Japanese Language/studies Applicants For 2011

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Reply 600

Digital_Love

Original post by Supfresh.

Good decision :wink:

!

Join http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_163901023664195

Thanks, I have done that already! :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 601

Narutofan88

Original post by spekstaa

yhyh same... leeds firmed... sheff seconded

good on you! :biggrin:

i firmed leeds and seconded sheff too :smile:

Reply 602

Digital_Love

How much ££ does the year abroad cost?
What are the chances you can get a job out there for the year?

Reply 603

Susant

Original post by Digital_Love

How much ££ does the year abroad cost?
What are the chances you can get a job out there for the year?

From what I gathered, it's dependant on region but roughly equivalent to how much it would cost you in the UK. Eating out seems to be quite cheap.

And getting a job seems to be reasonable if you put yourself out there. The current students in the Sheffield open day who looked for one found one.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 604

Digital_Love

Original post by Susant

I'm just wondering because I once heard it would be £9,000! Japan is more expensive to live in than the UK; if the university put me in an expensive part of town, what could be the most amount of ££ I would need for the year?
Sorry if this kinda sounds like the same question but I'd love a little more info pleasey :colondollar:

Love!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 605

Susant

Original post by Digital_Love

Love!

I have no idea about specific money, it would be good to ask current students that. The Jp. Studies 2011 group has a few current students on it. Actually, I'm interested too, I think I'll ask over there.

As for the £9000. There's a rule in place where you need a bank statement that shows you have £9000 in your account. You just need a bank statement, you can empty that account the next minute.
It seems that borrowing money from parents or coursemates you really trust, getting the statement, and giving it back is what people do.

Reply 606

Scaudwell

Original post by Ruadhan

Who else is thinking of firming manchester

Firmed Manchester: Russian and Japanese BA (4 years) ABB.

Reply 607

Ruadhan

Original post by Scaudwell

Firmed Manchester: Russian and Japanese BA (4 years) ABB.

I just firmed Manchester today. Japanese and business management. A1 A2 A2 A2 B B are the grades but that probably doesn't mean anything to you as they're Irish leaving cert.. What accommodation are you looking at in Manchester? See you in September?? Maybe?

Reply 608

Shuu

I have firmed Manchester and Insured Sheffield. (if you've firmed Manchester, add me on facebook: www.facebook.com/nadine.lapworth)
Also applied for accomodation and whatnot at Burkhardt House, Weston Hall and Cantebury Court~

I'm not sure if I'm meant to apply for accomodation at Sheffield yet....
Manchester offer is AAB which is higher than other peoples so hopefully if I get ABB/similar there'll let me in anyway haha.

Now, power-revision! Japan is the only thing giving me motivation right now! :P

Reply 609

terujoan

Original post by Ruadhan

Yeah, I got an offer from Soas just a few days before the deadline. Im pretty definitely not gonna take it if this is the shoddy admin it has. I'm pretty much set on Manchester I guess then unless I change my mind within the next few days and decide to stay in Ireland. Have you applied for just Japanese single honour then??
And what accommodation are you thinking of in Manchester??

Yes, the admin seems really bad! :/ But it is supposed to be a lot better than Manchester in terms of the quality of the degree and university. Urm well I think I'm going to firm Manchester now. I applied for Ashburne and St Gabriels after going to the Open House. My parents wanted me to go for catered so that's why really. St Gabriels is female only so they were really keen on that but I'm not really. However, they are paying for it! xD Yep, single honours! Maybe see you there! :redface:

Reply 610

Susant

Original post by Shuu

If you have Sheffield as either a firm or insurance, then you have until august to apply to accomodation. :wink:

Reply 611

Ruadhan

Cool. There's a few Manchester people here then. See ye in september.??...

Reply 612

AmandaWhite(:

Original post by GuineaPrig

Yeah, looking at the site again I see now that I was looking at a full list of 3 years' worth of modules and not just 1 year... don't mind me, I'm speaking rubbish. :tongue:

That makes things better for me now, though, because I'd much rather spend more time learning the language than doing so many of the essay-type modules, so I think that's placed Manchester above Sheffield for me. Thanks for clearing it up and sorry for giving out bogus information (though I did say it was based on brief looks at lists of modules :tongue:

)

I wish I knew more about the Japanese department in Manchester in general though, nobody ever speaks of it, same with Edinburgh. I know it's because it only started in 2007, but I'm pretty sure it could become one of the best Japanese departments in the UK in a few years' time, from what I have heard of it.

Hey, I'm doing Chinese and Japanese next year at Manchester, but I've already done a year at Manchester already (Japanese Studies) then decided I wanted to learn Chinese before the new fees came up. So I'll be in some of your classes next year. But if you have any questions about Japanese here, feel free to ask :smile:

Reply 613

AmandaWhite(:

Original post by Shuu

Hey, doing Chinese and Japanese next year, already done a year at Manchester tho, doing Japanese Studies. I'm living in Weston atm, and I really like it so hope you get it :smile:

Reply 614

Shuu

Original post by Susant

If you have Sheffield as either a firm or insurance, then you have until august to apply to accomodation. :wink:

Thanks for the info :smile:

I'll leave it til after exams, then, so I can concentrate on it!

