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Join Date: Jun 2007
04-09-2008, 08:22 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by anrakushi View Post
unless Japanese universities in masters degrees are severely harder than Australian ones, i think in 3 years you'll easily be able to cope with a Masters degree. I, as a volunteer, do conversation groups for students learning english to go into university. these students can't understand a lot of terms i use when talking but they can pass the international standardised testing required to enter university.

from my own experience studying with Japanese, their classes are hardly the type of classes where students participate highly. having talked to professors at that Japanese university they also said just as much. in fact i would say student participation is generally as low as it can get. Like the international students i know doing a master here they aren't finding it easy but they are capable and i never did say it would be a walk in the park, studying a master in your native tongue shouldn't be either.

so yes, with a dictionary definition of fluency you can take part in a masters degree in english, so i can't see it being too different in Japanese.
Maybe I am mistakenly thinking Master Degree level study is actually difficult. I am a full-time translator and would consider myself fluent for the last 10+ years, but the idea of taking a Masters level class in Japanese (like you said listening to a lecture in Japanese for several hours a week) and then being tested on it sounds more than a little intimidating. I don't think I could patiently listen to several lectures a day and be expected to be responsible for all the information given to me at test time (several weeks or months later).
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