Howdy. I can't seem to find out online, and so I'm coming here. Within the next few years I'm hoping to go to Japan as a foreign exchange student. The only thing keeping me back is that my dad says I probably won't earn any highschool credits since I'm not fluent in the language. He has a really good point, and I can't understand how I would be able to earn credits (or pass) in a class of a language I don't completely understand.

Does anyone know? Post your thoughts, comments, etc. (Although some sort of direct answer would be nice.)

He's got a point. If you want any hope of getting credits, spend the time you have now studying the language.

Even then though, if Japanese exams are anything like French exams, they'll always find the most complicated way possible to phrase the most simplistic of questions.

I knew a girl (American, English-native-speaker) who went to Spain and studied French.

As for credits and whatnot - uh, yeah. You can't get credit for a class you don't pass, and I can't imagine it's easy to pass a class if the teacher is speaking a language you don't know.

Start learning Japanese...

Umm if you go as a part of a Study Abroad program, you learn at an international school where you are taught in both english and japanese, and concurrently rigorously being drilled japanese so that it becomes astonishingly fluent for the time you've learned it in a matter of months

Admit it.

You want to go to Japan so you can finally be taller than everyone else.

Pommy, you sound like you know for sure. Do you have experience, or some sort of evidence to back up what you've said (that I can show my dad). Your idea makes sense, and could mean good news for me.