Not going

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Nobiyuki77
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Re: Not going

Post by Nobiyuki77 »

I appreciate what you're saying JL, but I think this was for the best. If it had been the JET program I would have gone, 'cause they take care of you and pay about as much as I make now at my current job. This was just a little too much right now.

I do have a question. I do want to go back to college at some point (my art degree isn't getting me very far), and I'd love to major in Japanese. The only PROBLEM is that I'd imagine that's just as lucrative a field to get into as art, especially since I imagine there aren't that many jobs in the field. And I wouldn't even know what those kind of jobs would pay.

Anyone here have an input on that?
-Nobi

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JediLeroy
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Re: Not going

Post by JediLeroy »

Truthfully, if your goal is to learn the language, I don't know if majoring in it is the solution. It's expensive (often more so for a second degree), and there's really no substitute for living in Japan and working with Japanese speakers. I have a friend on JET who majored in Japanese, and while he had learned a lot during his studies, he wasn't very good at speaking or reading until he came out here. From what I've heard, JLPT and kanji kentei certifications are much preferred to Japanese degrees by most companies.

If you want to do an AJATT-style Japanese immersion back home before you come out to live in Japan, cramming Heisig's Remembering the Kanji books can be helpful (though they really require a lot of time, as you learn to write 2000+ characters before they even teach you a single reading--but I swear by it), as can Skyping with random Japanese people through social sites (something a friend of mine did). One other thing that has helped me is the lang-8 website, a great place for getting correction on writing and word usage from native speakers.

I support your decision to not come through Interac. If you can get here through JET or another company that will pay your taxes, pay for your airfare to Japan, and subsidize your rent, then I definitely recommend coming. I've got a friend in a nearby town who works for another company and loves it, but his hours are pretty crazy compared to mine. Let me know what you decide. :)

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Dragonmaster Lou
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Re: Not going

Post by Dragonmaster Lou »

Nobiyuki77 wrote:I appreciate what you're saying JL, but I think this was for the best. If it had been the JET program I would have gone, 'cause they take care of you and pay about as much as I make now at my current job. This was just a little too much right now.

I do have a question. I do want to go back to college at some point (my art degree isn't getting me very far), and I'd love to major in Japanese. The only PROBLEM is that I'd imagine that's just as lucrative a field to get into as art, especially since I imagine there aren't that many jobs in the field. And I wouldn't even know what those kind of jobs would pay.

Anyone here have an input on that?
Hmm, I wouldn't major in Japanese because I'd figure the best chance you'd have for a job majoring in any foreign language is as a translator/interpreter, and I don't think those jobs are all that common. Minoring in Japanese or taking as many elective courses in it as you can though may not be a bad idea -- it'll probably give you enough of a background in the language to at least get a decent working knowledge and you can learn more in your spare time, at night classes, etc., once you're done.
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Nobiyuki77
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Re: Not going

Post by Nobiyuki77 »

Good to know. I'm just exploring my options. I'm not done trying to get to Japan, I just shouldn't have applied for this one in the 1st place, that was the mistake I made.
-Nobi

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Kizyr
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Re: Not going

Post by Kizyr »

JediLeroy wrote:Sorry, Kiz. I admit I skimmed through the first few comments. I didn't mean that as a dig at you, so sorry if it came across that way.
That's ok. But by just skimming, I believe you may have missed the entire point of many of mine and Nobi's posts. I was advocating caution, and trying to get at the reasons that he wanted to go to Japan in the first place; I didn't say anything about his desire to improve his Japanese. I also mentioned that there's a world of difference between JET and everything else.
Nobiyuki77 wrote:I do have a question. I do want to go back to college at some point (my art degree isn't getting me very far), and I'd love to major in Japanese. The only PROBLEM is that I'd imagine that's just as lucrative a field to get into as art, especially since I imagine there aren't that many jobs in the field. And I wouldn't even know what those kind of jobs would pay.
At this stage, you shouldn't be asking what you can do with the degree you want to get, but rather how want you want to do will be advanced with the degree you get. I mean, getting a degree is a big investment of time and money.

Majoring in Japanese by itself doesn't open up a ton of opportunities, as things like translation/interpretation services and the like focus more on your abilities with Japanese, not on whether or not you have a degree. (Most companies are aware that majoring in a language doesn't mean you're fluent, and vice versa. A JLPT Level 1 certification will suffice for many cases, and it's way cheaper.) It does, however, open up some doors. Also, a Japanese major is about more than just the language: you'd also be looking into culture, literature, and history as well--that can open up some venues (intercultural centers, liaison offices, art museums, etc.). KF
~Kizyr (they|them)
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