Majoring in Asian Studies (Japanese) & Minor in Economics?
 

Good evening, guys! I have a question!
How well does an Asian Studies (Japanese) major with a minor in Economics do?

I've thought things over and I most definitely am going to major in Asian Studies (Japanese). I will either minor in English or Economics. I'm interested in both so either or would work. But I am curious about everyone's opinions on an Economics minor. How far could I get with this? Would I be well off? I will be staying in Japan for some years afterwards; would this get me a job in Japan? And what about coming back to America? Can I go back and forth? Thank you, everyone! Any answer I get I'll take to heart! I appreciate it very much! :ywave:

I believe MMM majored in Japanese (Language) and was able to work as a translator, so maybe thats something you can consider?

I don't know much about the business world myself, but talking to my friends, Econmoics is not something that have a lot of opportunites out there. The degree itself is great, but working in that field will be difficult. And definitely, jobs for an Econ major is not just "everywhere" that you would want to be hopping back and forth between countries.

One thing you MAY consider is taking something in engineering. One of my friend from university landed a job with Panasonic years ago, she fly between Canada and Japan all the time. I'd say 40% of her time she works in Japan, so maybe something similar will be an option???

I'm sorry that this does not pertain very much to your question, but I just wanna say something about your Japanese major. I have a Japanese major, and it definately helped my Japanese, but not in the way that I expected. As far as speaking and reading/writing goes, I did terribly. What I learned was a lot about the culture and about manners. I'm very grateful for that, but I think as far as the spoken language goes, the classroom is not the best place to become 'fluent'. Be sure to find some Japanese international students to talk to (but most of all, to listen to). Try to immerse yourself as much as you can if you want to learn the spoken part of the language. Listening is the most important.

I think this goes for most people. It was definately the case with me. I understand that there are different types of learners and that some people can naturally easily learn a (second, third, etc) language, but for most people it doesn't happen so easily in the classroom. That's not to say you should ignore class-- get as much as you can out of it, but don't get so burned out that you can't take the time to listen to real and actual everyday conversational Japanese.

Sorry that I couldn't answer your question.