MA Japanese at Edinburgh...

Original post by Keznbiccy

I just wondered if anyone here is going to study/is studying Japanese at Edinburgh and whether they could answer a few questions ^^

Firstly, what kind of thing does the first 'test' (to put you in the right class for your ability) include? Is it speaking/listening/reading/writing or just the standard reading/writing? I've done A level Japanese so I think I could cope but maybe the beginners class would be better so I can re-build confidence?

Secondly, should I start saving now for my year abroad? I was told at the open day that there is alot of help for students studying European Languages (from ERASMUS), but don't know much about the kind of help they offer for studying in Japan?

Either way I guess I'll be revising/saving ^^

Hi there! I'll be going to Edinburgh for Modern European Languages Italian and Spanish but I'm definitely taking up Japanese as an additional subject/changing my honours course - I LOVE Japanese so I'll definitely be doing it! As far as I know, I don't think there are separate classes for Japanese as there are for other more commonly studied languages like Spanish, French and German. I think the Japanese course is done from beginners' level regardless of the level.

I can't wait to be studying Japanese! :biggrin:

I guess I'll be seeing you there. :fluffy:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 2

OP

Ahh! That's awesome because I was going to take Spanish as my extra! :biggrin:

My Dad lives in Spain ^_^ I'm just annoyed that I never learnt it at school!

I love Japanese too, hence taking it at A level and going through hell trying to find teachers! But it was worth it :biggrin:

In that case, I'll probably be seeing you in my Japanese classes ^_^ yaay! :smile:

Reply 3

Original post by Keznbiccy

Ahh! That's awesome because I was going to take Spanish as my extra! :biggrin:

My Dad lives in Spain ^_^ I'm just annoyed that I never learnt it at school!

I love Japanese too, hence taking it at A level and going through hell trying to find teachers! But it was worth it :biggrin:

In that case, I'll probably be seeing you in my Japanese classes ^_^ yaay! :smile:

Haha that is awesome! :biggrin:

I just hope that I don't reconsider doing Spanish :lol:

I applied for Italian and Spanish but I'm reconsidering a few things. I really, really want to do Japanese and I know that with it you also have to do East Asian Civilisation (I'll be seeing you in two classes! ^__^). However, I'm also thinking about Chinese Mandarin, Spanish, French and English Literature. :s-smilie:

I love the languages and I want to do something related to them in the future, but I also love English Literature and I'd love to teach it at a Japanese High School when I'm older :wink:

Also, I think that university will be my only chance to learn Chinese Mandarin... Choices, choices! I might ask to do 4 subjects :colondollar:

Japanese, East Asian Civilisation and two of French/Spanish/English Literature/Chinese Mandarin. ^_^

Even if I end up dropping Spanish, I'd love to help you! :smile:

Your dad lives for Spain? Awesome, I've got my first abroad contact to stay over hahaha :biggrin:

I think it's awesome how you did it at A level! My teaching includes watching anime :redface:

I know some words like subarashi (wonderful), minna (everyone), demo (but), arigato (thank you), sayonara (goodbye). That's it :colondollar:

I love the word subarashi! :fluffy:

I'm really, really looking forward to seeing you a la Edinburgh now! :smile:

I'm native to the city so I can show you the Japanese places to eat :wink:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 4

OP

Original post by Quick-use

Haha that is awesome! :biggrin:

I just hope that I don't reconsider doing Spanish :lol:

I applied for Italian and Spanish but I'm reconsidering a few things. I really, really want to do Japanese and I know that with it you also have to do East Asian Civilisation (I'll be seeing you in two classes! ^__^). However, I'm also thinking about Chinese Mandarin, Spanish, French and English Literature. :s-smilie:

I love the languages and I want to do something related to them in the future, but I also love English Literature and I'd love to teach it at a Japanese High School when I'm older :wink:

Also, I think that university will be my only chance to learn Chinese Mandarin... Choices, choices! I might ask to do 4 subjects :colondollar:

Japanese, East Asian Civilisation and two of French/Spanish/English Literature/Chinese Mandarin. ^_^

Even if I end up dropping Spanish, I'd love to help you! :smile:

Your dad lives for Spain? Awesome, I've got my first abroad contact to stay over hahaha :biggrin:

I think it's awesome how you did it at A level! My teaching includes watching anime :redface:

I know some words like subarashi (wonderful), minna (everyone), demo (but), arigato (thank you), sayonara (goodbye). That's it :colondollar:

I love the word subarashi! :fluffy:

I'm really, really looking forward to seeing you a la Edinburgh now! :smile:

I'm native to the city so I can show you the Japanese places to eat :wink:

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to studying East Asian Civilisation as we didn't get to do much history in the A level, it was very language focused and I'd like to have a more rounded knowledge of Japan (as well as China!). English Literature was my favourite subject at A Level (: Have you ever read anything by Haruki Murakami? If you love all things Japanese, you'll love his books for sure ^_^ and wow! You'll be a total language-master by the end of uni! :P For me, Mandarin looks very difficult as it is very different from Japanese. I speak/write a bit of Korean have a GCSE in German :P

Hahaa sure thing! (: My dad lives in southern Spain near a place called Albox. Very, very hot o.o

Ahhh I love all anime <3 I have to say, my 5 years of Japanese started with anime-watching ^^ all very useful words there! if you want to know how to write them in hiragana (the easiest 'alphabet'): すばらしい (subarashii) さようなら (sayonara) みんな (minna) でも (demo) ありがとう (arigato) ^^ I used to love trying to write everything, and hiragana is really easy once you get into the swing~ My favourite word is Utsukushii because it means 'beautiful', and looks beautiful written in kanji: 美しい :biggrin:

Me too!! And that would be so amazing, especially as I don't know it so well yet (only been there twice) ^^;; you're so lucky to be living there already, Edinburgh is such a gorgeous place :smile:

Sorry for the essay! O.o

Reply 5

Original post by Keznbiccy

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to studying East Asian Civilisation as we didn't get to do much history in the A level, it was very language focused and I'd like to have a more rounded knowledge of Japan (as well as China!). English Literature was my favourite subject at A Level (: Have you ever read anything by Haruki Murakami? If you love all things Japanese, you'll love his books for sure ^_^ and wow! You'll be a total language-master by the end of uni! :P For me, Mandarin looks very difficult as it is very different from Japanese. I speak/write a bit of Korean have a GCSE in German :P

Hahaa sure thing! (: My dad lives in southern Spain near a place called Albox. Very, very hot o.o

Ahhh I love all anime <3 I have to say, my 5 years of Japanese started with anime-watching ^^ all very useful words there! if you want to know how to write them in hiragana (the easiest 'alphabet'): すばらしい (subarashii) さようなら (sayonara) みんな (minna) でも (demo) ありがとう (arigato) ^^ I used to love trying to write everything, and hiragana is really easy once you get into the swing~ My favourite word is Utsukushii because it means 'beautiful', and looks beautiful written in kanji: 美しい :biggrin:

Me too!! And that would be so amazing, especially as I don't know it so well yet (only been there twice) ^^;; you're so lucky to be living there already, Edinburgh is such a gorgeous place :smile:

Sorry for the essay! O.o

I'd love to do East Asian Civilisation too! It's the literature, history, politics, life etc of Japan and China right? God, that would be so amazing! :biggrin:

I studied History but strictly Germany. As a result I'm a total pro at Weimar Germany. 1917 - 1939 Germany's got nothing on me! :tongue:

I love English Literature too! There's just something about it - the meanings, the techniques, discussing what the writer was telling us and writing essays on them and comparing it with others. :colondollar:

I love English but sometimes I find it so depressing and superficial like I give it too much credit or something. :s-smilie:

Ah, yes Haruki Murakami! :biggrin:

I'm reading the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the moment and it's pretty amazing! I love it :smile:

Haha a language master! Honestly, I really like speaking to people in different languages - I love getting to know others and making friends I guess! :smile:

Ah yeah Mandarin does look really hard but I want to master it one day. As for German, I have various vocabulary from my German History. Whenever I get German speaking customers (I work at a restaurant so I can save up money to move out for university) the first thing that I say is: volksgameinschaft (word for people's community during Hitler's reign :lol:

), ja?

