Should I drop out of uni?

Hii,
I've just started my first year studying BA Japanese at university and whilst I'm really enjoying the language and learning the course, I am really unhappy with university and where I'm staying. I've been considering dropping out and going back to work to save up some money. I think what I've realised is that whilst I do want to learn the language, I don't want a degree in it. I've been really wanting to move to Japan to study at a language school for many years now but backed out because I felt pressured into getting a degree. Do you guys think leaving university and moving to Japan to study Japanese is a good idea or should I just wait it out at uni and see if it gets better? I do want to get a degree at some point but I'm not too sure what in right now, I just want to make sure I make the right decision and don't waste my time/money.

Reply 1

stilllearning123

11

Original post by Anonymous

Hii,
I've just started my first year studying BA Japanese at university and whilst I'm really enjoying the language and learning the course, I am really unhappy with university and where I'm staying. I've been considering dropping out and going back to work to save up some money. I think what I've realised is that whilst I do want to learn the language, I don't want a degree in it. I've been really wanting to move to Japan to study at a language school for many years now but backed out because I felt pressured into getting a degree. Do you guys think leaving university and moving to Japan to study Japanese is a good idea or should I just wait it out at uni and see if it gets better? I do want to get a degree at some point but I'm not too sure what in right now, I just want to make sure I make the right decision and don't waste my time/money.

Hi, I see you are in a tough position and I wanted to let you know that there are specialised teaching courses you can do in Japan where you go there, live there and teach English to Japanese students all while learning Japanese for yourself and getting paid to do it. Maybe not what you want specifically but definitely something to check out!

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by stilllearning123

Hi, I see you are in a tough position and I wanted to let you know that there are specialised teaching courses you can do in Japan where you go there, live there and teach English to Japanese students all while learning Japanese for yourself and getting paid to do it. Maybe not what you want specifically but definitely something to check out!

Oh wow, that sounds like something I might enjoy doing in the future! What's the programme called?

Original post by Anonymous

Hii,
I've just started my first year studying BA Japanese at university and whilst I'm really enjoying the language and learning the course, I am really unhappy with university and where I'm staying. I've been considering dropping out and going back to work to save up some money. I think what I've realised is that whilst I do want to learn the language, I don't want a degree in it. I've been really wanting to move to Japan to study at a language school for many years now but backed out because I felt pressured into getting a degree. Do you guys think leaving university and moving to Japan to study Japanese is a good idea or should I just wait it out at uni and see if it gets better? I do want to get a degree at some point but I'm not too sure what in right now, I just want to make sure I make the right decision and don't waste my time/money.

Hi there,

The suggestion by @stilllearning123 to look into specialized teaching courses is a great one.

I'd also recommend that you get in contact with your personal academic tutor and the careers team at your university about this. It might be useful to get another perspective, especially from people that have experience with this. They will be able to talk through your options with you, and are very knowledgeable and willing to help!

The decision is yours to make, so keep that in mind and make sure that you feel secure and happy with whatever you choose to do.

I hope this helps and best of luck,

Isabella
Fourth-Year Geography with a Year Abroad Student

Original post by Anonymous

Oh wow, that sounds like something I might enjoy doing in the future! What's the programme called?

Hiya OP,

Thanks for reaching out and I'm sorry to hear you're going through a tough time at the moment. I think the JET Programme is the kind of thing stilllearning123 is talking about. For this, you need to have a Bachelor's degree but they do not specify a subject. So whilst I would agree totally that your first port of call should be to have a good chat with your personal tutor, and possibly look into swapping accommodation if this is a problem for you, there are other options too. For example, you could take a gap year to work and re-evalute what you want to do - whether that be carry on working for now whilst learning Japanese in your own time, reapplying for Japanese at a different uni or a different subject you enjoy altogether.

Have you also considered travelling to Japan for a holiday, or potentially seeing if there is work available at Japanese summer camps for children, or seeing if this is not possible if there are any MOOCs you could enrol onto to help with your language learning?

I hope this helps - just remember to get as much support with your decision as you can and do not rush into things 🙂

Holly
University of Bath

Original post by Anonymous

Hii,
I've just started my first year studying BA Japanese at university and whilst I'm really enjoying the language and learning the course, I am really unhappy with university and where I'm staying. I've been considering dropping out and going back to work to save up some money. I think what I've realised is that whilst I do want to learn the language, I don't want a degree in it. I've been really wanting to move to Japan to study at a language school for many years now but backed out because I felt pressured into getting a degree. Do you guys think leaving university and moving to Japan to study Japanese is a good idea or should I just wait it out at uni and see if it gets better? I do want to get a degree at some point but I'm not too sure what in right now, I just want to make sure I make the right decision and don't waste my time/money.

Hi there,

I would also recommend talking to your careers team at your uni about this as they might also have some other suggestions of things that you can do which you may not have thought of before. You can tel them your dilemma and how you are feeling and see if they have any good suggestions for you about this and if there is anything they can do to help you with this.

Your personal tutor/academic advisor is also a great person to talk to about this and they can give you some good advice about what you might want to do and what might help you in the future with what you want to do for a job. I have always found them to be good people to speak to so this might be worth a try.

The course that has been suggested above sounds like a great idea so it is worth looking into this and seeing if you want to do this! You could also look into other similar things now that you know about it and you might find other things you like the sound of.

I hope some of this helps,

Lucy -SHU student ambassador 🙂

Should I drop out of uni?

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