Can You Study Abroad on 5 Days of Paid Leave? The 8-Day, 7-Night "One-Week Study Abroad" Model for Working Adults

Hello, everyone. I'm a member of our study-abroad support team.

When you hear "going abroad to study", how long a period do you imagine? Six months. A year. Taking a leave of absence from university to go overseas. Or quitting your job to go on a working holiday.

For my generation, I think "studying abroad" came with a decision that big.

So even when you're a working adult and find yourself thinking, "I'd love to study English abroad again", I imagine many people cross it off the list from the start: "Studying abroad now that I'm in a regular job? That ship has sailed."

But language study abroad these days is a little different. Among the destinations we offer, there are programmes you can join from one week.

Which means…

If you could take five days of annual paid leave, Monday to Friday, then perhaps even a working adult could study abroad?

This time, let's give serious thought to "study abroad without quitting your job".

The short answer: yes, you can.

For example:

• Saturday: leave Japan (in some cases, you reach your destination country that day)
• Sunday: arrive at your destination and move into your accommodation
• Monday to Friday: language school (from enrolment to graduation)
• Saturday: fly home
• Sunday: rest at home
• Monday: back to work

That's the schedule.

In other words, five days of annual paid leave plus the weekends = 8 days and 7 nights of study abroad.

And if you fly home on the Saturday, the Sunday becomes your "back to normal life" day. Do the laundry. Unpack. Readjust to the time difference. Get the souvenirs ready to hand round.

Even if taking a month off work is hard, what about taking one Monday-to-Friday off? That starts to sound a little more realistic, doesn't it?

① One-week study abroad is no longer a special plan

Let's look at some actual schools. General English at ILSC Sydney can generally start on any Monday. The full-time morning schedule is Monday to Friday, 8.30 am to 1 pm, 20 hours of lessons a week.

In Cebu, B'Cebu also accepts applications from one week.

GLC, for its part, has put arrangements in place so that things run as smoothly as possible up to the first day of lessons, and so that even short-stay students are given enough lesson slots.

So it isn't a case of "I can only get a week off, so study abroad is out". Study abroad designed for people who have only a week genuinely exists.

② But can an employee really take 5 days of paid leave in a row?

This is the most practical question, isn't it? To begin with, taking paid leave in Japan (the statutory annual leave that employees are entitled to) has itself progressed considerably compared with the past.

According to the 2025 "General Survey on Working Conditions" by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), in 2024 the average worker was granted 18.1 days of annual paid leave and took 12.1 days, a take-up rate of 66.9%. Of these figures, the number of days taken and the take-up rate are the highest since comparable records began in 1984.

And since 2019, employers in Japan have also been legally obliged to make sure that workers who are granted 10 or more days of annual paid leave a year actually take at least 5 days of it.

③ In practice, taking "5 days in a row" is still something a minority do in Japan

So how common are breaks of five or more consecutive days?

I could not find the latest official national statistics on "people who take five consecutive days of paid leave once a year". However, in an opinion survey commissioned by MHLW (fiscal 2025), 41.2% of companies answered that hardly any of their employees take a break of five or more consecutive days (including weekends and public holidays) twice or more a year. A further 19.5% answered that only a minority of their employees do.

So it is hard to say that long consecutive breaks are yet part of everyday life at Japanese companies. I think that's true. But turn it around, and it doesn't mean "definitely impossible" either. MHLW itself publishes examples of companies that encourage five consecutive days of paid leave.

What matters is not announcing "I'm taking five days off next week!" but planning early.

④ Study abroad as a working adult starts with negotiating with your company

If it were me, once I was thinking about a week studying abroad, I would first check my workplace's schedule two to three months ahead. Busy seasons, financial closing periods, in-house events, clients' schedules, and any work that would cause trouble if I were away. Then I would look for a week where "I could probably take five days off".

Rather than keeping your paid leave only for days when you are unwell, you use it for travel, family, hobbies, study and investing in yourself. That, too, is what paid leave is really for.

When you study abroad as a working adult, start looking for "a week you can take off" before you choose a school. That may be the best tip of all.

⑤ So how much does one week abroad actually cost?

This is another thing you'll want to know. So let's compare Sydney, Cebu, Lingayen and Hoi An.

Note, though, that conditions differ from school to school, so this is not a perfect like-for-like comparison with "the same lessons and the same room type". Airfares also vary enormously by departure date, airline and connections, so here I start by comparing rough guides for the on-site programme side: school, lessons, accommodation and so on.

Here are the prices I could confirm as of October 2026.

※Airfares, overseas travel insurance and personal food, drink and shopping are extra. Prices vary with the programme, room, exchange rate, time of year, etc.

