masters degree in japan

[noodle]

This has been said a few times, but I'd like to clarify a litte. Most masters programs in Japan that are taught in english are usualy either Science (ie, math, physics etc), or International law, Business Law and/or international, and of course, the obvious, anything english (english lang, lit etc etc).
For arts, I must say, I haven't seen a lot, if any courses in english, and my japanese friends here seem to agree. The only thing I can think of, is doing an exchange whilst you are on your masters degree. This way you can get to live in Japan and if it pleases you, you can get a job straite after your Masters.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by anrakushi

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).

[noodle]

Originally Posted by MMM

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).

MMM, I think you're right for certain subjects. In fact, probably most subjects because they will contain lots of technical terms and will include lots of thinking both with the language and the actual course. But I think what anrakushi is trying to say is that even most native speakers will come accross a lot of problems with some of the language. It happens a lot. So a dictionary definition of fluency would be more than sufficiant because you can still get the gist of what you're studying, and the rest, you can research yourself (which is meant to be the main purpose of most masters anyway, to get you to a level in which you can research and formulate your work in a certain way)

[anrakushi]

i have full confidence you could do it MMM, from what i've seen with international students studying masters in english here in Australia and their level of English, as well as some Koreans and Chinese and a Thai i know studying masters in Japanese in Japan, it is definitely manageable.

i do notice that most students record the lectures to go through them more slowly at home later and they often work in groups of people to help then understand difficult concepts that they had trouble understanding. of course this also depends on what you are studying, there are obviously going to be some masters that are more difficult than others.

EDIT: one more point, from attending some science lectures in Japanese with a friend while at uni, admittedly this was bachelor level, but the lecturer simply wrote 80% of what was said on the board, to compliment the hand out sheet he gave the students. Pretty much as long as you took down all the notes that was the benefit of attending the lecture.

but yeah it will change from place to place obviously.