[matt9210]

Hi,
So my plan is to go to college in September this year to do an Access to HE Diploma. I've contacted a few universities and they said it's best to go with humanities, so I plan on doing Law, Literature and Psychology as Level 3 subjects.

I really want to do Japanese Studies, but I don't know what my chances would be. I have no GCSE in a foreign language, and there are no courses in my area for adults.

I have a JLPT N5 certificate (achieved this year), and in my personal statement mention how the language has been a passion for 4 years, and that I got into the language through listening to Japanese music and being fascinated by the lyrics, the huge difference to English in terms of grammar and word forms depending on your status to who you're having a conversation with, and the writing system. Also mentioned how the Japanese I know is all self taught. I know this is vague but this is alls there is (in short) that directly relates to Japanese.

Could you please give me an idea of what my chances would be at the moment? If you had a similar experience with a different language that'd be great.

Looking to apply for Oxford Brookes, Sheffield, Manchester and SOAS.

[sophia5892]

I'm afraid I can't help with the 4 unis you're looking at (I'm a Newcastle student). But...
as far as I'm aware for Newcastle, if applying with an access course as opposed to A Levels, evidence of studying a foreign language is required. I presume your JLPT would cover this. I also know they place a lot of value on passion for other cultures and motivation, which you have clearly shown by teaching yourself and having the initiative to get the JLPT.

I would hope other unis would have similar requirements. My only suggestion for your access course would be maybe to swap Psychology for something like history or politics? Law is highly regarded anyway, Literature could be relevant to Jap Studies if you picked Jap Lit modules so maybe pick a 3rd topic that would be covered in the culture side of the degree? I don't know if it would make a different but it's just a thought.

A good idea is always to email the admissions secretaries of the school your applying to. I'm sure they'd be happy to advise you.

[miniteen]

Mh... I'm a SOAS (BA Chinese though) student if you're interested in talking to me. I think for SOAS you'd have to have pretty good grades, especially with the Japanese department (they're quite popular and they are quite strict.)