The Student Room Group
School of Oriental and African Studies
London

Combined Japanese course - and other questions!

Ive just accepted a place at SOAS to do Japanese and Geography combined - whats the likelihood of me dropping one of those courses (as i really hope i will be able to do both!) but i know people who have dropped out of the japanese course alone since it was so difficult. Also, what do you do on your year out in japan - where do you live, do you get a part time job, and how do you choose which uni to go to? LAST but not least, what is it like being gay at soas, i guessed that it was a fairly open minded university lol but would like to here from people that actually go there (straight/gay/bi anyone!)

thanks guys!

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Reply 1
Hi gelaye. Nice to see somebody else doing Japanese - I'm taking Japanese and Korean at SOAS. It is true that there is a fairly high dropout rate amongst Japanese, and more so in Chinese, due to the sheer density of the characters that need to be learnt, as well as the intensity of course. Personally I feel this is due to the low entrance grades of BCC - not that I am stating that any student with lower grades will be in some way inferior, but students with higher grades tend to be able to cope with the pressure of work more easily and are less likely to drop out - and if you are that type of student, then there is no reason that you can't continue studying both. However, I would imagine that one subject will be studied in more depth than the other, most likely Japanese is your primary subject.
As for the gap year, I know that you are placed into one of several prestigious universities as a foreign exchange student, and the nature of your course will be dictated by that Japanese university, with no tuition offered by SOAS in the third year. You might be able to specially arrange another type of year in Japan (e.g. studying a specific element like architecture), but this is probably very rare.
As for the gay scene I don't know much more than you, just that the university is hardly likely to be intolerant of anybody "different" since the sheer diversity of the student body means there is little typical "trend". In any case, I am bisexual and I have little worries about this when I arrive at SOAS.
School of Oriental and African Studies
London
Helloooo,
I'll be doing politics and japanese.
I was told that if you're doing really well in your degree you'll get to say which japanese uni you want to go to. ie, those with firsts throughout get first choice. and the lower down the chain you are the less choice you get and could end up out in the sticks.
I had always said i wanted to go to Tokyo because I know it, having been to work there twice.
but most japanese people I've met recently say Osaka is a far cooler city in terms of lifestyle and electronic music scene (which is something I'd like to have access to). but I don't think they're far from each other.
as for being gay at soas. I speak to people online who go to soas and one or two are gay. I think it's like any other part of society, no need to worry :smile:
I think you have one kanji and one grammar test each week so they make sure you're doing your work and don't fall behind. the trick is to keep on top the kanji, and reviewing the older stuff.
as for working in japan. I'd been wondering about this because we'll need visas... unless we go on student visas and give private english language lessons on the side... i was planning to do what i did last time though, because I'd earn more.
Where are your geography modules at?
Reply 3
wow great to see you guys are doing japanese! Well if thats the case about the low grade thing, then hopefully I shouldnt find it too difficult (HOPEFULLY haha). my geography course is in Kings College :eek: a bit of a mission away....but what the heck lol, and yeah Japanese is the main part of my course. I was wondering, how much Japanese do you need to know to skip the beginners level class? I know hiragana and katakana and some VERY basic kanji, and can just get by with some crappy japanese verbs like ikimasu, imasu, arimasu, dekimasu etc (with the odd japanese word i know)..randomly I picked this up from my Korean Godmother..... Do they mean you need to have done it for A level or something?
Reply 4
You don't need to do it at A level, it seems most people do it from scratch.

Btw, have any of you ever played/heard of this game called 'Slime Forsest', it's kind of like pokemon but it's designed to help you learn hiragana, katakana and some Kanji ?
gelaye
wow great to see you guys are doing japanese! Well if thats the case about the low grade thing, then hopefully I shouldnt find it too difficult (HOPEFULLY haha). my geography course is in Kings College :eek: a bit of a mission away....but what the heck lol, and yeah Japanese is the main part of my course. I was wondering, how much Japanese do you need to know to skip the beginners level class? I know hiragana and katakana and some VERY basic kanji, and can just get by with some crappy japanese verbs like ikimasu, imasu, arimasu, dekimasu etc (with the odd japanese word i know)..randomly I picked this up from my Korean Godmother..... Do they mean you need to have done it for A level or something?



sounds like we have a similar level of japanese :redface:

I have friends who go to Kings, and they love it.
Reply 6
gelaye
Ive just accepted a place at SOAS to do Japanese and Geography combined - whats the likelihood of me dropping one of those courses (as i really hope i will be able to do both!) but i know people who have dropped out of the japanese course alone since it was so difficult. Also, what do you do on your year out in japan - where do you live, do you get a part time job, and how do you choose which uni to go to? LAST but not least, what is it like being gay at soas, i guessed that it was a fairly open minded university lol but would like to here from people that actually go there (straight/gay/bi anyone!)

thanks guys!


