Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyumika
I have a few questions...
Right now I'm currently 16 , a sophomore in high school, and living in the U.S. I have a dream of living in Japan and staying there for good. I want to go there for college but what are the requirements? How much is it? And does it matter what age you apply to become a citizen? If you aren't sure if you want to become a citizen is there a limited time you can stay in Japan? I heard three months was the limit until you have to go back to your country and then can come back...
As for the language...how long does it usually take to learn it almost fluently? Do you have to speak it really well before you can go to college/live in Japan?
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A few points...
> Visit Japan before you decide to live there. Kinda hard to want to live there for the rest of your life if you don't know what its like. A lot of people come here and end up.. well.. not liking it (but thats just a minority I suppose).
> It's very, very difficult to get into a Japanese university. You need to be absolutely fluent in Japanese BEFORE you even try to get in to a university. If you're not fluent, then you won't have much of a chance of getting in.
> There are, however, a small number of universities there that conduct classes in English (Sophia, Temple, and a couple others). They are very expensive, however.
> Don't worry about citizenship. That's a whole different thing for people who have lived in Japan for many years. What you need to be worried about is the visa. A visa allows you to stay in Japan. When you go to Japan without a visa, you're allowed to stay there for only 90 days.
> If you go to school in Japan, you can get a student visa. This type of visa will allow you to stay in Japan until after your schooling ends. After it ends, you must leave. If you work in Japan, you can get a working visa. However, you can't get a working visa unless you have a bachelor's degree from a four year university (American, Japanese, or otherwise).
> In learning Japanese, it depends on how intensive the classes you take are. You WILL need to take classes to learn Japanese fluently... you can't do it on your own. With intensive classes, you can learn Japanese in three to four years. With regular classes, it'll take four or more years probably, unless you're very diligent.
In my opinion it's not worth trying to go to school in Japan. Entrance examinations for Japanese universities are very tough and Japanese people themselves struggle with it. Given that you're a sophomore now, you probably won't be fluent by the time you graduate high school. Therefore, it'll be sort of hard to attend a Japanese university if you don't know Japanese.
My recommendation to you is this: attend a university in the US. It's much cheaper (if its a state school), and you can find one that offers Japanese classes. While you're attending that university, you can sign up for a study abroad program for a year (or one semester), and study in Japan for a year. It's much less expensive to do this, and you get a taste of what its like to live in Japan before trying to actually move there permanently.
Hope that helps...