School of Oriental and African Studies
London
I do BA Japanese at SOAS, AMA
Currently near the end of my third year (and therefore Year Abroad in Japan) of a four-year BA Japanese course at SOAS, University of London! Ask me anything 
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School of Oriental and African Studies
London
Original post by mollyxoo
Hi, I have some questions! I'm intending to apply to SOAS for BA Japanese and am trying to prepare as much as possible beforehand. Can you tell me more about the year abroad? What was it like and how did you fund it?
Hello
okay so the Year Abroad, firstly you have a choice of roughly twenty universities in Japan to apply to in a range of different cities including Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Nagoya. I'm at Doshisha University in Kyoto and loving it here. The classes on your year abroad are at a slower pace than at SOAS, and I think that tends to be the case for everyone at every university (as far as I've heard, anyway), so you'll definitely want to do a bit of studying in your own time in order to prepare for Year 4. That said, the slower pace and lighter workload means you certainly have loads of time to enjoy Japan and make the most of your time here!I also highly recommend taking a JLPT exam whilst you're out here, as you're expected to be roughly N2 level by the end of your year abroad. Although it's not required at all by SOAS for you to take the JLPT, it's nice to have something to study towards especially as the classes in Japan are quite tedious and a lot of the material will be stuff that you've already covered back in years 1 and 2 (for some reason the senseis here seem to think we are all absolute morons haha)
As for funding, if you apply for student finance then you also get funding for your year abroad. Perhaps with the exception of Tokyo, Japan is much cheaper than London anyway so it will feel like you have a lot more money than you did previously
you are also allowed to work in Japan as an international student, too, and I know loads of people who have a part-time job on the side for some extra cash. I'm teaching English which is really common as there is quite a demand for it!Overall though, I am absolutely loving it here and genuinely don't want to leave Japan! Ultimately the year abroad is what you make of it but my advice would be do everything, eat everything, say yes to everything and take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way
I am thinking of applying to SOAS as well. I have a few questions... How many people are doing BA japanese? Are there a lot of foreigners and exchange students from Japan? What do you think of your course? What are the other universities that you have applied other than SOAS?
Original post by MartinF98
What are you looking to do as a career? What do people with Japanese degrees usually do?
Hello
sorry for the late response! As for a career, to be completely honest I'm not 100% yet, but I know I want something that will enable me to actually utilise my spoken Japanese, so not translating, for example. I'd like a career that enables me to travel to Japan frequently, too, but I'm not sure I want to work in Japan permanently as I don't like the idea of the whole 'lifetime-company-policy' that they have going on there. I'm planning on doing a Master's first, anyway, so I guess I have another year to decide! A lot of people go into interpreting, I know someone who graduated with a Japanese degree from SOAS last year who now works for Mitsubishi bank in Tokyo, so a lot of the time people work for companies but often deal with Japanese customers, etc.Original post by je m'en fiche
I am thinking of applying to SOAS as well. I have a few questions... How many people are doing BA japanese? Are there a lot of foreigners and exchange students from Japan? What do you think of your course? What are the other universities that you have applied other than SOAS?
Hey! Sorry for the late reply! I'll answer your questions in order:
How many people are doing BA Japanese?
Start of Year 1 we began with about 80 people. SOAS BA Japanese has on average a 50% dropout rate due to the fact that a lot of people can't handle the intensity of the course or decide it's not for them, and that holds true for this year too as the number of people going into Year 4 in September is about 42.
Are there a lot of foreigners and exchange students from Japan?
Absolutely! We have a lot of foreign students on the course - quite a few Italians and Chinese most of all - and we also get loads of exchange students from Japan as the Year Abroad universities send a specific number of students per year. For example, I'm currently at Doshisha and there are two places for SOAS students to study at Doshisha each year, and so Doshisha also sends two students from Japan each year also. Waseda has about ten places, and so they send ten students, and so on. And when you count the fact that there are over twenty Japanese universities that SOAS has affiliations with, that's a lot of Japanese students! The SOAS Japan society holds weekly language exchanges too so you get to meet a lot of them
What do you think of your course?