Really hot? :frown:

I'm more of a cold weather person myself - a la Edinburgh :wink:

Haha thank you, that's awesome! I'll take a note of those somewhere! :smile:

It'll be really useful for university I'm sure :smile:

I love anime! I guess I'm more into shonen :colondollar:

Things like Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail :h:

, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and more others! Recently though I've been getting more and more into manga! :smile:

I love it! :colondollar:

Hahaha I can't wait either :biggrin:

Really?

I honestly really wanted to move out and go to England like Sheffield as I don't find Edinburgh all that great. But, I've been living here all my life and I guess I've only seen one side of it. Here's hoping that university changes my perspective! :smile:

I don't mind your essays as long as you don't mind mine :biggrin:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 6

Hey,
I'm just a little confused. You want to apply for an MA in Japanese but you don't have a BA in Japanese? I thought you needed a BA in Japanese before.

EDIT: And guys, try to focus your studies. Really pick a subject and dig deep into it. Realistically speaking, if you try to cover too much ground you won't get anything done. Japanese and Chinese are very time-consuming languages. If you want to be good in either of them, you're going to have to really dedicate yourself to them. I don't know what level you want to be, but fluency in either takes years. And you don't have the time to do a million other things.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 7

Original post by miniteen

Hey,
I'm just a little confused. You want to apply for an MA in Japanese but you don't have a BA in Japanese? I thought you needed a BA in Japanese before.

BA Degrees in some universities in Scotland are called MA. These universities include St Andrews, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen (the oldest of the Scottish universities). I think that this was due to historical reasons and they just never got round to changing it. :smile:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 8

I see. That explains things. Sorry, I'm not British. I just happen to study Chinese at SOAS.
But yeah, in any case concentrate. A level Japanese isn't going to help too much, but you can try to push yourself.

Reply 9

Original post by miniteen

I see. That explains things. Sorry, I'm not British. I just happen to study Chinese at SOAS.
But yeah, in any case concentrate. A level Japanese isn't going to help too much, but you can try to push yourself.

I understand. :smile:

Do you think it would be possible for someone to study Japanese and Chinese Mandarin simultaneously? Japanese and two European languages? Japanese, Mandarin and a European language? Or would it be too hard?

I know you're studying Chinese, but how would you rate the difficulty? And if you happen to know, how difficult is Japanese? :smile:

Thanks in advance.

Reply 10

Original post by Quick-use

I understand. :smile:

Do you think it would be possible for someone to study Japanese and Chinese Mandarin simultaneously? Japanese and two European languages? Japanese, Mandarin and a European language? Or would it be too hard?

I know you're studying Chinese, but how would you rate the difficulty? And if you happen to know, how difficult is Japanese? :smile:

Thanks in advance.

Well it depends what kind of a student you are. I study Japanese and Mandarin simultaneously and it's working out pretty well for me. I have the HSK 6 and will be taking JLPT 1 this year. But I rarely go out and I could almost say that I don't really have a life. I'm the kind of student that gets into the library at 11 AM and stays there until 11 PM, with an hour lunch break or less. The average student wouldn't really want to be like me, although it does pay results wise.

Most students though already struggle with one Asian language, let alone two. If you're not used to working like a mad person, I'd suggest you stick with one. You'll have a much higher level this way. Hopefully, at the end of your degree you should be able to read without too much difficulty. But that too is a struggle for most people.

