Korean and Japanese course - any uni offering a year abroad in Korea?

As in the title I am looking at studying Korean and Japanese or Japanese and Korean, as a joint degree. I have found that most universities seem to offer only one choice for the year abroad – Japan – and the main focus is also on Japanese (such as SOAS). So now I'm wondering which universities offer a more equal 50/50 study focus on both whilst offering the year abroad in Korea?

I would love to study at SOAS, but I would also like to have both options in regards to the study focus and YA.

Many thanks everyone!

Reply 1

TheTechN1304

21

Check out Sheffield. I'm pretty sure they do Korean Studies with Japanese.

Reply 2

Hanakiyo

OP

1

Original post by TheTechN1304

Check out Sheffield. I'm pretty sure they do Korean Studies with Japanese.

Thanks for replying, I checked it but I am mainly looking at doing it 50/50 if there is any uni who does it that way. Sheffield looks awesome, but they only seem to offer Korean with Japanese as the minor.

Reply 3

super_kawaii

20

AFAIK, no uni offers Korean and Japanese as a 50/50 language split with the year abroad in Korea. SOAS offers a Korean and Japanese degree but you have to do the year abroad in Japan

Original post by Hanakiyo

Thanks for replying, I checked it but I am mainly looking at doing it 50/50 if there is any uni who does it that way. Sheffield looks awesome, but they only seem to offer Korean with Japanese as the minor.

Reply 4

Hanakiyo

OP

1

Original post by super_kawaii

AFAIK, no uni offers Korean and Japanese as a 50/50 language split with the year abroad in Korea. SOAS offers a Korean and Japanese degree but you have to do the year abroad in Japan

Precisely... I have known this since a few years back as SOAS is among my top choices. I was hoping perhaps someone somewhere might have done a custom degree and found a way around it somehow! Thanks for your reply.

Reply 5

super_kawaii

20

Original post by Hanakiyo

Precisely... I have known this since a few years back as SOAS is among my top choices. I was hoping perhaps someone somewhere might have done a custom degree and found a way around it somehow! Thanks for your reply.

It's because there's a crazy misconception that East Asian languages are somehow harder than European languages. I actually find French the most difficult language out of the ones I know!

However, Sheffield's Japanese for Non Specialists course is the most intensive of its kind in the country. Taking Japanese as a minor here, you'll reach a higher level than taking it at any other uni! There's also nothing stopping you going to Japan during your holidays on your year abroad

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

el227

1

Original post by Hanakiyo

As in the title I am looking at studying Korean and Japanese or Japanese and Korean, as a joint degree. I have found that most universities seem to offer only one choice for the year abroad – Japan – and the main focus is also on Japanese (such as SOAS). So now I'm wondering which universities offer a more equal 50/50 study focus on both whilst offering the year abroad in Korea?

I would love to study at SOAS, but I would also like to have both options in regards to the study focus and YA.

Many thanks everyone!

You can do a year abroad in Korea at UCLan (that's what i'm going to do as part of the asia pacific studies course). I know you can do japanese and korean together as a course but not sure on the year abroad details

Reply 7

Hanakiyo

OP

1

Original post by super_kawaii

It's because there's a crazy misconception that East Asian languages are somehow harder than European languages. I actually find French the most difficult language out of the ones I know!

However, Sheffield's Japanese for Non Specialists course is the most intensive of its kind in the country. Taking Japanese as a minor here, you'll reach a higher level than taking it at any other uni! There's also nothing stopping you going to Japan during your holidays on your year abroad

You're right, I wonder if it's the other way around in South East Asia! I think the conception stems from the writing systems and multitude of characters, as grammar-wise Chinese for example is easier in comparison in my opinion.

I didn't know this! That's very interesting. I sometimes wonder how the differences in this regard between especially Sheffield, Newcastle and SOAS came about. You mean compared to taking it as a minor at other unis right?True that, sandwiching the other country in will be a given regardless of the route. Due to the lack of options and since it's my strongest language of the two I am geared towards a Japanese YA now, while doing the highest level of Korean possible during the degree.

Reply 8

Hanakiyo

OP

1

Original post by el227

You can do a year abroad in Korea at UCLan (that's what i'm going to do as part of the asia pacific studies course). I know you can do japanese and korean together as a course but not sure on the year abroad details

I haven't researched UCLan too thoroughly yet, I'll definitely check it out more fully now!

Reply 9

xmin02

8

I know at Sheffield they do Korean studies with Japanese and the year abroad is in korea - although I don’t know of anywhere that does Korean AND Japanese.
I’m guessing that there would be a focus on both languages but more so on Korean.

Reply 10

umbrellala

Universities Forum Helper

19

Original post by Hanakiyo

As in the title I am looking at studying Korean and Japanese or Japanese and Korean, as a joint degree. I have found that most universities seem to offer only one choice for the year abroad – Japan – and the main focus is also on Japanese (such as SOAS). So now I'm wondering which universities offer a more equal 50/50 study focus on both whilst offering the year abroad in Korea?

I would love to study at SOAS, but I would also like to have both options in regards to the study focus and YA.

Many thanks everyone!

If you do Korean with Japanese at SOAS, I believe you can choose to do the same level of language module as you would do in a BA Japanese degree, but it is not recommended by lecturers and it's not advertised that way. I'm doing BA Korean and there were people in my class who had picked the 'intensive' course (ie. the module offered to students majoring in Korean) instead of the slightly slower course that is typically offered for X with Korean students so I assume the same module choice would be available for X with Japanese students. You would still have the Korean with Japanese degree title, but it might be worth sending an email to ask about options. In fact there is someone in our class that is doing Japanese with Korean and she's coming with us to do her year abroad in Korea since she chose the more intensive module. I'm not sure what her circumstances are but it's worth asking!

Reply 11

mollyxoo

7

I might be wrong but I'm sure that when I went to the SOAS open day, they mentioned that for students doing the joint Japanese and Korean Studies degree that the year abroad is in Japan but sometimes they can send you over to study in Korea for a semester. It's not exactly what you want but it might be something worth enquiring about!

Reply 12

mediaevelle

3

SOAS does a year abroad in year 2 for Chinese and Korean, it's year 3 for Japan, so that may affect the logistics.You can definitely do a lot of high level language units - I had a friend whose major was Chinese but she took advanced Korean and Japanese units and she's now a lawyer. On the flip I had another friend who had to drop Korean completely just to meet the credits to graduate, as she found juggling the both tough. She now works in Holland and has since learned dutch fluently - so it's not a matter of skill necessarily, more a matter of individuals?If you already have a knowledge of the languages they'll give you placement tests anyway, to determine your class. As for others mentioning the relationship between the two, because of year 2 and year 3 years abroad, you're not going to find anyone doing both Japanese and Korean years abroad. But one thing I should mention at SOAS is that every summer there are many adverts for summer schools and other things (I get more notifications for Japanese as that's my department but I imagine it happens with Korea as well). One of the Japanese ones also centres around cultural practices such as Noh and it seems to happen every summer over there.The friend I mentioned above, who took the advanced level Japanese and Korean did her year abroad in year 2 in China. If you went to Korea in year 2, you wouldn't go to Japan in year 3. If you wanted to go to Japan, you wouldn't go to Korea in year 2. I can't imagine that changing at SOAS, unless you got some dispensation to do 2 years abroad, but that seems pretty unlikely to me.

Korean and Japanese course - any uni offering a year abroad in Korea?

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