KCP Summer-Fall 2017 and Winter 2018  student, Violetta D’Avila, shares her insights on who should and should not apply to KCP.

I studied at KCP International Language School in Tokyo as part of the US program for 9 months. That’s three terms, so I saw a lot of people come and go. And so, in being a veteran of the program, I started to see patterns repeated with each newly accepted student. I started to be able to pick out pretty quickly who would struggle at KCP and who would flourish.

Whether or not you are KCP material, all comes down to your motivation for studying Japanese abroad. Sure, everyone writes similar things about how motivated they are to study the language in their KCP application, but only those who actually mean it end up succeeding.

This is because KCP is a school and it treats its students like one.

This means they expect you to put effort in your studies outside class hours, to always do your daily homework, to study for your weekly tests and to have an exceptional attendance record. So, don’t expect to get easily forgiven for missing a class because you were hung-over, for arriving late because you slept in, or for failing your tests.

KCP expects its students to prioritize their studies over their social life, which comes as a surprise every term to a few in the US program.

It’s not wrong to find the idea of living in a foreign country intriguing and to arrive in Japan with the intention of having fun and partying your time away. But if that is your only goal, KCP is not the school for you. You will be better off applying to another language school that is less academically rigorous.

KCP caters for a particular kind of student. In fact, the majority of KCP’s students come from other Asian countries. Often they have plans to attend university in Japan and/or to live and work in Japan after graduating.

Lucky for me, KCP was the right fit because I was dedicated to the goal of learning Japanese. And at the rate we were being pushed to learn new grammar in class, KCP was challenging and stimulating. Personally, I appreciated their method because it was effective in its goal: teaching Japanese.

Nevertheless, I think there is a language school for everyone who wants to study abroad in Japan.

Because I lived in a share house with foreign students who attended other language schools, we often compared the curriculum and teaching style. I discovered that there are language schools who are a lot more “relaxed” and who have a mostly European/ American student body.

My suggestion would be to really do your research in the language school you want to attend and get in contact with ex-students. Decide which level of academic rigorousness is suitable for you. Either way, you will be in for a great experience.