Japanese Studies 2014

Reply 20

Clause

6

Do you guys who which is better for this course?

Leeds,Manchester or UEA?

Reply 21

Bambirina

Original post by Clause

Do you guys who which is better for this course?

Leeds,Manchester or UEA?

I've never heard anything about the Japanese program at UEA.

I'm a first year doing Japanese and Business at Manchester and I love it, feel free to ask me any question about it :smile:

Reply 22

Clause

6

Original post by Bambirina

I've never heard anything about the Japanese program at UEA.

I'm a first year doing Japanese and Business at Manchester and I love it, feel free to ask me any question about it :smile:

What resources do you have and how is the teaching?
Is it easy to find native speakers?

Reply 23

Bambirina

Original post by Clause

What resources do you have and how is the teaching?
Is it easy to find native speakers?

By resources do you mean material?
We used the Genki I textbook and workbook last semester and this semester we're using the Genki II ones. We also have the Oxford Japanese Grammar & Verbs book to help us.
The teachers are very good and demanding. Every week we cover a chapter of the Genki book so we have to do most of the exercises in the textbook and all of the exercises of the workbook of the chapter and hand them in. There's also a whole sheet of kanji to write and learn, a page of exercises and we also have to translate them. We have to learn at least one of the dialogues of the chapter and act it out in class. Then we listen to dialogues and have to answer questions about them, and also make up our own dialogues in pairs. We read a pretty long text and then have to translate it and also answer a number of questions about it as homework. And we have weekly quizzes every Monday, and an essay to hand in every two weeks. There are optional reading sessions on Wednesdays.
So yeah, it's pretty intense but I'd say it's working.

3 of my 4 Japanese teachers this year are native speakers. There are also plenty of Japanese exchange students and it's really easy to meet them at the Japanese society's socials.

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Reply 24

Pelly360

8

Since you guys are studying Japanese you must like Anime!

Reply 25

Quick-use

20

Hello everyone! I am a second year at the University of Edinburgh. I study Japanese so if you have any questions whatsoever about studying Japanese or Edinburgh or studying Japanese at Edinburgh, then please do feel free to ask me! :biggrin:

My opinion: the Japanese department at Edinburgh is absolutely fantastic and wonderful. As for the course, it's very, very intensive and a lot of fun. I only started learning Japanese last year in my 1st year, and already, I feel really confident in it! :smile:

Original post by Ronove

I've ordered a book to help me out with that. A Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese by F Sakade (the 1961 version... it was £0.24).

Do you know anything about these readers by the way? Link.
They're really quite expensive to get hold of (whether on Amazon or via White Rabbit Press' website). Do you know of any good (ie cheap) ways to get access to manga in Japanese as well? There doesn't seem to be any source of free access to them here around Copenhagen. I expect the university that offers a business degree with a Japanese slant around here (Copenhagen Business School) has some decent materials, but I doubt I could get access to them.

Naturally, a lot of people will be able to recognise and read more kanji than they write. But, I would genuinely recommend knowing how to write kanji. Obviously, there are some rare kanji that I can recognise and have yet to learn or use, but for the ones that I do use and am learning, I always try to learn to write it. I would recommend the Genki books if you're wanting to learn Japanese. It's the one I used at university so I don't know about others, but I found it to be fantastic.

Original post by Adam7918

What kind of Japanese level does the degree aim for by the end of it (e.g N1, N2)?

Also what level are you roughly at now and which year are you in?

At the university of Edinburgh, the 4th year finalists are all mostly N2 with a quarter being N1 level. :smile:

I'm personally in 2nd year and my year abroad is next year. Even though I've not done the JLPT exams yet, I think I'd be N3 level. I started learning Japanese last year in my 1st year of university. There are a few people in my class who study an exceptional amount or have already studied Japanese before; one person who's also in second year is N2 and one person in first year is already N1.

Usually, it's what you put into your degree/year abroad, what you get out.

