Program Overview
Program Overview
Picture your summer in Japan.
Enjoying a language curriculum built specifically around your needs as a learner. Practicing the art of calligraphy or taking part in a traditional tea ceremony. Picture yourself touring the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Kyoto and Hiroshima and screaming (with excitement) on the enormous loop coaster at the Yomiuri Land amusement park.
Old and new. Traditional and ultra-modern. Japan is a country of exciting contrasts and a fantastic place to spend your summer. With coursework that is fully integrated with activities that allow you to explore the city and interact with local students and their families, CIEE Tokyo will help you advance your language skills by immersing you in a challenging and exciting intercultural experience.
Language
Language
It’s time to speak up.
In Tokyo, you’ll jump into interactive language classes designed to significantly improve your ability to listen and speak in Japanese. A placement test administered during your orientation helps identify your strengths and needs, allowing the teachers to structure their curriculum around you. Five times a week, you’ll spend the morning (3-4 hours) in class, developing your written and oral communication skills, before heading out into the city to apply what you’ve learned.
From exploring your neighborhood to engaging with a host family over lunch, every activity you partake in integrates language learning, challenging you to use and strengthen your skills.
Living
Living
In Tokyo, you’ll live in The National Youth Center, a building located in the very heart of the city. Once part of the 1964 Olympic athletes’ village, the Center is next to the Harajuku train station and overlooks Yoyogi Park, one of the city’s largest and most active green spaces.
From this central location your Program Leader will help you and your peers take advantage of all the city has to offer.
Cultural Activities
Cultural Activities
You’ve read about Japanese culture; now come experience it.
Try your hand at Japanese papermaking or the beautiful art of calligraphy. Enjoy a moment of quiet reflection in the central sanctuary of the Meiji Shrine before experiencing the urban bustle of Omotesandō and Takeshita Street. Marvel at the bold, futuristic architecture of the Odaiba Bay Area, and get a new perspective on the city from the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Tower.
Whether you’re visiting a Japanese amusement park or having lunch at the home of a Japanese family, activities and excursions are as diverse as the culture itself, and put you in touch with the country and its people.
Program Leader – Karen Hendrickson
Program Leader – Karen Hendrickson
Karen has been passionate about Japan, Japanese, and study abroad ever since her first encounter with the country as an exchange student in 1984. Since that first year in Kagoshima, Karen has lived, worked, and studied in Tokyo, Sapporo, and Obihiro. She has taken more than 20 trips to Japan, more than half of them as a leader of student groups and two of them as a CIEE Summer Abroad in Japan chaperone. As a teacher of Japanese language and culture in Madison, Wisconsin, she relishes being able to guide her students toward the linguistic tools and cultural knowledge they need to understand Japan more deeply. She looks forward to doing the same with the CIEE Summer Leadership Academy.
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