Japanese Studies - Newcastle University

I'm wanting to apply for Japanese Studies at an undergraduate level next year, I'm well aware of SEAS and SOAS and the standard they are at, but I am keen on Newcastle as an area and university- my question is how high does it rank for the course I'm interested in.

I have done my own research but can't seem to find anything significant. If you are a student at newcastle university studying Japanese Studies could you please give me an honest review of how you find the course? :smile:

If you know of any other universities that are highly thought of for the subject I would be grateful for any advice or opinions.

Thanks very much

Reply 1

_scott_

6

Hi, I actually studied Japanese at Newcastle this past year. The teachers are wonderful and are really passionate about improving your Japanese. The course is intense but not as intense as at SOAS but they use the same series of textbooks. Also, more time is spent on cultural modules which means that there is quite a heavy workload as you spend 8 hours in Japanese language lessons a week, but this will only account for a third of the grade and you will have four cultural modules on top of that so you can expect a very full timetable.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

non-ki-san

Original post by ellthom

I'm wanting to apply for Japanese Studies at an undergraduate level next year, I'm well aware of SEAS and SOAS and the standard they are at, but I am keen on Newcastle as an area and university- my question is how high does it rank for the course I'm interested in.

I have done my own research but can't seem to find anything significant. If you are a student at newcastle university studying Japanese Studies could you please give me an honest review of how you find the course? :smile:

If you know of any other universities that are highly thought of for the subject I would be grateful for any advice or opinions.

Thanks very much

The thing here l think, is not to be so engrossed in what rank it is. you could go to the best university in the world, and have a really ****ty time. Ranking is just to initially attract funding and in a way, like you are doing, students. What, for me, l think you've got to consider here, is what will your language ability be like when you graduate. For me, Soas comes up trumps in that area. Not just the Japanese and Korean faculty, but the entire university. The acquisition of language at Soas does not have to compete or shuffle for space along with other disciplines, because that is what Soas does. Soas library is one of only 5 national research libraries in the UK, and has been lauded as the leading national library for Asian, African and Middle Eastern studies, comparable only to the British Library. It houses more than 1.5 million volumes and extensive electronic resources for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and attracts scholars from all over the world. When you have that on your doorstep, why would you want to go anywhere else?
Be a little more direct in you questioning, and l'll do my best to answer them.

Reply 3

ellthom

OP

Original post by non-ki-san

The thing here l think, is not to be so engrossed in what rank it is. you could go to the best university in the world, and have a really ****ty time. Ranking is just to initially attract funding and in a way, like you are doing, students. What, for me, l think you've got to consider here, is what will your language ability be like when you graduate. For me, Soas comes up trumps in that area. Not just the Japanese and Korean faculty, but the entire university. The acquisition of language at Soas does not have to compete or shuffle for space along with other disciplines, because that is what Soas does. Soas library is one of only 5 national research libraries in the UK, and has been lauded as the leading national library for Asian, African and Middle Eastern studies, comparable only to the British Library. It houses more than 1.5 million volumes and extensive electronic resources for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and attracts scholars from all over the world. When you have that on your doorstep, why would you want to go anywhere else?
Be a little more direct in you questioning, and l'll do my best to answer them.

I suppose by ranking I do mean the standard of teaching and how successful it is, whether it is by the standard of how they teach the language or the additional modules. I'm just interested, through experience of students, which universities they would most highly recommend for Japanese studies :smile:

and whether Newcastle is one of them!

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Reply 4

ellthom

OP

Original post by scotty_thedreamer

Hi, I actually studied Japanese at Newcastle this past year. The teachers are wonderful and are really passionate about improving your Japanese. The course is intense but not as intense as at SOAS but they use the same series of textbooks. Also, more time is spent on cultural modules which means that there is quite a heavy workload as you spend 8 hours in Japanese language lessons a week, but this will only account for a third of the grade and you will have four cultural modules on top of that so you can expect a very full timetable.

Thanks!

how did you find it? Which universities did you find yourself choosing between? I quite like the sound of more concentration on cultural modules- which modules did you study that you enjoyed the most? :smile:

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Reply 5

_scott_

6

Original post by ellthom

Thanks!

how did you find it? Which universities did you find yourself choosing between? I quite like the sound of more concentration on cultural modules- which modules did you study that you enjoyed the most? :smile:

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The course at Newcastle is great, I really enjoyed it. The teaching staff really are interested in you individually and as it is quite a small subject (about 15 students), they always have time for you if you need it. The cultural module (I only took one as I was doing Japanese and History) I took was really quite intense as there was a lot of reading expected but it was still enjoyable and again, the teachers always made time for you if you were struggling in this module as well.

My friends who took only Japanese did have some complaints about the fact they had to take some cultural modules relating to China but I suppose it will depend on your interests as to whether this is a positive or negative thing.

Japanese Studies - Newcastle University

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