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Exchange student need a business card? 2011/3/6 14:10
My teenage boy is about to start a 10mth exchange trip as a high school student in Gifu. Is a business cardnsomething he would be expected to have to use when introducing himself?
Or is this too much for a high school student, he is 18 if age makes any difference.
Thanks for your assistance
by Nervous Mum (guest)  

Exchange Program? 2011/3/6 21:25
What's the exchange program's name?

If it's Rotary, hey... I'm on exchange in Japan right now via Rotary! xD...

Yes, it's a really good idea to get those business cards although how you use them is up to him, but I would recommend about 250-300. I made the mistake of getting 500 because I wanted to have plenty so I didn't feel so hesistant about giving them out, but I'm halfway through my exchange and maybe about a fourth of a way through that stack of 500...

Also if you can find out the cell phone number/e-mail address you want to use while in Japan, you might want to put that on the card design... designing some lines into it to hand write it can be a pain to write it each time so yeah xD... just be smart with it.

If your a different exchange program, I probably don't know that much about its process.
by DemonicDerek rate this post as useful

Kinkos 2011/3/6 22:07
There's one or more Kinkos in every major city not to mention the hundreds of online and local printers.

Kinkos does 100 cards in 24 hours for $30.
Unless you're planning on printing them up yourself, there's no reason he can't wait until he gets here.

That way, he will be able to get cards with local information (unless it's all decided beforehand).

As the previous poster mentioned, if he is on Rotary or some fellowship that will start immediately with official events, it's not a bad idea to have a few cards handy but in that case I would keep it to a minimum (50 should be plenty).
by kyototrans rate this post as useful

. 2011/3/6 23:32
It's a really good idea for teenagers to get business cards?? Okay, I suppose that's the Rotary custom. Just don't hand them out out of the blue to Japanese teenagers. You'll look like a total snob.

But if you're a high teen you might want to prepared to exchange cell phone text-messaging addresses, or any kind of email address. Kids here aren't into facebook.
by Uco, mum of a 19 year old local boy (guest) rate this post as useful

no cards 2011/3/7 01:34
don't give your son cards, being a teen is hard enough, when he gets over here he's going to feel like an adult since japanese teens are very often far less mature than north american/euro teens of the same age - no business cards!

be certain that he gets enough money for a cell phone with an unlimited use contract or go over the cell phone usage very carefully with him or you'll find yourself with insanely expensive monthly phone/data usage bills.

as uco mentioned facebook is not that common here except among internationally minded japanese young people, but mixi is, so if your son can read japanese (or even if not) it might be a good idea to get on there as it really helps make friends.
by winterwolf rate this post as useful

. 2011/3/7 12:50
MIXI is common among adults (although Twitter is winning over), but I have the impression that not many young students use them. Some locals just use Skype. But it may depend on the friend group. Either way, you'll find out.
by Uco (guest) rate this post as useful

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