Hello! I'm just doing plain old Japanese Studies (concentrating on one subject is enough for me!), but if you've developed decent coping strategies to deal with workload then you shouldn't have much trouble doing both Japanese and geography. Japanese is fairly easy at beginners level anyway, so if you already know a little then it'll give you that much more time to settle in :smile:

I don't know if you can choose to do other things on your year abroad instead of studying in a university, but hopefully there are some SOAS students about who know. Even if it is required to go to a university on a student visa you can give private language tuition, like Exoskeleton said, for extra cash and the uni will probably help with accommodation. There's possibly some leeway though, as long as you're demonstratably using/ learning the language whilst out there (which is the whole point).

As for what it's like being gay in SOAS, I have no idea. However, if it's anything like the rest of London then it'll probably be fine. There always seems to be somewhere in London that you can feel comfortable. Besides, SOAS has the reputation of being liberal minded, I'd be surprised if they were close-minded about that sort of thing in this day and age :smile:

Alexii
Btw, have any of you ever played/heard of this game called 'Slime Forsest', it's kind of like pokemon but it's designed to help you learn hiragana, katakana and some Kanji ?


I used to have that, but I think I lost it in my last computer reformat. I may have to get it again to keep it all fresh in my mind. What with all my college work I don't have much time to practice my Japanese at the moment and it all tends to leak out of my ears after awhile. I also have Knuckles in China Land for katakana, though mostly I play it to see when Psycho Sonic is going to turn up next :biggrin:
Hi guys. I'm coming to the end of the first year of a philosophy course at KCL and haven't really enjoyed it that much - I switched courses at xmas cos i realise I was on the wrong one, and didn't do enough to catch up. Anyway, depending on my exam results I may drop out, and seeing as I have always liked Japanese culture, and my most successful area in philosophy was logic (lends itself well to grammar), I'm considering Japanese at SOAS. Can anyone tell me anything that isn't in the prospectus- what is it like, how is the workload, and are there any slightly older students (I would be 21 at the start, starting in 2007). Thanks guys :smile:
Reply 8
I can answer the last part of your q CCB, there are plenty of mature students at SOAS so you'll fit right in.
Reply 9
'Mature' at 21...what is this world coming to? :biggrin:
Reply 10
at 40, you're middle aged, so it makes sense to be mature at 21...
I'll still be playing Sonic the Hedgehog on the bus to lectures so it depends how you define mature
Reply 12
There's no one normal at SOAS (myself included) so you'll fit right in. :biggrin:
Reply 13
Socrates
There's no one normal at SOAS (myself included) so you'll fit right in. :biggrin:


"Normal" is boring anyway. If everyone was normal and conformed all the time then nothing exciting would ever happen. I much prefer people who make me think about stuff :smile:
Reply 14
I'll be 21 when I start Japanese in September - the amount of extra crap you have to go through for being a "mature" student is unbelievable, especially if you apply to Oxbridge. Oh, and I'll still playing Sonic whenever I get the chance - in fact I found a pretty good game shop not too far away from SOAS the other day :biggrin:

As for the year abroad, I've really got my sights set on Osaka University. Its in a good position geographically and they seem to have taken lots of measures to accommodate international students, while still being able to integrate with Japanese students (some like Sophia University in Tokyo seem too geared towards teaching in English). Other than that Kyoto and Nagoya also seem interesting.

As for being gay, I'd be suprised if there were any universities where people aren't open-minded about sexuality, especially in London.
Marmotta
As for the year abroad, I've really got my sights set on Osaka University.



Me too! I was just talking to my boyfriend's brother this evening, who lived in Osaka for 3 years. Osaka seems great.
I'll be 20 when i start this september.
Reply 16
Marmotta
As for being gay, I'd be suprised if there were any universities where people aren't open-minded about sexuality, especially in London.

Especially one as left leaning as SOAS.
I have my heart set on SOAS now, I have exams this week and I just can't be bothered... shame I will have to wait til 2007. They don't do clearing do they?
Reply 18
Depends on the course.
Well I thought I saw something on the main SOAS site saying they didn't do clearing last year... oh I dunno. Looks like i can't go there this year :frown:

edit: nothing on UCAS extra so I guess not