We provide one-year intensive courses for students under Monbukagakusho scholarships expected to enter national universities. The target of the course is to help the students acquire Japanese language skills necessary to study at Japanese universities, and basic scholastic abilities in Humanities and Natural Science based on the major of each student. Every year, about 50 students from all over the world enter JLCTUFS to study Japanese and the basic subjects of liberal arts and physical science. Even those with no experience in studying Japanese finish the course in 1 year, and do so by acquiring the ability to express themselves through short essay and speeches, before advancing to their respective universities.
Foreign students under the Monbukagakusho scholarship are foreign citizens who study at Japanese universities under Japanese government funding. These students are categorized as ‘Undergraduate Foreign Students’, and their period of study is defined as 5 years including the prior 1 year Japanese language program. (For medical and dentistry students, it is defined as within 7 years.) At the time of application, they must be between the ages of 17 and 22 as of the 1st of April of the year their study commences. It is also required that they have completed ‘12 years of formal education’ and be both mentally and physically healthy. However, it is not necessary that the students have knowledge of Japanese, which is one of the characteristics that set JLCTUFS apart. Japanese skills are often a prerequisite for overseas study, but at the JLC, we accept those who have strong motivation to both study Japanese and study at university level in Japanese.
The educational target of the 1-year course is to help the foreign students under the Monbukagakusho Scholarships acquire sufficient Japanese language skills necessary to study at a Japanese university, and basic knowledge in Humanities and Natural Science, based on the students’ respective majors. To achieve these goals, the students are expected to acquire not only Japanese language skills required in daily life but also the academic skills which are necessary after entering the undergraduate schools. We especially focus on reading skills required to read textbooks and other books in specialized fields, writing skills to write reports and theses, and listening skills necessary not only to have conversations with other students, but also to understand the contents of lectures and presentations. The students must also acquire verbal presentation skills to ask questions and report on the results of their studies at the center. The one-year course has a trimester system. The level of Japanese skills corresponds to each term.
