Now that I’m in my second year of school and have a better idea of how everything works, I figured it would be a good idea to write up a more detailed description of HAL’s curriculum. I’ll explain the basics first and then get into a more detailed description after the cut.

The Basics

The first thing you should understand about HAL’s approach to teaching is that it is focused on ensuring that all students are able to get a job. It might not necessarily be in their desired field (especially in regards to video games; only about 40% of students in the game programming course and 30% in the planning course go on to get employment in the gaming industry), but almost everyone does get a job in the IT industry.

What this means in practical terms is that the curriculum focuses not only on teaching you how to program/design/whatever but also on helping you pass various certification exams that will make you attractive to potential companies. The last year of both the two-year and four-year programs is less about actual study and more about securing employment. Third year students also do a 3 month internship at a company (obviously limited to those in the four-year program only).

In terms of the curriculum for the video game tracks, the two-year program offers programming and game design (ie. graphic design) focuses. The four-year program has programming, game design, and game development focuses. The four-year program’s music course also offers a game music focus. For the four-year students, most of the first year programs cover the same material although that begins to change in the second half of the first year. After that, the exact curriculum varies depending on your focus and what year you’re in.

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Today began what I’m going to call “Test hell”. I took all three of the tests that make up the Information System certification for the J-ken. I’m sure I failed all three (although I’m pretty sure I could have passed the programming if I had studied a bit), but that was a given. I did it mostly to get a feel for what the Systems Administration exam I’m taking in October will be like.

Next week, though, I have three school exams. They’re all based on the homework we did over the break. I’m so not worried about the CL one; as long as I don’t make stupid mistakes I could easily get 100% on it.

The AD and CS ones are more worrisome, though. My teacher says that he’ll be happy if we get 60%, but I got 44% and 54% (respectively) on the homework. And I didn’t study at all this weekend. And it wasn’t timed, so I could stare at the questions all I wanted. Oh well, I guess I’ll just hope that I get somewhere close to 60% and then do better at studying the material.

Wish me luck!

So, we got our homework for summer break (at least, I think we have all of it… but knowing my teacher he might spring another assignment or two on us tomorrow).

We have to do about 170 questions in preparation for our certification exams and show the work for them. We also got assigned 5 pages of problems involving C++, but I already did all but one. Some of my friends have started the homework and they’re already despairing. I’m going to see what can be done on the plane ride home…. then I need to figure out a schedule for getting everything done while still having time to, you know, visit my family and friends.

Homework over break is definitely one of the things that I don’t like about going to school in Japan…

Since I know everyone is dying to know more about what kind of system HAL uses for academics, this post will be devoted to talking about the basics of my academic life as a first year student. It should be noted that while the general process is the same from year to year, the specifics such as classes and even class groupings can change year to year as the staff at HAL tweak it in order to help give students the best educational experience possible. (more…)

So, my teacher came up to me and my classmate during one of our breaks today. My immediate reaction was, of course, “Oh, crap, what the hell did I do?” But it turns out that I wasn’t in trouble, but rather that he wanted us to help out with something having to do with class assignments.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the closest I ever came to being all gung-ho about helping out with school was when I joined the prom committee in the 8th grade because the vice principal looked so forlorn that no one was joining? There have been times when I’ve thought, “Maybe I should get more involved with the school,” but ultimately I haven’t.

Now I’ve been drafted into it. I wonder what my teacher thought when I gave him my Look of Horror. But, yeah, so whenever students have assignments due, we get to get up at the end of class, collect them, then go down to the office, mark down anyone who didn’t turn one in, then place the stack on my teacher’s desk. This also means that every Friday I will have to stay late after school.

Oh well, at least it gives me more time to hang out with my classmates (one of whom I’m already friendly with, and the other of whom I now have a chance to be friendly with).

So, it’s been a little over a week since school started. It both is, and isn’t, what I expected. Having gone through various types of schools — typical K – 12 American schooling, university in Canada, and finally Japanese language school — I have experienced a range of approaches to teaching. HAL has incorporated elements from all of those so far, as well as adding its own unique style in the process. (more…)

AKA. Andrea gets mail and responds to it!

So, thanks to my article on Game Career Guide and the shout out from JC Barnett of Japanmanship I’ve been getting a few e-mails a week. (I hope y’all have added my RSS feed, ’cause there’s not going to be much of interest here until April!) One of the things that has come up more than once is financial questions: how much is tuition, can you do a part-time job while studying, and is there financial aid.

So, what follows is what I’ve gleaned from the website’s FAQ with some of the information from Evan’s interview on Kotaku. (more…)

If you’re dying to know what life at HAL is like and don’t want to wait the two months until I start there, you’re in luck! It turns out Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft tracked down Evan Shulgold — who currently attends the Nagoya branch of HAL — to talk to him about it. The article, Wanna Study Game Design in Japan? Here’s How, covers everything from classes to tips on what to do when you’re there.

Here’s an excerpt:

1. Japanese level
I’m actually pretty surprised about how simple the Japanese used in classes is. Like my teacher said, if you can have regular conversations with people, you’ll be OK. It depends on what you study, but obviously a lot of computer-related technical terms are katakana (words borrowed from English), so you likely won’t have any problems. On the entrance test, there were a few Japanese questions, but they were about level two or three of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Not too difficult. There was also an interview. The questions weren’t too difficult, and were mostly things you’d be asked by the old drunk Japanese guy sitting next to you and your friends in an Izakaya. It seemed to be more about making sure I could keep up with conversation than actually screening my personality or anything.

Evan is actually a grad from my language school, The Yamasa Institute, and we were briefly acquainted with each other before he left to begin a glamorous life of learning video game programming. He’s the one who first mentioned HAL to me, which got me thinking more seriously about game design school in Japan. It sounds like his Japanese portion of the entrance exam was easier than mine, though; some of the kanji they wanted me to write wasn’t standard for JLPT 2. Differences in the branches of the school, I suppose (I didn’t have to take a math exam, ha ha).

Anyway, I’m glad to hear he’s doing well, and what he’s said about the classes goes a long way to reassure me about the environment.

From start to finish, applying for and getting into HAL was a nerve-wracking experience. Although I had applied to Yamasa without any outside help, that was in English and this was in Japanese. Not to mention that the Japanese way of doing applications slightly differs from the American and Canadian one.

I was lucky to have Yamaguchi-sensei, who was my main class teacher at the time, and Taniyama-sensei, a private lesson teacher who I do gaming-related classes with, to help me through. Without them I probably could have done it, but it would have been a lot worse of an experience.

In what follows below, I’ll be detailing the process of how I got into HAL, from the beginning up until I was told that I got in. (more…)