Lan's Catamaran Plans

I keep the little briefing on academic exchanges inaugurated by Thibaut.
I left the same year as him, so last year at the University of Kobe for a period of one year.
The partnership with the University of Kobe is one of the oldest established with our university, which, unlike at UCF, has the main consequence of facilitating the registration procedures. You will therefore not be bothered.
The UFR is the host Kokusai bunka gakubu, which can result in UFR intercultural studies. Academic Faculty cutting is quite different from that of France, it should probably make some clarification on the Department itself and what we are doing.

UFR, first, recently refurbished, the buildings are brand new and the library is very well supplied. 3 floors of books which we must add the libraries of other Faculty course accessible to All exchange students (including Saturdays and until 20h or 21h I think). The general equipment of the UFR is all that is modern, thirty computers in the library, 3 rooms in any info.
conditions of study and research sources, especially those writing during the brief exchange tent, are optimal, but the conditions of life outside school can not rest because there is a UK , open from morning till night, very good and cheap (about 400 yen for a meal), 2 handsets, sports facilities nearby ...

The UFR is divided into several sub-ufr (company modern language and communication, cultural studies ...), and the number of courses taken in a sub-ufr somehow defines your specialty. The courses are very varied, sociology, politics, history, linguistics, foreign languages, economics, management of art ... It would be very surprising not to find courses that match your interests or even that are related to your dissertation topic.

courses are of two types: " zemi " and lectures. The first is, in my opinion, the most interesting for two reasons. On the one hand for Japanese during these courses somewhat resemble our TD in France, you are obliged to speak and to review the topics covered. Share your quality of ryûgakusei , you will be automatically applied in fact almost every week to wear the famous "outsider" and thus sustain the debate. It should therefore read the book or document in question and be an almost stalled on the issue, so there's no better way to work her oral ... Secondly because if zemi is interesting in itself, the "outside" of the zemi is equally important. It consists of a group of two to twenty students (depending on the popularity of the professor and the course) and the teacher. Members of this group does not generally know in the beginning but, debates and group work helps, affinities are created very quickly to become a group of friend. It is during these zemi you'll certainly knowledge and your first friends, and you'll be invited to participate in all sorts of civic projects and student parties. The zemi are interesting not only academically but also in human terms.

can also take courses in Japanese, unlike in the Faculty who are themselves in Japanese, the ryûgakusei center. It is a center where all the exchange students must pass a proficiency test in order to distribute the courses offered. If you are at the highest level (which you will anyway because it is at most the level required for Level 2 of JLPT), you'll be free to follow or not these courses. I advise you mainly two, one being drafted where one must write shôronbun every week and insist on the key points of the essay in Japanese, and another called "multimedia" where you look and analysis of documentary on social issues, simple but effective language to listen to the "journalism".
You heard the ability to validate all these seminars and language courses.

For housing, since I was in a private apartment I can not find out about the dormitory available to students of Paris 7, but Florian, who has also benefited from this exchange, you should talk about before long ...

The balance of this trip is, in my case was largely positive and know that I do strongly encourage you to try this exchange within the university. Kobe is a city very pleasant, neither too large nor too small, is ideally situated (45 minutes to Kyoto, Osaka and 30 minutes to 1 hour Nara) and is dominated by Mount Rokko, a place that offers a truly magnificent view over the whole Kansai Bay and the island of Awaji.
There's still so much to say ... I've probably also forgotten something important or that you need more information, leave, if that were the case, questions or comments and remarks I will answer with pleasure.