Original post by Bambirina

By resources do you mean material?
We used the Genki I textbook and workbook last semester and this semester we're using the Genki II ones. We also have the Oxford Japanese Grammar & Verbs book to help us.
The teachers are very good and demanding. Every week we cover a chapter of the Genki book so we have to do most of the exercises in the textbook and all of the exercises of the workbook of the chapter and hand them in. There's also a whole sheet of kanji to write and learn, a page of exercises and we also have to translate them. We have to learn at least one of the dialogues of the chapter and act it out in class. Then we listen to dialogues and have to answer questions about them, and also make up our own dialogues in pairs. We read a pretty long text and then have to translate it and also answer a number of questions about it as homework. And we have weekly quizzes every Monday, and an essay to hand in every two weeks. There are optional reading sessions on Wednesdays.
So yeah, it's pretty intense but I'd say it's working.

3 of my 4 Japanese teachers this year are native speakers. There are also plenty of Japanese exchange students and it's really easy to meet them at the Japanese society's socials.

Hi there! I remember chatting to you last year! :smile:

How's everything going at Manchester? How are you finding Japanese? :biggrin:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 26

instrumentality

5

Original post by Quick-use

Hello everyone! I am a second year at the University of Edinburgh. I study Japanese so if you have any questions whatsoever about studying Japanese or Edinburgh or studying Japanese at Edinburgh, then please do feel free to ask me! :biggrin:

Hello, I have got an offer for Japanese at Edinburgh and I'm really excited for it, as I've heard that the course is amazing. I was wondering what lectures are in the first year is it only language and history or the culture as well? Haven't done much research yet due to lack of time haha.
Will you go to Japan for your third year if you don't mind asking?

Reply 27

Quick-use

20

Original post by instrumentality

Hello, I have got an offer for Japanese at Edinburgh and I'm really excited for it, as I've heard that the course is amazing. I was wondering what lectures are in the first year is it only language and history or the culture as well? Haven't done much research yet due to lack of time haha.
Will you go to Japan for your third year if you don't mind asking?

At Edinburgh, in the first two years, you do 3 subjects. So, if you're doing a Japanese degree you'll be doing: Japanese 1 (language), East Asian Civilisation (looking at China and Japan post 1600s) and 1 other subject. Altogether, in one year you have to do 120 credits. Courses that are 40 credits long are two terms/semesters long whereas courses that are 20 credits long are only 1 term/semester long.

For your third subject, you have the flexibility to take any other subject permitting that they have space and that the times don't clash with your current classes. There are also optional Japanese courses which are both 20 credits long. So, for your third subject, you could take Thinking Through Japan (1 semester long - modern media/culture of Japan) and Politics and Economics of Japan.

In your 2nd year, your compulsory courses are J2A (language) and J2B (translation and dissertation prep for your 4th year). You also have to take a 3rd subject which, again, could be anything or you can take Thinking Through Japan and Politics and Economics of Japan (if you didn't already take it in first year) or Pre-Modern East Asian Civilisation (looking at Japan and China pre-1600s).

My degree is actually French and Spanish and I do Japanese as my third subject :redface:

. Most times I wish it were my degree though :tongue:

My closest friends from uni are from my Japanese class and I just absolutely love the subject as well. So, in the first two years, this was what I did:
Y1: French 1, Spanish 1 and Japanese 1. Y2: French 2, Spanish 2 and Japanese 2A.

Next year, as part of my degree, I'll be going to Spain for 1 term and then France for the 2nd term. My 2nd term finishes in May 2015, so I'm thinking of going to Japan from then on until August independently to perhaps study/work/volunteer and visit my friends. All of my friends that are doing a Japanese degree are going there for the whole year.

By the way, the Japanese department is absolutely fantastic and the courses are amazing! :biggrin:

The department is also quite small, so you'll get to know your senpais from 2nd and 4th year quite well and once you're in those years, you'll know your kohais well too! :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 28

instrumentality

5

Original post by Quick-use

By the way, the Japanese department is absolutely fantastic and the courses are amazing! :biggrin:

The department is also quite small, so you'll get to know your senpais from 2nd and 4th year quite well and once you're in those years, you'll know your kohais well too! :smile:

Thank you so much, you explained everything so well, sighs, now I really cannot wait to enter the uni!

Japanese Studies 2014

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