[Japanese School to International School ①] The reason I made my decision in the first term of 9th grade, told from a child's perspective.

Hello.

In this post, I would like to talk about why I transferred from a Japanese school to an international school, divided into three themes.

From Dalian to Guangzhou

As mentioned in my self-introduction, I moved from Dalian to Guangzhou at the end of March 2022. This was because my father's transfer within the company was decided.

I was attending a Japanese school while in Dalian, and I never imagined that I would be moving at the end of 8th grade, and to Guangzhou instead of Japan. I thought my time in Dalian was coming to an end and that we would be returning to Japan, so this was completely unexpected. Also, since I had been planning my future path based on the assumption of returning to Japan, international schools were not an option at all.

Because the zero-COVID policy was still in effect in China at the time, we only had three days, including travel time, to look at properties in person, and there was no time to visit schools. Therefore, I ended up transferring to the Guangzhou Japanese School for the time being.

For my part, I wanted to avoid having my school records and an unfamiliar environment affect my high school entrance exams, so I wanted to stay in Dalian until I graduated from 9th grade was how I felt strongly at the time.

Japanese High School or International School

At the end of March, just as cases were being confirmed in Dalian and things were starting to look uncertain, we managed to finish our move safely despite various happenings.

In the brief time after the move,

I was faced with the ultimate choice of whether to take the entrance exams for a Japanese high school or to advance to an international school in Guangzhou.

This was because, due to my father's work, we were scheduled to stay in Guangzhou for at least three years, which meant I would be able to attend an international school for a certain period, adding a new option.

I personally had a desire somewhere in my heart to work abroad in the future, utilizing the experience I gained in China. However, the hurdles of attending an international school, such as English proficiency and differences in curriculum, were high, and I was very anxious about whether I could keep up. The start dates also differ between Japanese schools (April) and international schools (September), so I was very worried.

With not much time left, I decided to visit several international schools in Guangzhou to first understand what kind of schools they were.

To be continued in ②

#JapaneseSchool#InternationalSchool#9thGrade#EntranceExams#OverseasAssignment#Transfer#China#Dalian#Guangzhou#TransferStudent#ReturneeStudent#HighSchoolStudent

End of part one.