Quote:
Originally Posted by RickOShay
Well, the first thing I can tell you is that probably no matter what Japanese Studies program you take you will more than likely not be fluent in Japanese when you graduate from it. I have met a lot of Japanese majors and many of them were not beyond an (old) JLPT level 3. I mean, when it comes to language your progress is mostly up to you I think, but the pressures of other studies will probably water down your language efforts during college.
As a far as what you can do with your degree, well you mentioned west coast so I assume you are from the States, so you could probably work towards being a Japanese language teacher, or possibly a translator or interpreter.
A degree in Japanese studies is one of those degrees that does not give you any specific marketable skills (other than Japanese language perhaps), like a degree in Finances, Engineering, Business Management, Computer Science etc would. But that does not mean it is worthless or that you will not be able to find a job, you just will need to hone your networking skills and learn to sell yourself in another fashion. In a way I think it gives you freedom, but it could be limiting in that many places will probably take the person with a degree in Finances, for example, over you say if you tried to get a job at a bank.
Honestly if I could go back and do things over, I would have got my degree in Business Management, or Human Resources, and then with that degree in hand, I could market my Japanese skills as a secondary bonus to give me that edge of the person with just the basic degree in those fields.
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Thanks for the tips!
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I'm trying to gather all the information and suggestions that I can, so your post definitely helps.
I'm still really ignorant when it comes to college courses and majors, so I have to research a lot more on that.
: )