Just where would I fit if I majored (or minored) in Japanese

[MeStinkBAD]

I took Japanese in High School. It was only three years, from 1993-1997. After that I was told I would be continuing it in college from the third year (201, possibly 202). I was told that Japanese at a University was much more harsh than that in High School. Yet I seem to be reading posts indicating that that may not be true.

By the end of the third year, I knew 500 kanji, 1000 nouns, 1000 adjectives. How to negate them (じゃに、じゃあセン、くない、くありませン). Past and present tense (やさしかった、やししくなかった). Formal and informal ways of saying things. All that jazz. I don't have my books with me so I can't recall what else I learned, but I'm sure there were a few other things.

It's been ten years since then (almost). I still know the kana alphabets, a few kanji, how to construct basic sentences, etc. I'm now beginning to seriously consider going back to take these things over, since I'm much more envolved in Japanese happenings (or whatever you'd like to call it). I just need to know how hard it is or isn't. (My Sensei told me she had to learn the two kana alphabets in a week or two.) I just would like to know where I stand.

[KuroiKenshi]

you sound like you would be about where i was after the end of two years of college study. of course, it depends on which college you are attending, as some schools dont teach nearly that much in two years.

[GokuMew2]

Don't they have placement tests to tell you what level you're at?

[Z-Gundam]

Don't they have placement tests to tell you what level you're at?
Yes, they do.

[Chousho]

you sound like you would be about where i was after the end of two years of college study. of course, it depends on which college you are attending, as some schools dont teach nearly that much in two years.
Yeah, I would look around at what colleges/uni offer the program. Try for one that offers more than just a year or two in courses, but an actual degree. From my experience, classes seem to move quickly through material, but somehow you actuall learn the material rather than just remember them for a week or two. We had to learn kana in about 2 weeks worth of class (a class week was from mon - thur), and there didn't seem to be any problem with it. Also, our teacher was very knowledgeable, and would tell us all about different things (this word usually has this conontation, this is how we used to remember things in school, etc etc). I would try to also find a teacher who is an actual native Japanese. Not to sound racist, but when you have a natural speaker you learn first hand. When you learn from someone who has lived there for years you learn more second-hand stuff.

I guess that was more of a general post than specifically to you, but hopefully someone can find something interesting in that.

[BLACKANGEL32076]

If you are going for a Liberal Arts degree,

YOU

WILL

BE

USELESS

unless you are going for a Ph.D.

If you are going for a business degree with a doulbe major in Japanese, then you good to go. Even a minor would be a plus.

NO LIBERAL ARTS DEGREES UNLESS YOU ARE GOING FOR A PH.D!!! I wish my family had told me that.

[Richi]

i am majoring in Art (computer graphics) and minoring in japanese language. From what a lot of people tell me, and the teachers, that's a good combu. But yeah, having another major instead of japanese is a lot better. At fist I was gonna major in japanese, that is until I found out that you have to write a paper in full japanese, 20 page too.

anywho, later

[saikos]

Maybe you should try taking the JLPT. As my little thingy says, I was able to pass 3kyuu, and with 3 years of middle/high school Japanese classes, plus a little outside study.
I'm going into my senior year of high school this September, so college is looming large on the horizon. Japanese is my main academic interest, so I've been saying that I'm thinking of majoring in Japanese, and people have told me exactly what Blackangel was saying. It's pretty much useless as a major, much better as a minor or double major, unless you plan on going academic all the way, shooting for the doctoral level.
Basically, that's what I've decided I'm going to do. It isn't really related, and it makes me sound kind of neurotic (maybe I am) but ever since I was maybe seven years old, I've wanted to have a Ph.D. something, and, well, there you have it.
[edit]: Also, if you're interested, see my rant on the UW in the 'help choosing a college' thread also in the Japanese Culture forum

[Richi]

good

sure wouldn't hurt to have a minor in there too.

[babyk123abc]

Well I am a first year/semester learning Japanese and we learned about the first 30 hiragana letters in the first week (10 a day) and greetings. I guess each week we learn the next 30-40 letters from each "letter system i guess" Hira, Kana, and kanji. But then again my sensee gave us these little flash cards of pictures that look like the letter so we could easily remember them. . . I am majoring in nursing and minoring in Japanese Language . . So yes it is good to have another discipline under your belt!! Good Luck :naughty:

[boojitsu-.-]

If you are going for a Liberal Arts degree,

YOU

WILL

BE

USELESS

unless you are going for a Ph.D.

If you are going for a business degree with a doulbe major in Japanese, then you good to go. Even a minor would be a plus.

NO LIBERAL ARTS DEGREES UNLESS YOU ARE GOING FOR A PH.D!!! I wish my family had told me that.

that's my plan !!

international business + minor in japanese

VICTORY :D

-Boojitsu21

[cris]

if you just want to live in Japan with a Japanese community, you can live everyday with a 中３level (which is about a Freshman of highschool, 8th grade) since that's what medias base there grammar levels at. It's like America where they base their media level around 6th grade.

[Zash]

Who knows...maybe a teacher?? Since you know the language, become an english teacher in Japan?

What i'm doing is Going into International Business and while im studying business, I study Japanese at the same time. That way, I'm not left hanging lol.

[cris]

Learning the business language is something you usually don't learn at school's and probably would need to pick it up for yourself.

Schools teach you more of the basic every day speaking most of the times (although like Japanese learning English, sometimes it doens't sound right because it's too polite for general talk...but not a problem communication/understanding).

[regus 5000]

but if your learning japanese for business wouldnt you be fine with english since it is the language of business. not to say its the only one but a good number of international companies use english

[Yoshio]

but if your learning japanese for business wouldnt you be fine with english since it is the language of business. not to say its the only one but a good number of international companies use english
yes, that may be true in a general scale, but they probably have employees in other countries that dont use english all that often in regular speech

[boojitsu-.-]

you can do international work for the government w/ a language major or you can do travel agency / tour guiding.... dunno if that interests you at all.

-Boojitsu21