Japanese Studies at University

Hi Fin I was thinking to take Japanese at uni too so have done loads of research, in your case you might want to choose universities that offer courses for students with a certain level of Japanese, these include Newcastle (they have a really good reputation of their language centre), Durham, Manchester and Oxbridge if I remember correctly. They usually offer courses for beginners or those who have done Japanese at A-levels (approximately JLPT N3 level) My teacher was graduated from Oxford and she told me that they focus more on literature instead of practical language skills, but since she studied French and Spanish I cannot tell if this is the same case for Japanese. I think you could try to look at the modules that the courses of different universities offer and that might give you a hint of where you want to go. Hope this helps x

Hi,
I'm a year 13 student as of today and am planning on applying to study Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Uni (specifically Japanese Studies). I take Theology and Ethics, English Literature and Early Modern History and my predicted grades are A*, A*, A. I've been told that some Unis would prefer a Modern foreign language A levels, but of the open days I've been to, it looks like a few students didn't do this and still managed okay. I've done a lot of reading and am taking Higher Japanese GCSE now to try and compensate, but my main question is, how did people decide what Uni's they wanted to apply to? I've visited Oxford and almost all the colleges that offer it there as well as a few tutors, so if anybody has read Japanese Studies at Oxford, that would be super helpful. Aside from that though, any other help is welcome, as I'm struggling finding out the pros and cons of the other uni courses that are out there.
Thanks,
Fin

Hii- I was just wondering whether you got into Oxford since I am also thinking of studying Japanese studies (in AMES) at Cambridge, and also haven't done a foreign language. Furthermore, I'm doing mostly STEM a-levels (maths, chemistry, psychology, and classics) - do you think this would put me at a disadvantage?
Good luck in your A levels

Hii- I was just wondering whether you got into Oxford since I am also thinking of studying Japanese studies (in AMES) at Cambridge, and also haven't done a foreign language. Furthermore, I'm doing mostly STEM a-levels (maths, chemistry, psychology, and classics) - do you think this would put me at a disadvantage?
Good luck in your A levels

Hi,
Fortunately, I did get an Offer from Oxford and so am studying for my A levels coming up very very soon. Your situation does sound quite similar to mine, with the only difference being that I didn't do STEM subjects - but rather all Humanities. However, I do not think A levels matter terribly much, as long as you reach the passing grade. I've met either in person or class taster day or the interview itself all the professors, and the main thing is you are taught Japanese as if from scratch. However, showing some sort of proof that you have actually tried learning definitely does not go amiss as it shows you're interested. I was fortunate enough to be able to weave some of the things I do in my A levels, but apply them to Japanese Studies. For example, I study Buddhism, and that has had quite a profound impact on Japan, so it went hand in hand. Truth be told however, I don't imagine they look at your A levels that deeply. Maybe it is different if you are doing another foreign language. For example, if you might study French, that could come into the interview - but as you are in the same boat as me, where you don't do a Language A level, you don't need to worry about it. I know on the website it says something like "preferably a foreign language A level", but I suppose it is just something they consider during the whole process, rather than a mandatory requirement.
So instead of worrying over A levels, I would say your best bet is to work especially hard on a personal statement, that shows your reason to wanting to study Japanese, beyond just wanting to learn the language. Things to do with the Culture, or History or Art or whatever it might be, it needs to be something you are really able to pick up on the fly talking about for a reasonable length. I think it'd be hard to sustain an interview, with your only desire to study the course being to learn Japanese, which seems a bit backwards. But, its for that kind of reason that they don't accept people who are already fluent in Japanese, and its also why having an A level in the language already doesn't make you massively advantaged. The most important thing I would say by far is the Interview. They will pick up random things you can't prepare for, and as expected will probably talk some things on your personal statement that you wrote down - but not necessarily what you would expect them to ask. I spent months beforehand getting comfortable to have questions asked about anything I wrote about on my personal statement. Also, there are quite a lot of interview questions you can find relevant to both Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, but also Languages as a whole which you can be tested on. Its quite hard to practice by yourself, I had my parents just ask me for a while every night which was lucky, however, I don't think its too bad of a thing to do, as you really have to be able to deliver on showing how passionate you are to learn that subject. As I've heard a lot before, these are people who are going to be teaching you for 3/4 years - they almost need to be able to enjoy talking to you for the 20 minutes or something that they interview takes place.

Sorry that was quite long, but I hope it answered your question, and if you have anymore feel free to ask.
Fin

Classics and psychology are both essay based subjects, and analytical subjects can be useful background in terms of transferable skills for language based courses in terms of recognizing abstract patterns and so on (e.g. syntactic structures, morphemes, phonological changes etc).

You might also find the following posts illuminating when deciding on courses to apply to for Japanese:

Different Japanese courses in the UK and notes on selecting between them:

Year abroad destinations in a Japanese degree:

Oh wow this looks so useful!! Thank you so much

Yes, they were put together by a previous user on TSR who did Japanese at Edinburgh, they're very informative

Also interesting to know that it seems not all year abroad destinations are equal!

