What are my chances of getting on to do Japanese, Korean or a similar subject?

Okay, so I've been learning Japanese on and off since I was about 14 and I've been interested in Korea for about the past four years. I didn't do amazingly well in my GCSEs - I got all Cs and two Bs for English lit and Child Development, and a merit in textiles BTEC. I did German NVQ (which I got a pass in) instead of GCSE because I had moved schools near the end of year 8 and didn't have much of a foundation for German, so I found doing GCSE German incredibly difficult.

I did ask to do GCSE Japanese - with self studying at home and taking the exams at school - but my school wouldn't let me do it for some reason.
I also asked if I could do Japanese GCSE or even A-level at college and again, they said no. Obviously I was unable to take German at a-level because I hadn't done the GCSE. At college I also did a few subjects like English Lit & Lang and Psychology, but I progressed more with textiles, photography and I also did a life drawing course.

So, now I'm doing the UAL art foundation to boost my UCAS points, and I'm wondering if it would be at all possible for me to go on to do a Japanese or Korean Studies degree or even take them on as a joint language degree at university?

Does anyone have any advice or know what I should do? I'm definitely aiming on getting a distinction on the art foundation, but I don't want to try and apply for said courses if they (SOAS, Sheffield, UCLAN, and possibly Edinburgh) won't even look at my application for not having done a language at a-level or more relevant subjects.

Thanks, and sorry for rambling so much...

Reply 1

Alex347_

16

I'm going to be frank, and probably in the process, come across as a ****er. But I just don't think you sound academically capable enough. They are both hard languages to learn, and your academic profile shows little ability to cope with them. I would also like to bet that your interests in these nations come from anime, Kpop, Jpop and other popular cultural devices, rather than from a genuine academic passion in these nations. When you add these two together it's a recipe for failure.

Reply 2

yuhn3

OP

Thank you for the reply. I completely understand what you're saying, and I do agree with you that my results probably don't look good enough to be able to go on to do something like Japanese or Korean. I put my bad grades down to depression. I will say though that my interest in anime, JPop and Kpop, etc stemmed from my initial love for learning Japanese, rather than the other way around.

My Japanese proficiency is currently okay. It could be a lot better though. I've never had the chance to take any formal tests - which I think may have been due to there being no Japanese testers in my county when I was in high school. Do you think, if I was able to take the JLPT N5/N4, which is done at SOAS, it would look a lot better when applying to universities?

Reply 3

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

21

Ignore Alex347, he's wrong. I got into UCL to do a degree in Norwegian and I left school with 2 GCSEs, if I can find a route into studying languages then you most certainly can.

The short answer is yes, you can do a degree in Japanese/Korean even if you don't have any language qualifications. Do you have A levels in any subjects? If not then you will probably have to do an Access to HE course in Humanities/Social Sciences. Obviously universities would prefer you to have some language learning experience, even in a completely unrelated language, but this isn't an absolute requirement. If you can show in your personal statement that you have a big enough interest in the region then you should be okay. You should email/phone the universities you're interested in and speak to the admission tutors. Even just talking to them about the course would help, you need to make them remember you.

Reply 4

yuhn3

OP

Original post by Samual

Ignore Alex347, he's wrong. I got into UCL to do a degree in Norwegian and I left school with 2 GCSEs, if I can find a route into studying languages then you most certainly can.

The short answer is yes, you can do a degree in Japanese/Korean even if you don't have any language qualifications. Do you have A levels in any subjects? If not then you will probably have to do an Access to HE course in Humanities/Social Sciences. Obviously universities would prefer you to have some language learning experience, even in a completely unrelated language, but this isn't an absolute requirement. If you can show in your personal statement that you have a big enough interest in the region then you should be okay. You should email/phone the universities you're interested in and speak to the admission tutors. Even just talking to them about the course would help, you need to make them remember you.

Thank you so much. I only have one full a-level at a C in Textiles, then I have an C in Photography AS, and an E in both English Lit & lang AS and Psychology AS. I am currently doing the art foundation, so I will definitely talk to the HE advisor and careers advisor at my college to ask them what they think about me doing an Access to HE course.
I will also try to call the universities I'm interested in tomorrow and ask them what they think! Yes, you're right about your last point.

