Studying abroad...again

When I was 19, I studied abroad in China for six months and it changed my life.

I am now 43. I have a husband, a job, and two children fully entrenched in the local public school system. And I’m studying abroad again. In January, my family and I are headed to Osaka, Japan. We will reinvent our lives for six months, all the while knowing that in June, we get to come right back to the wonderful life we have waiting for us here, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

My husband and children have all started blogs to share their experiences. I’m jumping on the bandwagon. To kick this off, I thought I’d post answers to some of the most common questions that I’ve been asked about our upcoming adventure.

Do you speak Japanese?

A bit. I can go shopping. I can order at a restaurant…sort of. But that’s about it. I do speak Chinese, and my knowledge of that language enables me to make educated guesses about the meaning of some street signs. But that won’t get me very far…

So…how will you get by?

On my own: A lot of body language, and a lot of winging it. 

As a family: My husband is teacher of Japanese language and culture. His Japanese is fluent. 

What this means is that much of the day-to-day management of our lives (calling the cable company, interacting with the kids’ school, etc.) will fall to him, not me. This is a role reversal for us. While he is about as hands-on as a parent can get, the mere fact that I work part-time and he works full, that I work at home and he works at a university an hour-long bus ride away, means that I typically tend to manage the show on the home front.

A role reversal like this is similar to the entire study abroad experience in that it challenges you to see yourself in a new light, and requires patience, honesty and good humor. It’s also an invaluable experience. When my son was first born, my husband was the primary caretaker while I worked full-time. Later on, we flip-flopped to our current arrangement. To this day, we still reference that initial stint of parenting to keep us in touch with the other’s perspective. It’s not easy managing the home. It’s also not easy giving up the driver’s seat.

Will the children attend an international school?

No. They will be attending a local Japanese school, where no English is spoken.

Will you be home schooling them to make up for the language difference? 

No.

Or...only in the sense that Japan will be our home-school.

One of the things that I love about study abroad is that it calls into question the whole concept of learning. It is very easy to get comfortable in the idea that learning needs to happen in a certain way, and in a US public school, that way tends to include spelling tests, multiplication tables and science projects. We forget that learning actually happens naturally and comes in a lot of different packages. 

This experience of taking our children overseas requires that we open ourselves to new models of learning. In our case, this means allowing the kids to keep up in school simply by imitating what the other kids do. It means being comfortable with the mere act of observing a new culture serving as “social studies." It means letting the kids feel what it’s like to be the only one in the classroom who looks and speaks a certain way, and then coaching them through that difficult experience.

Are you taking a leave of absence from your job?

No, I’ll be working. The short explanation is that I work for the coolest company around. My boss very quickly agreed to my telecommuting from Japan for six months. (In fact, he not only agreed, he didn’t even bat an eye!)

The long explanation is that I already telecommute. Our headquarters is in DC, and I am one of several staff members who works out of a home office and travels to DC every few months for in-person meetings. So this journey, in some ways, simply represents a longer telecommuting distance. Granted, the time difference will make for clunky day-to-day communications, but my wonderful colleagues seem to be fine with putting up with that for a while. (I told you—coolest company around.)

The even longer explanation is that I work for a study abroad company, so every single one of my colleagues has spent time overseas and understands the value of this project. My company also has a program in Osaka. So when my husband and I arranged this journey, we chose to live in Osaka precisely because of the resources and connections to which we will have access there. And while I’m in Osaka, I’ll be trying to thank my company for their flexibility by lending a hand with the program, in whatever ways a non-Japanese speaker can.

That’s it for now! I’ll post again as we start get closer to departure.