Hii- I was just wondering whether you got into Oxford since I am also thinking of studying Japanese studies (in AMES) at Cambridge, and also haven't done a foreign language. Furthermore, I'm doing mostly STEM a-levels (maths, chemistry, psychology, and classics) - do you think this would put me at a disadvantage?
Good luck in your A levels

Hi,
Fortunately, I did get an Offer from Oxford and so am studying for my A levels coming up very very soon. Your situation does sound quite similar to mine, with the only difference being that I didn't do STEM subjects - but rather all Humanities. However, I do not think A levels matter terribly much, as long as you reach the passing grade. I've met either in person or class taster day or the interview itself all the professors, and the main thing is you are taught Japanese as if from scratch. However, showing some sort of proof that you have actually tried learning definitely does not go amiss as it shows you're interested. I was fortunate enough to be able to weave some of the things I do in my A levels, but apply them to Japanese Studies. For example, I study Buddhism, and that has had quite a profound impact on Japan, so it went hand in hand. Truth be told however, I don't imagine they look at your A levels that deeply. Maybe it is different if you are doing another foreign language. For example, if you might study French, that could come into the interview - but as you are in the same boat as me, where you don't do a Language A level, you don't need to worry about it. I know on the website it says something like "preferably a foreign language A level", but I suppose it is just something they consider during the whole process, rather than a mandatory requirement.
So instead of worrying over A levels, I would say your best bet is to work especially hard on a personal statement, that shows your reason to wanting to study Japanese, beyond just wanting to learn the language. Things to do with the Culture, or History or Art or whatever it might be, it needs to be something you are really able to pick up on the fly talking about for a reasonable length. I think it'd be hard to sustain an interview, with your only desire to study the course being to learn Japanese, which seems a bit backwards. But, its for that kind of reason that they don't accept people who are already fluent in Japanese, and its also why having an A level in the language already doesn't make you massively advantaged. The most important thing I would say by far is the Interview. They will pick up random things you can't prepare for, and as expected will probably talk some things on your personal statement that you wrote down - but not necessarily what you would expect them to ask. I spent months beforehand getting comfortable to have questions asked about anything I wrote about on my personal statement. Also, there are quite a lot of interview questions you can find relevant to both Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, but also Languages as a whole which you can be tested on. Its quite hard to practice by yourself, I had my parents just ask me for a while every night which was lucky, however, I don't think its too bad of a thing to do, as you really have to be able to deliver on showing how passionate you are to learn that subject. As I've heard a lot before, these are people who are going to be teaching you for 3/4 years - they almost need to be able to enjoy talking to you for the 20 minutes or something that they interview takes place.

Sorry that was quite long, but I hope it answered your question, and if you have anymore feel free to ask.
Fin

Can you please elaborate on the written work you submitted and also more specifics on the type of questions asked?

I can't really say a lot about the questions they asked in my interview as I'm fairly certain that's confidential between me and the uni, but I can at least say be ready to expand on anything, and I mean anything you put on the personal statement - they may ask about something you wrote that wasnt the focus of your statement. There are books you can buy full of general oxford interview questions, and interview questions based on linguistics that you will probably need to be comfortable talking about. Finally, for my written work, it had nothing to do with Japanese especially. I submitted English Literature coursework that I had tailored to be an essay on linguistics and the philosophy around language, and then a timed essay I did on Buddhist Meditation, because those were both things I thought would translate well into the course. I'm not too sure how big an effect the written work does have though, to me it felt I received my place mostly off the interviews. I do know that somebody else applying who had studied Chinese and Japanese A levels were advised to not submit written work from either of those two subjects, so that makes me think the written work doesnt need to be anything to do with Japan, but that its something that is interesting to the tutor. I hope that helps a bit.

Thank you so much for the immediate and detailed response. Did you write the essays specially for the application or were they part of the course work at high school?

A little bit of both. The Buddhism one was done in assessed conditions, but I did well in it and it related to interests I had in Japanese buddhism. My english coursework obviously had to do well in school, but, I was conscious of the fact I needed to submit work for oxford, and given we could answer our own questions so long as they were approved, I chose a question that I believed was relevant to my personal statement.

If not too personal, would you mind sharing what you wrote about in your personal statement?

I know I wasn't the intended party but I completed an essay on cultural representation within anime, as an entrance "exam". My personal statement just pretty much detailed why I was interested in Japanese. What I was interested in culturally as well as the language. What I was hoping to get out of studying etc.

I do not study at Oxford but would say when writing a personal statement for a language there is a pretty standard ideology behind it. When applying for Japanese in particular I would look at what the course entails. Someone who graduates from Oxford is going to have a very different language level to someone who studied at SOAS.