Well done on getting into UCL by the way! That's amazing from having 2 GCSEs!

Reply 5

lNurl

19

If English is your native tounge and you have got E, I don't think it will look nice on your application. Is there anyway to hide it?

But I would strongly recommend that you take some kind of tests in Japanese (even if you have to travel for that), so you have some kind of proof. Also, in your application/interview you cannot just blame depression, you should prove that you don't have depression anymore, and it's unlikely that same thing will happen again and you already have therapist.

Reply 6

yuhn3

OP

Original post by lNurl

If English is your native tounge and you have got E, I don't think it will look nice on your application. Is there anyway to hide it?

But I would strongly recommend that you take some kind of tests in Japanese (even if you have to travel for that), so you have some kind of proof. Also, in your application/interview you cannot just blame depression, you should prove that you don't have depression anymore, and it's unlikely that same thing will happen again and you already have therapist.

Thank you for your reply! English is my native language. I got about a C in the coursework and was on course for a C/B overall but I completely flunked my exams. There isn't a way to hide it as you have to declare all qualifications when applying through UCAS.

I will try to see if I could take the JLPT this side of Christmas, if not next June, as the test is held every six months. Of course, sometimes I still have down periods, like everyone else, but I am definitely a much stronger person now than what I was during the worst days of my depression.

Reply 7

sophia5892

20

JLPT would definitely help your application - I know at Newcastle JLPT 5 is enough to skip one semester of Japanese and JLPT 4 is enough to skip the first year and join the post A Level students.
So even if you took it and then still joined the beginner course to consolidate your knowledge it'll show the uni that you are capable of getting to grips with the language and that you had the motivation to self study.

Another thing to consider is joint honours - my friend did Japanese and Music at Newcastle. The reason for that was largely that his previous qualifications didn't really qualify him to do the Japanese degree (i think he'd done a graphics/design based course at college first), but he'd also then done a music course so they said they'd accept him if he did Japanese in combination with music. That meant he did the same amount of language as single honours students and got the same Year Abroad but he studied less culture. Could be something to look into :smile:

Reply 8

yuhn3

OP

Original post by sophia5892

JLPT would definitely help your application - I know at Newcastle JLPT 5 is enough to skip one semester of Japanese and JLPT 4 is enough to skip the first year and join the post A Level students.
So even if you took it and then still joined the beginner course to consolidate your knowledge it'll show the uni that you are capable of getting to grips with the language and that you had the motivation to self study.

Another thing to consider is joint honours - my friend did Japanese and Music at Newcastle. The reason for that was largely that his previous qualifications didn't really qualify him to do the Japanese degree (i think he'd done a graphics/design based course at college first), but he'd also then done a music course so they said they'd accept him if he did Japanese in combination with music. That meant he did the same amount of language as single honours students and got the same Year Abroad but he studied less culture. Could be something to look into :smile:

Thank you! I will definitely aim to do the JLPT this academic year and talk about it in my personal statement. I've been meaning to take it for the past four years but something always got in the way. :s-smilie:

Well, I was mainly looking into doing Korean and Japanese Studies, or Japanese and Korean Studies, as Japanese/Korean art would definitely be included and I would find a way to justify studying it in my personal statement because of having done mainly art subjects throughout my education. There aren't really any other subjects that could be studied with Japanese/Korean that I would be interested in, other than the studies of the other country! Hopefully doing that would be a good idea though!

Reply 9

franvb

3

I was in a similar position. I think you could do it. Though SOAS and Sheffield are not that lenient so you may struggle with these universities, UCLan and Edinburgh however are indeed quite lenient. All uni's will look at your application, I did pretty badly with my AS levels, yet still received my offer from Sheffield and UCLan. In the end I kinda flunked my alevels (not too badly, not an ABB however) and still got into UCLan. Edinburgh did have many clearing spaces a few grades below also. Sheffield this year seemed to want ABB or BBB, nothing lower and SOAS wanted the AAB - ABB.

Basically it's worth a try. As long as you have a good personal statement, you should be fine! Don't doubt yourself, I did, I didn't even take a GCSE nor Alevel in a language but this didnt seem to bother anyone, despite their requirements.

What are my chances of getting on to do Japanese, Korean or a similar subject?

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