Original post by AmandaWhite(:

Hey, doing Chinese and Japanese next year, already done a year at Manchester tho, doing Japanese Studies. I'm living in Weston atm, and I really like it so hope you get it :smile:

Thanks, good to know!
How's Japanese been so far at Manchester then? There's very little information on it and I've been trying to find someone who's been there and done it for a while already :smile:

Reply 615

AmandaWhite(:

Original post by Shuu

Thanks for the info :smile:

I'll leave it til after exams, then, so I can concentrate on it!

Thanks, good to know!
How's Japanese been so far at Manchester then? There's very little information on it and I've been trying to find someone who's been there and done it for a while already :smile:

Well obviously I can't compare it to other universities since I've not been to them, but I've really enjoyed it and learnt a lot. What I like about Manchester is that it's not lectures, it's basically classes. I'm in advanced Japanese, so I take less credits in language (40) which means I have 6 hours a week. 2 hours grammar with Bunt (he is an awesome teacher and he wrote the Oxford Japanese Dictionary), 2 hours speaking and listening with Shaw-Sensei (who we all love she's really a cute Japanese lady :L) and reading, writing and kanji with Yamaguchi-sensei (she's also very good and makes sure you work hard). We use 2 lots of textbooks, Minna no Nihongo (Chuukyu) in the first semester and and an Intermediate Approach to Japanese in semester 2 (we complete both). The kanji textbook we use is ryuugakusei no tame 700 kanji, and we do roughly 2 pages of kaniji (20) per week and get weekly tests (on grammar, kanji and conversation learnt that week) which count towards the grade which is good because it makes sure you work all year round.

If you take beginners you get more credits in language (60) so obviously more hours and use the Genki books and the same teachers roughly.

As I did Japanese Studies I did all the other modules too, I found Intro to Society really good (so interesting and really funny at points, the lecturers are really enthusiastic and quite eccentric). I didn't enjoy History so much but then the people in the year above us all loved it and the people sat in the front of the lecture hall did as well, so I guess it was a matter of opinion. If you do advanced Japanese Studies then you also do Cultural Contexts of the television which in my opinion is the best one. You get designated a couple of episodes from a Japanese drama to watch in a group, you have to watch it, usually with Japanese subtitles and pick out cultural relevance, interesting grammatical structures and explain WHY things are said the way they are, it was SO helpful and improves your Japanese a lot, makes you realise you understand a lot more than you thought. You can also do it in year 2 if you're doing beginners.

Ohh also at Manchester there are TONNES of international students, so you meet loads of Japanese people. Our Japanese Society is really good so there's usually at least a couple of socials every couple of weeks. We also have like exchange programmes and stuff where you offer up and language and another person does too, but I just met a load of Japanese people just during the socials. So that's helpful too. Bit of a rant but I suppose there's a lot to say. Hope that helps?

Reply 616

Shuu

Original post by AmandaWhite(:

Thanks a lot! It's great to finally hear some feedback from someone on the course! I'm pleased that the lecturers are all nice and such :smile:

I don't know who I met on the open day... I'd describe him as a middle aged man. Haha.
Good to know it's good and there are Japanese socials weekly... it sounds like a lot of fun.

Now I just need to get back to revision to get those grades... Motivation is lacking!

P.S. Are you in 'advanced japanese' because you're better at it than those in 'beginner Japanese'...? Or is it based on your choices?

Reply 617

AmandaWhite(:

Original post by Shuu

Thanks a lot! It's great to finally hear some feedback from someone on the course! I'm pleased that the lecturers are all nice and such :smile:

If he's from the Japanese department then that's Bunt. He's very funny. Yeh I do proper love my degree/enjoy what I do so I'm sure you will too.

I have no qualifications in Japanese, not even GCSE because I'm self taught. Basically what class you're in is not down to just grades. You take a mini placement test at the beginning (nothing scary, just write about your holidays was ours...) then they put you in beginners or advanced based on that. They move people around if they think they should change classes, like a few people moved down after the first set of exams. So if you think you should be in advanced you could be even without an A-Level, I am.. You taking Japanese A-Level?

Reply 618

Shuu

Original post by AmandaWhite(:

Write about your holidays in Japanese? o_O Woah I couldn't do that! haha. No I'm not, I'm pretty much starting from scratch when I get there :smile:

Reply 619

rh209230

Hello everyone,
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, however I do feel it is my duty to tell you all what you are letting yourselves in for if you are intending to study Japanese at Manchester University.
I am a final year student who is just about to graduate.
Quite frankly, I wouldn't wish this programme on my worst enemy.
Lets start at the very beginning shall we?

After spending £3000 a year tuition, plus maintenance loans and around £10,000 on year abroad, I am graduating with a degree that is worth absolutely nothing. Not one person in our year can speak Japanese fluently. Jobs? There isn't any for people with a useless degree.
Of course you COULD ask the lecturers advise on careers. If you want to go on the JET programme, because this is the only thing they will tell you in terms of career prospects. After the amount and time and money put into this degree, do I really need to be teaching snot nose Japanese children how to sing in English for peanuts? Anyone with any degree could do this.

