I have questions about becoming a foreign exchange student?

Luckily, you're in your first year of high school. You have a year of planning or two to get everything in order. Look broadly. I suggest you start with AFS, because that's who I chose to go with. They offer many scholarships, which may also help you. A great thing about AFS is they don't expect you to speak the language prior. If you're really just for studying abroad, there are programs out there that will pay for you if they pick your country for you. Fundraising while you're there to think about: English as a foreign language. Abroad, so many people will pay for an American to speak English to them. Use this to your advantage. Write a newsletter every month. Beforehand, collect about twenty dollars each from family friends, or just anyone who may be interested in your adventures. Tell them they're helping you fund your time abroad. Usually what happens with tickets is they'll pay for the international, but its up to you to get to a gateway such as San Fransisco or New York. Its not always which one your closer to, so be careful. About your credit, you need to talk to your counselor. In many high schools, they will waive some credits in order for you to get your education abroad. Otherwise, you may look into taking the other few foreign language credits online or at another school. Most of your questions can be answered by your counselor. She may even recommend scholarships or some kind of club at or near your high school. Good luck. :)

1. Get a job as quickly as possible and put it into a savings account to earn interest. Also, do fundraising and look for scholarships that you are eligible for. 2. If your school does not offer I suggest looking for a Japanese tutor in your area or buy a Genki textbook. In the meantime, check out https://www.erin.ne.jp/en/ and also start learning Katakana & Hiragana (you can study Kanji later, but first learn these two first!). 3. Try and get as much credit as you can in before and after the study abroad trip. My school allowed me to do two sciences my freshman year which put me ahead much of my class and prepare me for my study abroad trip (to Japan :) ). 4. As you may know, the Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March. If you go for a year you will be leaving early in your second semester. You will have to discuss this with your guidance counselor. My school allowed a friend of mine going to Japan for a year to be a part time student the second semester and to pick up from where he left off when he returns. 5. Nearly no one going on a student exchange is fluent in the language they are learning. You will struggle and it will be frustrating for the first few months while you are adjusting to the language. All you can really do is try your hardest and study as much as you can before you leave and continue to study while there. Regarding the Japanese writing system, as I said before, learn Hiragana & Katakana first. These are the phonetic "alphabets" and are the building blocks of the written language. For learning Kanji (after, and only after, you master Hiragana & Katakana!!) I suggest getting the Basic Kanji Book Vol. 1 & 2. These two volumes will teach you 500 kanji and I found them to be very helpful. 6. http://www.cultures-shocked.org/forum/index.php is a forum for exchange students from the U.S. and around the world. I also suggest searching for blogs of various students from Japan and looking at different program's websites and speaking with their admissions counselors. Do not be afraid to call them and ask lots of questions, they will appreciate that you are so interested in being educated as to what it is all about! Some programs also have online presentations so I suggest looking for those as well. 7. There are many opinions about this. My friend I mentioned earlier and I are both going with Youth For Understanding (http://www.yfuusa.org). It's cheaper than some of the other programs out there, pays for the domestic and international airfare, and is very reliable. Check out AFS, your local Rotary club, Intrax/AYUSA, CCI-Exchange, etc. Do your own research on this subject and find the program you like the most and you feel the most comfortable with. 8. Search Google for US to Japan exchange student blogs. There's a ton out there! Also look at program websites as they will most likely provide some of the alumni's e-mails addresses so you can contact them and ask them about their experiences. Good luck!! EDIT: Contrary to what the person said above me, studying abroad in college is not always the best. You will not be truly immersed in the language and culture as you will probably be living in a dorm. If you cannot go during high school, try for a gap year (after you graduate high school but before you go to college). There are some programs/schools that will accept gap year students such as the Osaka Girl's Senior High School.

Honestly, the best thing to do is to go in college, it will be a much, much better experience for you when you are older, independent, and free to study what you want, it also costs less to do an exchange through your University than through a third party. I know that you are probably dead set on going, but believe, me, it will be well, well worth the wait! Since you are not near fluent in Japanese, if you go there for high school it is going to set you back, unless you go to some tourist language school that teaches culture classes in English, which would be a waste of a trip. If you took an English class it would count as an English class, but the usually only teach English language, not what they teach in American schools. Those scholarships are few and far between for high school students, those programs are kind of a rip off. Did I mention that if you study abroad in college all of your grants, scholarships, and loans will pay for it? If you go in high school, what credit you get is all up to whatever your school will transfer back (this is the same with college, but they teach far more courses and take a lot more back), so no one but them can say what they will accept. The best way to start learning Japanese is to spend some time working with the alphabet, you cannot just jump into learning words. You can also try the Rosetta Stone program, which teaches you like you learned your first language, but that is not so good with language that possess subtle differences, and you are not really learning to read or write, which is what you will need when you go to school, with the immersion programs the focus is speaking. You need to decide how long you are going before you go, if you change your mind things can get really complicated, especially if you stay longer because you will all of the sudden have to come up with more money. When you attend school abroad you will have to take a test when you get there, and your score will decide if you can even take classes in Japanese, so if you do not know it they will not even place you in those classes. Everyone wants a scholarship, which is basically a free vacation, and the companies make it sound like they are easy to get, but that is not the case. For every reason it is better to go in college. I am so, so, so glad that I waited!