school after graduating? or..

[QwertyJPC]

Would it be possible to go to college in Japan after you graduate from the U.S. without being a grad student? Like a continuing student?

Or is it better to go to Japan as a undergrad? I do have one year of Japanese under my belt..

Just wondering...

[Charles]

I would not suggest going to Japan for grad school.

The customary plan is to take 3 years of Japanese classes, then do a year in Japan as an exchange student, then come back and finish your senior year in the US.

[QwertyJPC]

I probably won't be able to do that, since I am only a Japanese minor and that is 3 years only. There are seven classes needed for the Japanese minor at my school:

--JPN 1A & 1B (1st year, which I am about to complete)
--JPN 25A & 25B (2nd year)
--JPN 101A & 101B (3rd year)
--JPN 102 (Which I am going to take next semester)

The other Japanese classes at SJSU are considered to be Japanese Major classes, which I don't want (except JPN 103, which I am also taking next semester) . I do get interested when I look at them...

Do you have to major in something when going to Japan as a college student?
Or could you be undeclared?

Are there a certain amount of classes you have to take?

So, my guess is they do not allow college graduates to take classes as continuing education students, like they could do here in the states without being a part of a second bachelor's, a graduate program or a second minor. know what I mean by continuing education students? I mean, do things like community college or a lower level college exist in Japan? That's what I'm thinking about.

[Charles]

You'll have to ask your school about the specifics of their program. But it seems to me that you could do a double major easily enough. When I went back to school, I started out as a Japanese minor, but I took so many classes I didn't just take a double major, I ended up with two undergrad degrees, a BA in Japanese plus a BFA.

I don't see any reason to do only 2 years of Japanese, sure it will fulfill your language requirements, but 2 years just isn't enough to get any decent level of fluency. You will probably never get another chance to get professional language instruction so cheaply. And if you have an exchange program, you would generally pay the same tuition and room & board as your US school, so you will never get a chance to live and study in Japan so affordably.

[QwertyJPC]

I just checked the school catalog and looked at the Japanese BA they offer. Basically, I would have to take 6 more classes, plus another language to satisfy the one year language requirement and the minor. Something I'm not willing to do. No double major for me:

FORL 100W plus 5 of:

JPN 107: Japanese for Business Professionals
JPN 110: Japanese Linguistics
JPN 120A: Modern Japanese Liturature
JPN 120B: Classical Japanese Liturature
JPN 130: Readings in Japanese Culture
JPN 140A: Modern Japanese Drama and Lyric
JPN 140B: Classical Japanese Drama and LyricJPN 160: Special Topics in Japanese Studies
JPN 180: Individual Studies in Japanese


Honestly, to just be studying mostly readings or having to perfect my tongue or accent is not what I want to do or need to do. OR even go into business in Japan...not what I want to do either.


Charles, if you want to go into more detail on these classes, you could look at this PDF of the school catalog: (be careful, it's big and it takes a while to load.)

http://info.sjsu.edu/cgi-bin/socfiles?command=ftok&arg=catalog

The descriptions of the Japanese classes start at page 218 and end on 219.
The Japanese major requirements are on page 213.
The Japanese minor requirements are on page 214.

maybe you'd want to take a couple of the Upper GE Japanese classes they offer here at SJSU.


And yeah, I don't pay room and board since I live with my Mom and family. So it'd be pretty expensive...

[Charles]

..Basically, I would have to take 6 more classes, plus another language to satisfy the one year language requirement and the minor..

I don't understand, they want you to take Japanese, PLUS another language besides Japanese? That can't be right.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I don't understand, they want you to take Japanese, PLUS another language besides Japanese? That can't be right.

Charles, that's not all that unusual. I've seen schools that require language majors to take more than one language. Sometimes it almost makes sense like requiring Japanese majors to study classical Chinese texts.

Maybe they want all of their language majors to be ready for graduate level linguisticts. I know some linguistics departments require you to have studied two languages for admission.

[Greji]

Charles, that's not all that unusual.

That's right on SJ. Almost all universities have a requirement for linguistics or degrees in a language, of a minor in a second language. A two language requirement for an under-grad degree is not unusual at all.

[Charles]

Charles, that's not all that unusual. I've seen schools that require language majors to take more than one language. Sometimes it almost makes sense like requiring Japanese majors to study classical Chinese texts.

Maybe they want all of their language majors to be ready for graduate level linguisticts. I know some linguistics departments require you to have studied two languages for admission.

I think maybe he looked up the wrong major, most students don't want a degree in linguistics, that's a PhD track. If you just want to learn the language, that usually means something like a Japanese Lit major.

I've never seen the multiple language requirement in any program except at my school's PhD in Art History, where they require fluency in any 2 of 3 languages: French, Italian, and German. I always thought that requirement was terribly eurocentric, and eliminated many qualified Asian art scholars.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I think maybe he looked up the wrong major, most students don't want a degree in linguistics, that's a PhD track. If you just want to learn the language, that usually means something like a Japanese Lit major.

I've never seen the multiple language requirement in any program except at my school's PhD in Art History, where they require fluency in any 2 of 3 languages: French, Italian, and German. I always thought that requirement was terribly eurocentric, and eliminated many qualified Asian art scholars.

I understand what you're saying, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of schools require a second language and linguistics classes for their undergrads in a foreign language major just to make sure they have the option of going to grad school for linguistics.

I'm not really sure what the theory behind requiring someone to take classes in a second foreign language is. It seems to me that a student's time would be better spent taking more classes in his or he major language. Of course, most schools don't have enough classes in one language to offer anymore classes.

[QwertyJPC]

I think maybe he looked up the wrong major, most students don't want a degree in linguistics, that's a PhD track. If you just want to learn the language, that usually means something like a Japanese Lit major.

I've never seen the multiple language requirement in any program except at my school's PhD in Art History, where they require fluency in any 2 of 3 languages: French, Italian, and German. I always thought that requirement was terribly eurocentric, and eliminated many qualified Asian art scholars.

Charles, The Japanese Linguistics course at SJSU is an 'optional' course for the major. So are the other classes beyond 102. The Japanese Linguistics course is taught by Dr. Inaba sensei, who was my sensei for 1B. Here's his profile:

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty_and_staff/faculty_detail.jsp?id=823

I'm sorry that link to the huge pdf file didn't work. So here's what you do:

go to http://www.sjsu.edu
--click on Academic Programs (the 4th link near the upper left corner)
--click on Catalog (it's the sixth working link)
--click on Download PDF (the 1st link)

Now,

Scroll to page 212 and read the Heading of the paragraph titled,
"Requirements for the BA degree."

--It clearly states you must satisfy one year of a second language.

--You don't have to minor in another language, but it is what they recommend to satisfy the one year requirement and the minor requirement.


The Japanese major requirements are on page 213.
--Under Preparation for the Major, it says you must have one year of a second foreign language, ancient or modern.

The Japanese minor requirements are on page 214.

The descriptions of the Japanese classes start at page 218 and end on 219.

[QwertyJPC]

i'm starting to really believe that I graduated from college. but i attended no ceremony, and I 'm not going to tell anyone what degree I got.


I still wish i could go to Japan and go to a school for continuing education. I wish it were available.