaka. I will be in a new city, but I will be close enough to visit my old host family. It is an extremely intensive program, and I will only be allowed to speak Japanese there. I will be taking the JLPT (Japanese language proficiency test) level 2 in december before I leave, so I will really be working on becoming fluent.
Unfortunately, when I got the news of my acceptance, I also found out that there is a deposit of $500 due at the end of this month. Additionally, I will have to pay for my own plane tickets which are about $1500 round trip. To make matters worse, the program doesn't have a payment plan, so my family will have to pay the full tuition in a lump sum at the beginning.
It is impossible for my parents to afford this sum, so they have suggested that I don't go to Japan. But I'm really bad at giving up on things that I really care about, and this is one thing that I really can't give up on.
I know more about Japan than I do about anything else. I have studied Japanese history for many years, as well as Japanese holidays, rituals, customs, and culture. I am most interested in the language, though, and the way it interacts with the culture.
This summer I spent a week working with Japanese sixth grade students who were visiting Massachussetts from Kyoto. I became very close with them, and we taught each other a lot of things. After that, I went to Japan for 10 days on the Kakehashi project, which was funded by the Japanese government. During this trip I was able to participate in a lot of unique cultural experiences, including learning to play Taiko drums. And finally, after that, I had an internship at Keio Academy of New York's summer program where I worked with both Japanese and American middle school age students, and fostered positive cultural exchange between them.
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I could talk about Japan forever, so please help me to realize my dream and better my future in studying Japanese. I still have so much more to learn. You will not regret investing in me!
I have been studying Japanese for seven years now, ever since my first year of high school, when I fell in love with it so rapidly that I studied abroad in Japan for my fourth year of high school. It was financially hard for my family, but I received a great amount of financial aid, and we were able to make it work. My year in Japan was full of the greatest experiences of my life thus far. It was very hard for me to leave my Japanese host family to come back to the States. I comforted myself by counting down the days to my junior year of college when I could study abroad again.
I was recently accepted to my top choice study abroad program, CET Osaka. I will be in a new city, but I will be close enough to visit my old host family. It is an extremely intensive program, and I will only be allowed to speak Japanese there. I will be taking the JLPT (Japanese language proficiency test) level 2 in december before I leave, so I will really be working on becoming fluent.
Unfortunately, when I got the news of my acceptance, I also found out that there is a deposit of $500 due at the end of this month. Additionally, I will have to pay for my own plane tickets which are about $1500 round trip. To make matters worse, the program doesn't have a payment plan, so my family will have to pay the full tuition in a lump sum at the beginning.
It is impossible for my parents to afford this sum, so they have suggested that I don't go to Japan. But I'm really bad at giving up on things that I really care about, and this is one thing that I really can't give up on.
I know more about Japan than I do about anything else. I have studied Japanese history for many years, as well as Japanese holidays, rituals, customs, and culture. I am most interested in the language, though, and the way it interacts with the culture.
This summer I spent a week working with Japanese sixth grade students who were visiting Massachussetts from Kyoto. I became very close with them, and we taught each other a lot of things. After that, I went to Japan for 10 days on the Kakehashi project, which was funded by the Japanese government. During this trip I was able to participate in a lot of unique cultural experiences, including learning to play Taiko drums. And finally, after that, I had an internship at Keio Academy of New York's summer program where I worked with both Japanese and American middle school age students, and fostered positive cultural exchange between them.
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I could talk about Japan forever, so please help me to realize my dream and better my future in studying Japanese. I still have so much more to learn. You will not regret investing in me!
Organizer
Annie Woldman
Organizer
South Hadley, MA
