BA Japanese Studies, 2026, student
“My year in Japan has made me more confident in myself and in what I can do. The world feels larger, but also much more reachable.”
“I wanted to learn something fundamentally different.”
I’ve always been interested in languages. I grew up speaking Polish and English and later explored Italian, German, French and Korean, but Japanese was different. I started teaching myself hiragana and katakana when I was 16, using YouTube tutorials and worksheets I pinned to my bedroom wall.
When I started looking at universities, I found the Japanese Studies course at Oxford Brookes. Seeing that a year abroad in Japan was part of the degree was the deciding factor for me.
“At Oxford Brookes, I built up my Japanese while learning much more about the country and its culture.”
During my first two years, I studied Japanese alongside modules exploring areas such as Japanese history, religion and film. Weekly oral skills classes gave us opportunities to practise speaking and have video call exchanges with Japanese students, including students preparing to come to Oxford Brookes.
When it came to choosing where to spend my year abroad, Oxford Brookes offered a range of partner universities across Japan. I eventually chose Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. I had grown up in the relatively small town of Corby and studied in Oxford, so I wanted to experience life in a much bigger city.
“Using Japanese every day has shown me how much I’ve progressed.”
The Japanese language classes have been challenging and required some adjustment, but I’ve felt the work paying off. I started noticing my speaking and listening improving in everyday situations, whether I was at a convenience store, ordering in a restaurant or having casual conversations with Japanese students.
Living in Japan also meant learning how to navigate a different culture. There were lots of small things to adjust to, from the etiquette around public transport to everyday routines and expectations that I had never really thought about in the UK.
Outside my studies, I made it a goal to see as much of Japan as I could. I travelled to places including Kyoto, Hokkaido, Nagano, Nagoya and Atami, while making friends with students from Japan and around the world.
“I realised that I really could navigate my way through the world.”
Before coming to Japan, I had never flown alone. By the end of my year abroad, I had flown between the UK and Tokyo by myself, travelled solo between Kyoto and Tokyo and navigated unfamiliar stations and train platforms in a language I was still learning.
Those experiences might seem small, but they carried a surprising amount of weight for me. Each one made me more confident in what I could manage independently.
I’ve learned to organise my own routines, solve problems without my parents an hour away and feel comfortable deciding to do something new and just going for it. I’ve become more socially active and thrown myself into new experiences and friendships, while also becoming more comfortable spending time on my own.
“The world feels larger and more reachable since I came here.”
I’ll return to Oxford Brookes for my final year and continue improving my Japanese alongside my other modules. I’d love to reach conversational fluency, and I’m interested in where my creative background and interests in media and translation might take me after university.
I don’t know exactly what comes next yet. I can see myself working in the UK, but I’d also be happy to consider returning to Japan in the future. My year abroad has given me the confidence to keep those possibilities open and see where they might lead.