Absolutely love it. I can honestly say hands-down that SOAS has the best Japanese department out of all the universities in the UK (perhaps with the exception of Oxford and Cambridge, but then again Cambridge sends all of their students to Doshisha and I'm in the same level as them haha) - they work you hard, but honestly it's so rewarding as you will definitely see your Japanese level shoot up rapidly. It's a high workload that seems to intimidate many people and that's why a lot of people drop out of the course but honestly it's not impossible at all, you can still have a social life if you manage your time correctly! The SOAS course is extremely well-organised and I genuinely couldn't fault it.
What are the other universities that you have applied other than SOAS?
I applied to only three: Oxford, Durham and SOAS - you have up to five choices on your UCAS form and although it's not compulsory to apply to five, I wouldn't advise applying to any less than three universities. I didn't get into Oxford (but looking back on it that wasn't such a bad thing), got a conditional offer from Durham and an unconditional from SOAS. I went for SOAS in the end as, although Durham as a university is better, the Japanese course there was relatively new and it didn't seem like they knew what they were doing. SOAS, on the other hand, has been offering Japanese for a century and is certainly extremely reputable in the field, and also the Year Abroad choices are incredibly broad. I had some teething problems in the beginning regarding the SOAS student scene as I'm not a particularly political person, but honestly I don't regret a thing and if I could do it all again I would pick SOAS every time!
Original post by Dorodango
Going to be SOAS2年生 in September, where can I go with GPA 3.5?
Because I'd like to start looking now if I can
Because I'd like to start looking now if I can
With GPA 3.5 you are eligible for all universities! The uni with the highest GPA requirement is Kyushu with 3.2 (according to last year's documents that I have) - I recommend you have a look at the SOAS BA Japanese course page (link below) and click the 'teaching and learning' tab to find the list of unis on offer - there's a nice selection of them
https://www.soas.ac.uk/japankorea/programmes/bajap/
This is so useful - really surprised at the dropout rate it seems very high.
What level are the majority of students when they start - I'm planning on going to SOAS or Newcastle in 2019 - I have a Japanese GCSE and I am taking JLPT5. I get the impression that most students at SOAS start with a fairly high level of Japanese ability - is this right?
Also how easy is it to find affordable accommdation in SOAS?
What level are the majority of students when they start - I'm planning on going to SOAS or Newcastle in 2019 - I have a Japanese GCSE and I am taking JLPT5. I get the impression that most students at SOAS start with a fairly high level of Japanese ability - is this right?
Also how easy is it to find affordable accommdation in SOAS?
So, when you're in Japan in 3rd yr, you take Japanese and not other courses? I would have guessed you'd take any module of anything you prefer for the credits! That does sound nice to be able to tone down the level of learning, and be able to enjoy everything when you're there..
Original post by ZoZo1770
Currently near the end of my third year (and therefore Year Abroad in Japan) of a four-year BA Japanese course at SOAS, University of London! Ask me anything
How many hours do you have a week?
Original post by CosmoStar
This is so useful - really surprised at the dropout rate it seems very high.
What level are the majority of students when they start - I'm planning on going to SOAS or Newcastle in 2019 - I have a Japanese GCSE and I am taking JLPT5. I get the impression that most students at SOAS start with a fairly high level of Japanese ability - is this right?
Also how easy is it to find affordable accommdation in SOAS?
What level are the majority of students when they start - I'm planning on going to SOAS or Newcastle in 2019 - I have a Japanese GCSE and I am taking JLPT5. I get the impression that most students at SOAS start with a fairly high level of Japanese ability - is this right?
Also how easy is it to find affordable accommdation in SOAS?
The majority of students at SOAS actually begin ab initio - of the 80 that began, 12 of us who had A Level or equivalent (including those who were half-Japanese) were put into one class, and the 68 remaining were divided into about four classes based on whether they had GCSE or equivalent, absolutely no Japanese, or somewhere in between (like self-studying, etc.) Everyone is required to know hiragana and katakana before the course begins, however, but if you have GCSE and N5 then you'll be fine!
As for accommodation, SOAS does have its own halls of residence as well as shared ones in Bloomsbury for University of London students. A lot of students opt for private housing too and often live in Zone 2 and 3, where you can find flats or houses for about 500-600 per person per month.