Chinese and Japanese are not difficult. They're time-consuming. It's different. It takes me an hour to learn 30 words, I have 200 + words to learn a week. And it's not like I started yesterday. I've been at it since I was 12 for Japanese, and 15 for Chinese. So I really cannot stress enough how time-consuming these languages are. That's the reason why even if you work like crazy, it'll still take a very long time. It's not about difficulty, it's all about time and perseverence.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 11

OP

Original post by Quick-use

I'd love to do East Asian Civilisation too! It's the literature, history, politics, life etc of Japan and China right? God, that would be so amazing! :biggrin:

I studied History but strictly Germany. As a result I'm a total pro at Weimar Germany. 1917 - 1939 Germany's got nothing on me! :tongue:

I love English Literature too! There's just something about it - the meanings, the techniques, discussing what the writer was telling us and writing essays on them and comparing it with others. :colondollar:

I love English but sometimes I find it so depressing and superficial like I give it too much credit or something. :s-smilie:

Ah, yes Haruki Murakami! :biggrin:

I'm reading the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the moment and it's pretty amazing! I love it :smile:

Haha a language master! Honestly, I really like speaking to people in different languages - I love getting to know others and making friends I guess! :smile:

Ah yeah Mandarin does look really hard but I want to master it one day. As for German, I have various vocabulary from my German History. Whenever I get German speaking customers (I work at a restaurant so I can save up money to move out for university) the first thing that I say is: volksgameinschaft (word for people's community during Hitler's reign :lol:

), ja?

Really hot? :frown:

I'm more of a cold weather person myself - a la Edinburgh :wink:

Haha thank you, that's awesome! I'll take a note of those somewhere! :smile:

It'll be really useful for university I'm sure :smile:

I love anime! I guess I'm more into shonen :colondollar:

Things like Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail :h:

, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and more others! Recently though I've been getting more and more into manga! :smile:

I love it! :colondollar:

Hahaha I can't wait either :biggrin:

Really?

I honestly really wanted to move out and go to England like Sheffield as I don't find Edinburgh all that great. But, I've been living here all my life and I guess I've only seen one side of it. Here's hoping that university changes my perspective! :smile:

I don't mind your essays as long as you don't mind mine :biggrin:

my next essay is so long that I think I'll message it to you (: sorry everyone, I'm just really excited that I met someone else who is planning on studying Japanese already ^^

And miniteen;

Chinese and Japanese are not difficult. They're time-consuming. It's different. It takes me an hour to learn 30 words, I have 200 + words to learn a week. And it's not like I started yesterday. I've been at it since I was 12 for Japanese, and 15 for Chinese. So I really cannot stress enough how time-consuming these languages are. That's the reason why even if you work like crazy, it'll still take a very long time. It's not about difficulty, it's all about time and perseverence.

Thankyou for the advice (: I've been learning Japanese since I was 13, so I know exactly what you mean. But I'm talking in terms of my whole life (: Even if it takes 10 years to become fluent in one language, I'd like to spend my life learning each (Korean is fortunately quite similar to Japanese in a grammatical sense, so I'm learning it at the same time on my own). I would say that A level was certainly worth doing, and am quite happy that it has brought me up to 700 kanji + 6,000 vocab :smile:

But I rarely go out and I could almost say that I don't really have a life. I'm the kind of student that gets into the library at 11 AM and stays there until 11 PM, with an hour lunch break or less. The average student wouldn't really want to be like me, although it does pay results wise.

Are you kidding? I'd love to be that driven and know so much Chinese/Japanese ^^ I got an offer from SOAS but unfortunately I accidently applied to the 3 year Japanese course without the year abroad, and they weren't happy about letting me switch :frown:

Reply 12

Original post by Keznbiccy

Are you kidding? I'd love to be that driven and know so much Chinese/Japanese ^^ I got an offer from SOAS but unfortunately I accidently applied to the 3 year Japanese course without the year abroad, and they weren't happy about letting me switch :frown:

Depending on your results, you can switch when you get to SOAS. The course is in clearing anyways, you should be able to get in.

Reply 13