Daiki Took a Leave Year to Shoot—Not Just to Sit in Language Class

Student leaves of absence for language years are common; students who keep making in their craft while abroad are rarer. Daiki, majoring in visual media at Nagoya University of Arts, paused university for about a year in Vancouver for language and production. In Japan he had already made documentaries, films, and commercials; he wanted a wider media career and found Frog House while searching housing—the site appealed, and the house looked like documentary material plus a cross-disciplinary creator hub. Frog notes he was likely the house’s first university student resident because creative purpose (and filming Frog) outweighed pure language tourism.

A year and a half earlier he had spent a month in an Australian university film setting. Working-holiday choices narrowed to Australia versus Canada; having done Australia, he picked warmer Vancouver over colder Canadian cities, boosted by the city’s “Hollywood North” film reputation.

English was not new: roughly eleven years of conversation school from kindergarten through junior high, parent-started, the one lesson he never hated. Inside Frog House, web work—which never interested him in Japan—suddenly had faces attached; talks with freelance designer Aki widened how work could look. Fellow film people traded gear, edit methods, and software; they screened each other’s pieces. Frog meetups and events were easy to join—finance chats, English workshops. He joked that event notices could come earlier.

His pitch for the house: specialists appear when you need a poster for your film or advice outside your lane. He planned to compete in Japan afterward and invited future collaborations once portfolios were ready. Advice to future students: language-school friends often come only to study and leave; his film goal made the year feel full. Vancouver also dropped editing work for a band and other chances—carry something you want beyond English. Purpose, not passport stamps, is what filled the calendar.