Meiji Academy - Japanese Pop Culture Course

Being the land of the wild and wacky, it felt only right to do a pop culture course in Japan. Honestly it was worth every penny and I enjoyed every minute of it. I mean, you get to learn Japanese AND hang around with kawaii girls at a maid cafe? Sign me up! I can't recommend this school enough, I would do my course 100 times over if I could!

I studied Japanese in Fukuoka (South of Japan, on Kyushu island). The school was great, the staff was nice and welcoming and the lessons and cultural activities were amazing. I love the Japanese language as much as I love Japanese pop culture so this program was perfect for me. I was probably born in the wrong country lol! I had a really fun cultural immersion. We had homework as well which was not too much but still enough for me. It is important to do your homework properly so that you can ask all your questions to the teachers afterward. I had a friend who was often asking one of his Japanese friends to "help" him with it, but I don't think it was the right thing to do. One other cool thing I did: I experienced the shinkansen! It was quite expansive but I thought I had to do it at least once in my life. Otherwise, I think the best way to get around is the bus or the airplane (but not really good for the environment so I would recommend the night bus for long distances!).

I think that Japanese culture is truly amazing, and I have wanted to learn Japanese for a while now. Of course, you can't learn a language in three weeks, but I am already able to communicate about daily topics so I am very proud of myself! We focused primarily on spoken Japanese which was perfect for me. This culture course was a good choice, with really cool activities. The robot center and the geisha experience were really interesting and fun. Fukuoka is a nice place that I recommend you to visit if you ever go to Japan.