Perhaps the best way of letting people know about what studying in New Zealand has to offer, is to learn from the experience of those who have already done so. Accordingly, read the stories of the people below on their own pages by clicking on their page names below. These are only a few of those who have taken advantage of our non-profit overseas study programs - those who kindly consented to let us use their photographs for which we are very thankful.
New Lifers - New Lifers are those older people who have finished rearing
their children and/or have retired and who now want to do all of those things
that they wanted to do, but were too busy to do. So far they have ranged
from 60 to 76 years old.
-Michi Tanioka, a 76
year old retired teacher spent six weeks at Languages International in Auckland.
See her story at michi's page
-Shigemi Ishii,
a teacher of Japanese in her 50s spent two weeks at Crown English in Auckland.
She has since been back to New Zealand two more times and is going again
in 2005. See her story at shigemi's page
-Keiko Watanabe, a
recently retired office worker, spent a year in Christchurch. See her story
at keiko's page
Mid life opportunity seekers - These are people largely fall into two groups:
Those who want to change their lives by changing or improving their skill sets to get a better job, and middle aged women who want to learn English well and experience life in a foreign country, usually for a year, before they have to start looking after their elderly relatives.
- Naoki Tanabe: Naoki, a systems engineer, lost his job when his
company went through restructuring in the IT crash of the late 1990s,and
so, because the computer industry is dominated by English, he decided to
go to Capital Language Academy in Wellington to improve his job prospects.
He now works in the US. See his story at.Naoki's
page.
- Mieko Ishikawa,
a fishing crazy tax accountant in her 40s took a one year break in sunny
Tauranga by the sea - Kiwi fruit country. See her story at Mieko's page
- Min Ye, a Chinese woman in her 30s from Shanghai working in Chiba
decided to change her life by updating her skill sets at Languages International
in Auckland. Now trilingual (Japanese, Chinese and English, she has got
a job with a foreign corporation in Shanghai. See her story at Min Ye's page.
Students - In todays's increasingly global business environment,
English is the international language, key to doors that open to good careers
and cheap and easy world travel.
One year courses to improve job prospects - Increasingly,
in today's tough employment situation, university students are taking a year
off to get their English skills up to the levels increasingly expected by
employers - a TOEIC score of 600 or better- before they start looking for
a job .
- Ichigao High School: After Yuka Suzuki graduated from Ichigao high
School in Tokyo, she decided to go to Queenstown Language School in beautiful
Queenstown to get her English up to a level good enough to get her into
an internationally recognized airline and hotel industry degree course.
She is now doing a course at Otago University, Dunedin. See her story at
Yuka's page
- Yamate Gakuen and Rikkyo tandai: Yoko Tamiya wanted to see the world and get
a job in international business, so after graduating from Yamate gakuen
and Rikkyo, she got a job in an international electronics trading company
in Tokyo which requires a minimum TOEIC score of 700 - thanks to the advanced
English skills she acquired at Languages International, Auckland. See her
story at Yoko's page
- Meiji University : Go Kashiwabara, a third student, took a year off university
to go to study English at Languages International so as to improve his employment
prospects prior to his third, job hunting year in Japan. See his story at
Go's page.
Short Courses in school/university holidays: Many schools and individuals are taking advantage of the low cost of study in New Zealand via our non-profit service to brush up their English skills and/or broaden their horizons with language, activity and homestay programs during their school holidays.
- Oberin University: Kimiko Horiuchi spent 14 weeks at Unique New
Zealand (the school by the sea) brushing up her English - to
good effect as she has since graduated as trilingual (Japanese, Khymer and
English) with straight As from Oberin University. She is now working with
an NPO and plans to work in Thailand. See her story at Kimiko's page.
- International Christian University: Reiko and her younger sister
Atsuko also went to Unique to brush up their English during their spring
holidays. See their story at Reiko's page .
- Chuo University: Takuma
Kumamoto, a third year student decided to improved his English
in his job hunting year by doing a skate boarding and English course at Queenstown
Language School, Queenstown during his summer vacation. Check him out at
Takuma's page.
- Tokyo Medical and Dental College: Megumi Yamaguchi wants
to practice medicine overseas after graduating as a doctor, so she did a
course at Languages International during her summer vacation. See her story
at Megumi's page.
- Ohyu High School: Mina Yasui spent her summer vacation doing
an English and Activities course at Oceania International in Auckland.
- Oein High School: Yui Kosako spent her summer vacation at Achievement
Language School in Christchurch polishiing her English skills in preparation
for a career as a lawyer. See her story at Yui's
page
English Learning/Activity Holidays
- Hiromi Kaneko, a school nurse in her 20s, did a snow boarding
and learning English course at Southern Lakes English College in Queenstown
during her summer vacation. See her story at Hiromi's page
- Takako Oba, a civil servant "in her 40s" goes to a foreign
English speaking country every year for her holidays, so she decided to
polish her English by going to Crown English in Auckland. See her story
at Takako's page.
- A-san, who lives in Kanagawa enjoyed NZ town life and country
life in Auckland and Whangamata. See her story at A-san's page .
High School In New Zealand
- Miuki-chugakko, Kawasaki: Aiko Tamiya is very shy, so we sent her
to Nelson College for Girls where she is thoroughly enjoying herself. See
her story at Aiko's page
-Tamagawagakuen gakuen: Rena Fujihashi,
from Setagaya -ku in Tokyo, did one year at Columba College for Girls in
Dunedin, one of New Zealand's top high schools. See her story at Rena's page.
- Nara-chugakko, Yokohama: Chris and Marcus Francis, my sons,
went to Mount Albert High School in Auckland. Chris is trilingual (English,
Japanese and Chinese) and is now at Auckland University majoring in Asian
Business and Chinese.