⑥ The four destinations, in one line each

Sydney For people who want to try living in an English-speaking country, and want to experience life abroad itself.

Cebu For people who, above all, want to speak English in a short time, and who prioritise intensive one-to-one lessons.

Lingayen For people who want English plus a taste of everyday life abroad, without cramming too much in, and who value, for example, the experience of living alongside other people, or an exceptionally private environment.

Hoi An English, rest and travel. For people who want to make their paid leave itself a "reset period".

So even with the same five days of paid leave, your choice of destination changes depending on what you want to get out of it.

⑦ Tip ①: First, choose a week with no public holidays

The biggest waste in a one-week stay is a local public holiday. On a four-week stay, losing one day to a school closure makes little difference. But in one week, a single closure takes out 20% of your lesson days.

So for a one-week stay, check the school calendar and choose a week when the school is open every day from Monday to Friday. This matters quite a lot.

⑧ Tip ②: Steer a little clear of Japan's big holiday periods

Golden Week (the run of public holidays in late April and early May), Obon (the mid-August holiday period) and the year-end and New Year holidays have the advantage that you need less paid leave. But flights, hotels, airports and tourist spots tend to get crowded. Conversely, if you can use an ordinary Saturday plus five days of paid leave, you can move away from the big holiday periods.

For one-week study abroad as a working adult, "making your own time off" tends to open up more options than "going when everybody else is off".

⑨ Tip ③: Avoid the school's peak season

Schools have their busy seasons too. For example, B'Cebu has set a peak-season surcharge of ¥5,600 (about US$36) per week for 2026, for students enrolled from 5 July to 29 August. So even with the same lessons, the same room and the same single week's stay, the price changes just by shifting the timing a little.

I would recommend choosing your week, for example in autumn, just before Japan's spring school holidays or just after the big holiday periods, by looking at airfare and school fees together.

⑩ Use promotions to "make the school you want to attend cheaper"

At language schools in the Philippines, promotions such as extra lessons, room upgrades and limited-time discounts sometimes appear, depending on the time of year.

But the order shouldn't be "I'm going to this school because it has a cheap promotion". First decide on the school that suits you. Then check whether any promotions are available at that school. I would recommend that order.

You only have one week. Even if you save ¥10,000 (about US$64), if it turns out to be "not the kind of study abroad I wanted", I think that is the bigger waste.

⑪ So how far can one week abroad improve your English?

Let me be a little blunt here. It is very unlikely that you will be fluent in English after 8 days and 7 nights. It's only one week. But I don't think it's pointless just because it's only a week.

For example:

• Less hesitation about talking to people from other countries.
• No longer freezing the moment you hear English.
• Knowing your own weak points.
• Wanting to study more English.
• No more anxiety about travelling abroad alone.

Changes like these are perfectly possible.

So it feels right to think of a working adult's one-week study abroad not as "study abroad to perfect your English" but as "study abroad to restart your English learning".

⑫ If it were me, this is how I would spend the 8 days and 7 nights

Saturday: Departure

Off abroad from New Chitose Airport (the international airport serving Sapporo, in Hokkaido). The work laptop… ideally, I'd leave it at home.

※Adjustments such as bringing your arrival (move-in) date forward by a day can be arranged with the school in advance.

Sunday: Arrival

Move in, get your bearings around the area, sort out a SIM card and cash, and find the supermarket, ready for school the next day.

Monday: School begins

Level check, orientation, your first friends. "I can't catch as much as I thought I would…" You will probably have one low moment here. But don't worry.

※Depending on the school you choose, lessons start that afternoon.

Tuesday to Thursday: Nothing but English

Lessons, lunch, chats with your teachers, shopping, cafés. All of it in English. These three days are the most intense.

Friday: Last lesson and completion

It will probably go by so fast you think, "Graduating already?" But compared with day one, your sense of distance when you speak to your teacher should have shifted a little.

Saturday: Flight home

On the flight home, you may find yourself thinking, "Next time I'd like to go for two weeks." And if you have set the return flight for later in the day, you might even be able to dash to one last spot you wanted to visit…

Sunday: Complete rest

This matters. Rather than a schedule where you go to the office the day after you get home, leave one day to switch back to Japan mode. I recommend it for working adults.

What I see in my day-to-day work

When I talk with working adults, I sometimes hear, "I did want to study abroad, but I'm in a regular job now." But I don't think you need to decide that you can no longer study abroad once you're in a regular job.

You may not be able to set aside six months or a year, as a high-school or university student might. But working adults have something they did not have as students: money, experience and purpose.

So if you have only one week, you can simply choose a programme made for one week.

You don't quit your job, you don't pause your career. But just once, you take five days off work, go to a country you don't know, and try speaking English from morning onwards. Even that alone gives you a year that is a little different from your usual one.