Original post by bumblebee97
So, when you're in Japan in 3rd yr, you take Japanese and not other courses? I would have guessed you'd take any module of anything you prefer for the credits! That does sound nice to be able to tone down the level of learning, and be able to enjoy everything when you're there..
Yeah, during your third year SOAS generally wants you to take only Japanese language and culture courses, and as much as possible 50% language and 50% culture - of course, it's not always possible to get exactly 50/50 and they're not too strict with it so whilst it's recommended to try and get it as equal as possible, a lot of people tend to go with 60/40 or something. If your major is Japanese and Chinese Studies or Japanese and Korean, then you might be permitted to take Chinese or Korean language modules on your year abroad, but apart from that, it's Japanese only. I personally found it a bit limiting this year as I've always taken an open option at SOAS - in my first year I did Linguistics and in my second year I took Basic Hindi (and next year hopefully Arabic), so doing just Japan-related stuff did feel a bit tedious by the end of it, but that's just me - if you're the type of person who prefers doing only Japanese language and culture then you'll be fine with it, but personally I always prefer a bit of variety!
Original post by lucieol
How many hours do you have a week?
Across all modules, I had roughly 18-20 contact hours per week in Years 1 and 2. On my year abroad, because all classes are an hour and a half long (which was incredibly tedious), I had about 20. I'm expecting it to be less contact time in Year 4 (around 11) as 1 out of 4 modules will be my dissertation which isn't really timetabled and the Year 4 Japanese course has significantly less contact hours than Years 1 and 2.
If you mean just Japanese language contact hours, in Year 1 I had 8 contact hours per week because I was in the accelerated course for those of us who had studied Japanese before (I did A Level). Those who had not studied it before or studied it to a lower level had 10 contact hours if I remember correctly. In Year 2, everyone had 8 contact hours.
Hope this helps!
Hi, I'm about to start my first year doing Korean and Japanese. I only really have one thing that is stressing me out; someone asked me whether the course would be made up of mostly Asians or whether there would be a lot of people with no ties to Asia (as in, no familial reason for studying the languages or whatever). That thought stuck in my mind and now I'm sort of worried that because I have no solid reason for studying either language other than my interest in them, I'll end up not fitting in or something.
I know it's a bit of a silly worry, but it's the only thing I can seem to focus on at the moment..
I know it's a bit of a silly worry, but it's the only thing I can seem to focus on at the moment..
Original post by idkjk
Hi, I'm about to start my first year doing Korean and Japanese. I only really have one thing that is stressing me out; someone asked me whether the course would be made up of mostly Asians or whether there would be a lot of people with no ties to Asia (as in, no familial reason for studying the languages or whatever). That thought stuck in my mind and now I'm sort of worried that because I have no solid reason for studying either language other than my interest in them, I'll end up not fitting in or something.
I know it's a bit of a silly worry, but it's the only thing I can seem to focus on at the moment..
I know it's a bit of a silly worry, but it's the only thing I can seem to focus on at the moment..
Hi! Let me reassure you that the majority of the people on the course are indeed studying Japanese (and Korean) purely out of interest, myself included! We do have a couple of half-Japanese people and there are a few other Asians (mainly Chinese heritage), but they make up maybe 5-10% of the people on the course - most people are British/European. Plus, from my experience, those who have no familial reason for studying the language often do better
please don't worry, in that respect you will fit in perfectly well Hi there, I hope I'm not too late to ask a few questions and thank you in advance for your time!
I just started International Management Japan with year abroad and my questions are:
1) Is it true that they let the most able students choose the exchange uni while the rest have to go to Hokkaido?
2) How long is the exchange term time? I mean the month you depart and the month you come back.
3) Any tips and advice for preparing for year abroad?
T.Y very much!
I just started International Management Japan with year abroad and my questions are:
1) Is it true that they let the most able students choose the exchange uni while the rest have to go to Hokkaido?
2) How long is the exchange term time? I mean the month you depart and the month you come back.
3) Any tips and advice for preparing for year abroad?
T.Y very much!
(edited 5 years ago)
Do you the degree is worth is as opposed to learning Japanese informally?
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