Seiritsu International Education

Teresa's "Today's photo" was put up on the main Japanese website today. You can see the other teachers' posts as well.

https://www.seiritsu.ac.jp/topics/schoollife/teacher-blog/2019/post_66.html

writer: staff  date: 9:14 AM | Life at Seiritsu

For our school we are now heading into the winter break. Most of the students get time off to relax have a little bit of fun with their clubs and get refreshed for the new year ahead.
Many of the seniors will be studying for the university entrance exams. It is crunch time for them and we really hope they have a great holiday season and wish them the best with their studies.

Happy holidays!!

writer: staff  date: 10:26 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Hi all,


Being frozen in winter makes me want the hot spring more and more, so guess what? That's where I went. If you have the opportunity to get away to Niigata, then visit 花の宿 よもやま舘. It's in the middle of the mountains and you have nature all to yourself.

Fun fact: when you leave the hot springs, don't shower off the minerals from the hot spring. They make your skin more smooth and glowy!

Cheers,
Teresa

writer: staff  date: 8:59 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Merry Christmas. It's already December, the time to make a quick review of things before the winter break. During this term most of the exchange student had the opportunity to visit the Imperial garden close the Imperial palace in the center of Tokyo. After this small visit we went to the science museum. We saw a lot of funny stuff such as illusions. When we went outside we spoke about the martial art stadium which is close to the museum. We finished our trip by getting an introduction to the big shrine, in the area named Yasukuni,which has a lot of history, some of it controversial. It was a nice trip, I can't wait for the next one.

writer: staff  date: 12:30 PM | Life at Seiritsu

It's the Holidays....

Let's spend time with our loved ones, make and eat delicious food.

In Life Work Club we made lots of desserts for our Christmas party. We also had fried chicken, macaroni and a colorful salad.

It made me think about all the different things people eat over the festive period. I will be returning to England and having roast turkey with my family on Christmas day.

What special foods will you be eating at the end of 2019?

writer: staff  date: 3:36 PM | Life at Seiritsu

On November 10th, I had a soccer game. It was one of our first games called 新人戦that only first and second years can play. The third years have to quit(retire) soon because they have to study for their universities. What I learned from this game is that it is a lot different from playing with third years. Third years have the ability to organize the team and put us all together as an one team. My coach is worried that when third years quit, we would start loosing games because the first and second years don't have the confidence to organize the team. We proved him wrong. We ended up winning and I scored two goals. We connected passes very well and communicated a lot. Although it is obviously better when we play with the third years, we did our best on what we can do and used our brains to think what is the best idea for that moment of the play during the game. I hope this game gave us more confident on how we can do this without the third years. We need to know that we can't always rely on the third years just because they know "everything" and can organize the team. We have more games coming up in 2020 after the third years retire but I hope we keep winning and be a good "Senpai" when the new first years joins in April.

November 16th, I hung out with these two girls in my class. My coach gave us a day off on the 16th which is rare. It was my first time hanging out with my classmates (other than my soccer friends) since I never have time to hangout. I had so much fun and got super close with the two girls. They came over to my house and spent the night. We walked to Harajuku area to go shopping and to have dinner there. It felt super nice to have a day off to hangout with friends. It was a new experience for me to actually go out with Japanese girls. They taught me new things about Japan. I hope I can do something like this again soon and spend more time with them!

writer: staff  date: 3:27 PM | Life at Seiritsu

Hello. In this blog, I'm gonna do a brief review of my three years' study life in a Japanese local school. I will talk about my feelings, experiences and give you guys some recommendations. Hope that this will be a help for students who are looking forward to study abroad in Seiritsu, a nice private school in Tokyo.

To begin with, I would like to tell you my preparation and my first year's life in Japan. Before I came to Seiritsu, I used to study in an international high school in Shanghai. This school has a pre-program for it's students, therefore I started study there from my summer holiday in 2016. The period was from July to October, then I decided to go to Japan, so I quit. Immediately, I started to study Japanese in an all day classes for 4 months until February 2017. I achieved a N3 level of JLPT at that time, but it wasn't actually enough for studying in a high level class in high school. I couldn't understand what the teacher was saying in the class; it's hard for me to read the textbooks; and I couldn't communicate with my classmates fluently. It took my about 6 months to get used of speaking and listening in Japanese.

In grade 11, I joined a high level class which studies science such as mathematics, physics and chemistry because I thought studying science would be easier than studying liberal arts. My physics class was too hard so I couldn't comprehend the basics of physics in grade 11. Also, I wasn't able to do good work in chemistry because of my language problem. By the last months in 2018, I found that the true major that I'd like to study in college is management and commerce. It was too hard for me to study in a high level liberal arts' class in which you also have to study ancient Japanese and Japanese History and to take a normal liberal arts test, so I went down to the low level class that uses the admissions office test (AO) for getting into university. This is a kind of exam that tests the extra potential of students like foreign language abilities, leaderships and the desire to study. I joined the student union and became the Vice President, and now that I can speak Chinese, Japanese and English, I was considered competitive for taking the AO test.

