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.