Now lets move on to the state of the course.
The language teaching is a bit of a joke. It gets worse each year.
For example, in final year, we only have 3 hours of language a week. One grammar class, one 'readings class' and one .... well i don't really know what it was class. Three hours and they couldn't even be bothered to plan it. Everything we have learnt in Japan has gone down the pan thanks to this years abysmal efforts.
And of course, this rubbishness is not just limited to the language side of the course. Oh no. Lack of planning seems to run in the family as far as Japanese Studies department goes. History courses are taught out of one book, Reading classes which expect students to focus on ridiculously difficult academic Japanese texts after having no prior experience with them- 10 presentations, one academic essay & a two hour exam... all for 20 credits. A 'popular culture' course, also known as studies in pornography. Then of course we've got the religion course. Don't bother signing up unless you know absolutely everything there is to possibly know about Buddhism... or you'll fail.

Now on to the lecturers.
If you think "Bunt sensei" is funny, wait until you get to fourth year when you realise you're going no where and fast. His response will be to pop his nose, tell you to sign up to the JET programme, you probably could teach Japanese even though you can't speak a word, oh, and any other career prospects you might discover? Let him know, so he can help the first years.
This year, we all had a nice readings class with Bunty, which included a nice coursework. This coursework was a translation of Norwegian Wood. So obviously, we all just copied it out of the already translated English book. Though apparently this already translated book wasn't actually all that publishable, since we all got mediocre marks.

Year abroad.
Not so much as an email to check we actually got there okay.
No support all year.
One tutor visit... 7 days before most people returned to the UK.
Other tutors came to Japan and didn't bother to contact anyone.
On the bright side, we actually all learnt something whilst in Japan, after experiencing real teaching. On the down side, this will be drummed out of you within a week of returning to Manchester.
Don't expect to speak Japanese when you come back to Manchester, the tutors will still speak to you in English at all times.

Dissertation.
Don't expect much help unless you pick a topic that one of the 3 lecturers is interested in. Not much hope for most of you eh?
Oh, and don't listen to them when they tell you to write the literature review. You DON'T need it. It ISN'T included in the final dissertation.

JLPT 2 level by the time you get back to Manchester in final year?
Not unless you are Chinese or Japanese.
M U R I
But I wouldn't worry about this too much, because you will receive Manchester's own version of the exam, you will all fail, but they will tell you all that you have passed.
You will not all be at the same level when you come back to Manchester, this will depend on the Japanese university's programme. But this isn't considered by our lecturers.. you will all be expected to do the same work. Some people will be unfortunate enough to go to universities in Japan that teach in English, and make you learn katakana again. Sucks to be you.

Some other interesting happenings throughout the 4 years at Manchester:

-An exam, where we all sat next to each other, worked on paper ripped out of a pad from the pound shop, and were all left alone, to discuss the answers.

-Exam papers, with the answers left in.

-Readings lists, where none of the books are in the library.

-Hikikomori is all you study in final year, so I hope you enjoy it. For me this was marvellous but not everybody felt the same way!

-Stuff appearing on tests that we were told wouldn't be on there.

-You may watch topgear. In English.

-If no one brings the sheet, you can all go home.

-You may watch pointless fanta adverts in grammar class, and then the teacher will tell you 'its not related to the class.'

-You may be asked to contribute money to a party fund, which the teachers will then spend on themselves and tell you 'we've been robbed.'

-You may be lucky enough to be in the select few that are favourites. If you are, welldone, because your grades will be great, you can do whatever you want and write a crap essay and get an 80. However, if you complain about the tiniest thing, question a grade or don't kiss enough bottom, you will be treated badly for the whole time.

-The administration of the course is also interesting. You will receive 10 million emails a day regarding Uganda Studies, Arabic, Chinese, Russian. But if you email about something relevant, you will not get a reply. Furthermore, you will get essays back that you aren't supposed to, essays will be lost, dissertation instructions will be wrong.

-You may spend a class discussing English accents.

-Some courses aren't even taught. Putting a video on and sitting there doodling is apparently worth £25,000 a year.

-Wikileaks is classed as a valid source.

-You may be asked "would you rather eat curry that tastes like ****, or **** that tastes like curry?"

-You may sometimes be asked to vote on who you want to be student rep. Other times you may just be stuck with some useless person who is on the side of the lecturers and doesn't speak to anyone else on the course anyway.

-Once they've decided you should get a 2:2, you're getting a 2:2, and there's nothing you can do about it. Sorry.

Thank you for reading.
I know this sounds rather nasty and you are all probably going to jump on me and tell me how dare I insult such wonderful lecturers.
However, as none of you are yet in the position I am in, I don't think you should be singing the praises of Manchester quite so much.
This course has ruined my life.
I am trying to help you by telling you to GET OUT NOW. Go to Sheffield, go to Leeds, go to SOAS, go to Edinburgh. Just don't go to Manchester.