After I joined the special class for AO test in grade 12, I stoped struggling in the sciences. I studied Japanese, Politics and Economics in class, as my language level had improved, it became easy to get a good score. I can sometimes better scores than Japanese students in a Japanese tests. Life is still busy, I had to go to extra class almost every day to qualify for the necessary documents for the AO test. I prepared 5 months for Keio University, but I still failed. The main reason probably is that my GPA was too low since I didn't get good scores in grade 11. I failed the test of ICU, because I couldn't write a good enough Japanese essay. I failed the Rikkyo University's test for GLAP program because of no reason I could understand, but everyone in Seiritsu this year who applied to Rikkyo University has failed, so it is understandable.

When life gives you some difficulty, you have keep going and fight back. Finally, I passed the AO test of Tokyo Metropolitan University, which is a nice public school that I didn't expect that I could go to. Then I passed the exam of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. Of course I will choose the former.

In conclusion, students who choose to study abroad in a Japanese high school from grade 10, should be very conscious of which kind of university test they should take. After making the decision, they have to check which kind of class and cram school they should take. Also, be sure to always check the admission pages of every university that you intend to go to.

为跟上课程，从高一开始来成立学园学习建议JLPT N2 100分以上。否则高一在学习与交流方面会过的比较痛苦。GMARCH与其以上的大学由于政策改变近年来不好考。最好保留高中学籍以参加留学生考试

（For study, students should probably get 100 points in N2 of JLPT test in order to get a comfortable experience for studying at a school like Seiritsu and living in Japan. Chinese students should also keep their school roll in China in order to obtain the opportunity to take the foreign students test.)

writer: staff  date: 3:13 PM | Life at Seiritsu

Hello again!

Life in Tokyo has began to slow down now. The novelty of being in the city has sort of worn off. Thanksgiving recently past, and though I wasn't able to find any turkey or celebrate with my family, I spent my time with my new found friends here. I didn't realize how much the other exchange students here have truly become my new family. Having been in Japan about four months, homesickness has admittedly started to creep in. I miss my family immensely but I wouldn't trade my time in Japan for anything in the world. Thankfully, my friends and the staff here at Seiritsu are so supportive and comforting, helping me realize that I do have a home here too, not just in the USA.

Now in the midst of our school's winter break, I've visited several light shows and Christmas markets. A lot of them are filled German food and drinks which I though was really surprising. The illuminations I've seen thus far have been exceptionally beautiful and I'm excited to visit more soon.

Looking forward to the rest of this Christmas season and New Years! The next decade is fast-approaching and its crazy to think I'll start it in Japan.
Merry Christmas! - Faith Villarreal

PS.- Did you notice the guy the background in my picture with Mona from the Yokohama Christmas market? He is seriously judging us.

writer: staff  date: 3:03 PM | Life at Seiritsu

This term I think everything really started to settle in. Now my extension is officially all going through and I will be staying here for an extra six months. A lot has happened this term but it's definitely all starting to feel quite normal. To be honest I'm not quite sure what to write about. I've been doing amazing things but it just kind of feels normal to me now. I know that when I go home it'll be crazy feeling then but right now in the moment here in the country it just kind of feels normal.

I guess I'll make a bullet list of this terms activities:

-- Going on excursions with my school and the other international students to places such as Yokohama and the area around the Imperial palace to learn about the history and background of these places.

-- More concerts. The idol group I like keeps having free promotional concerts so I just can go whenever I'm free and not have to pay.

-- More fashion events and meeting the awesome people who have inspired me since middle school back in America.

-- Magicarp Taiyaki

-- Meeting up with friends I made outside of school in harajuku and having fun after school.

-- Going to the Laforet Mall private party because my friend let me in on her plus one. (I still can't believe how kind that was, I need to repay her somehow).

-- Getting a discount on really good Yakiniku because we are high school students.

-- Finally going to design festa which is an event for indie designers and artists to sell their work. I've been wanting to go for years now and I finally got to go this year!

Ok that's a good list of the events of this semester. Hopefully these were enough to let you know what happened without going super in-depth!

Thanks!

writer: staff  date: 3:00 PM | Life at Seiritsu

After experiencing two terms here at Seiritsu, culture shock has started to hit hard. Although difficult, there has been some really fun activities that have made the time worth it. For example, Seiritsu took us on a field trip to Yokohama. Yokohama was a gorgeous city with a beautiful pier. It is also home to China town, where we had really great Chinese food.

writer: staff  date: 2:48 PM | Life at Seiritsu

Speaking of tests, like I did yesterday, it is now test season at the school as well. Our students are taking their term four tests this week. For the seniors in high school this is their last set of school tests.

Good luck everyone!

writer: staff  date: 11:18 AM | Life at Seiritsu

As the weather gets colder it feels more and more like winter. This term, I am beginning to notice how much my Japanese is improving as I can understand nearly everything I hear and am able to read some books. I took the JLPT N3 on the first of December and I feel like I may have passed. I look forward to learning more Japanese and getting more and more fluent.

writer: staff  date: 2:39 PM | Life at Seiritsu

We would like to say 「お疲れ様です。」 to all the students and people that took the JLPT (a special Japanese test) on Sunday. We hope it went well for you and I'm sure you can't wait to get your results in a month or so.

If you do not know what the test is, you can go here to learn a little bit more about it.
https://www.jlpt.jp/e/

The test is held in other countries as well. but it is only held twice a year and the locations are limited.

The next test will be in July and we are sure some of you will attempt the test again in the near future. It's always a good idea to have a goal and work towards it. If you haven't taken the test yet, maybe you should consider doing so.

writer: staff  date: 10:25 AM | Life at Seiritsu