Japanese or Japanese and Linguistics at SOAS?

Basically, I'm interested in studying Japanese with more of a focus on translation and linguistics than culture and history, and ideally with the option to also learn Chinese to the highest level possible.
At first I prioritised having the option to study as many Chinese language modules as possible over having a course with a focus on translation and linguistics so I applied for the 'Japanese' course (which focuses on culture and history but has optional Chinese modules in both years 2 and 4), but now I'm not sure if I should have gone for 'Japanese and Linguistics' (which is obviously more focused on linguistics and translation but only has one optional Chinese module in year 4) and just aim to join a Chinese club at the university instead, because the modules in the translation pathway sound considerably more interesting to me. (There's still time to change my application for SOAS, but I'm cutting it a bit close)

What are some general pros/cons between the two courses, and if I did change my application to 'Japanese and linguistics', would it be easy for me to join extra Chinese lessons at the language centre and/or clubs in the student union?

Reply 1

GoldfishJess

When I attended a SOAS open day in October they said it is completely ok to change the course you'd like to do after starting so you'll probably be able to start, see how it goes then change to Chinese instead of Japanese if you feel that is right for you :smile:

School of Oriental and African Studies

London

Reply 2

Namae7

Original post by GoldfishJess

Thank you! I haven't managed to get to an open day yet so I missed out on that. I ended up changing to Japanese and Linguistics in the end but that's really reassuring to hear :h: