Welcome to Gaia! ::

So, yeah, I am a Senior in my Highschool and I am looking into colleges. And I was wandering if any of you took Japanese in college? And if so, what's it like? I took Spanish in HS and was wandering if it is like that......but in Japanese.....

And if you guys have any reccomendations for colleges, may you be so kind as to tell me. I already have Cal State Fullerton and Longbeach. (I live in California) ^^

-Saiya

I graduated with a Multi-Age Japanese Education degree (i.e. I can teach Japanese from Pre-K to Grade 12) from The University of Findlay in Ohio.

It's a very strict program in that all classes are done COMPLETELY in Japanese. First two years consist of three 1-hour classes a week using core conversations and grammar, as well as learning how to write katakana and hiragana. There is also a 1-hour "language lab" a week for more practice with speaking and stuff. Not sure if they do English in that or not, as I tested out of it. Third year consists of three 2-hours classes a week, and fourth year is almost completely independent study.

Both professors are VERY good friends with Mari Noda and Eleanor Jorden that made the Japanese: The Spoken Language (JSL) textbooks, so those are the only thing used. I find them insanely confusing, especially if you've had Japanese classes beforehand. They are set up more for linguists in my opinion, but if you start with them from the very beginning of your Japanese studies, they tend to be absolutely wonderful textbooks, and the Jorden Method used to teach them works great. The little skull and crossbones at certain cultural grammar points are great, too. And you'll get chances to mean Mari Noda. I've met her twice, maybe three times? Each time I told her I learned a lot from her textbooks, but feel she needs to update them. Most have copyright days of as early as 1988 and as late as 1996. I also signed a Christmas card my professor was sending to Eleanor Jorden and asked her to please write updated versions of the book to cover more everyday, casual Japanese.

One thing about JSL books is that they are VERY business-orientated. There is not a lot of daily vocabulary in there, but they'll teach you how to rent an apartment, how to convince your boss to let you pick up the tab at lunch, how to say the girl in the omiai picture isn't pretty, etc.

As much as I complained about the textbooks at Findlay, I will forever love Dr. Harada for beating grammar points into my head whenever I made a common mistake too much. She was "dragon lady" behind her back in class, but "Japanese Program Obaasan" outside of class. She turns into a grandmother for everyone in the program.

Findlay's exchange programs are also expanding, and they also offer several internships. There are currently two 1-year exchanges to Daito Bunka University in Tokyo, and Fukui University in Fukui City. There's also a 1-month summer group exchange to the KAKE University group (a group of 7 universities in places like Fukuoka, Kyoto, Okayama and Osaka) that sends 10 people (usually 7-8 students and 2-3 professors) to Japan for a month in June/July. You go all over the southern half of Japan on that trip.
There are currently two internships teaching English in Japan as well: one at a private English conversation school in Kumamoto Prefecture on Kyushu, and one at a company called Sanoh in Ibaraki prefecture. I did the Kumamoto one and LOVED it. I'm going back to visit at Christmas! biggrin

Findlay also has GREAT job opportunities. There are several Japan-based companies that have their American/International headquarters in Findlay City (Honda has a factory, there's a factory that makes brakes for Japanese car companies, Sanoh makes engine tubes for Japanese car companies, and a few others) that the university had connections with. I taught English at Sanoh's headquarters in Findlay for 9 months and LOVED it. One of the guys I taught there just moved back to Japan and e-mailed me to tell me to come to Ibaraki and visit his family.
There's also an after-school program at the local elementary schools where we teach Japanese to elementary school students for an hour after school 2-3 times a week, usually with a Japanese exchange student and a local Japanese volunteer. It's a fun experience! I loved it!

I had a really awesome time at Findlay, and totally recommend it, despite the stuck-up equestrian students who walk around in cowboy boots and spurs.

Another school in the Mid-West that I'd suggest is Ball State University in Indiana. That was actually my first choice before I found Findlay. Findlay is much smaller and gets more personal with students, but Ball State has more exchange opportunities and I think offers a Masters in Japanese. The campus is gorgeous as well.

I had no idea the University of Findlay had such a great Japanese program. Too bad it's in Findlay biggrin (Being from Toledo, I felt the need to go to school in another state, so I wouldn't even have considered Findlay)

I think JSL is so fabulously structured. I can see that if you tested out of the first class, it might be a bit confusing, but like you said, if you come in from the beginning, the way the books are organized and presented is just wonderfully efficient and thorough. I had studied Japanese grammar a lot before I went to Pitt, but I started in first year anyway, and even though I had already learned most of what we learned that year, I'm very glad I didn't move ahead. Those books and their method definitely took what had simply been something that I had merely been familiar with and basically knew and changed it to something that I truly understood and could use.

As for how confusing they are, yeah, I guess I can see that. Her English takes a bit of getting used to, and isn't exactly light reading. But for me, I appreciate teachers who go into random, and some would say unnecessary, details far more than ones that just give me the simple, basic explanations. I think it really reinforces the material and gives your mind something to grasp to besides just rote memorization. Also, yeah, that's too bad for that Korean student; they really are intended for English speakers. We need a lot more help when it comes to Japanese grammar than Koreans in particular do, though, so it probably would have been better for him to have done another program.

Hm, I dunno, I guess i don't get that feeling at all. And looking at a lot of other textbooks, I think the explanations are a bit more direct in a way. For example, I remember my friend's textbook not explaining the difference between らしい and よう/みたい very well, but then I showed her the JSL explanation, and she just fully understood it right away. Other books have simpler explanations, but I think in this case simple is not the way to go. As for the practicality, I think the conversations are actually quite practical, they just don't cover every potential situation. At the same time though, the place where it's probably more important that you know how to communicate is in the workplace, so I think JSL is probably more practical (people aren't going to be college students forever). The way it handles keigo in particular is vastly superior to pretty much any other book I've seen.

Anyway, I really hope I don't sound argumentative, lol. Definitely not my intention and I'm certainly not offended you didn't love JSL, but being a bit of Jordenite I'm always ready to say good things about it to encourage other people to use it (cause it does get pretty underrated by a lot of people) biggrin

I hated Spanish class.
I live in Cal, too, but am just going to take Japanese in a CC at Orange Coast College starting Spring Semester. ^^

well I have taken three jp classes in college now based off the nakama book series and I have to say that the classes are worth taking if you want to learn japanese but if you want to become fluent, you'll need to do outside study...

i think we should have Japanese in high school, i really want to learn Japanese and all i get is spanish or french. give me a 3 choice!

Yay, another iKnow user. I enjoy using that site.

Anyway, I took Japanese at the college level and I enjoyed it. At the time it was in the beginning stages so there wasn't that much available. I do have to say though that BY ALL MEANS please take Japanese in college. Also, get involved with International Student Groups on campus. I find that college that have those groups will also have Japanese students coming in to Learn English. SEEK THEM OUT. It is an excellent and fun way for language exchange.

Also, if your college has a pretty decent Japanese department do talk to your professors. They can guide you to community groups and even ask you to help with projects and events. I got to know my Japanese professor and ended up getting an excellent letter of recommendation for The JET Program in Japan and scored points at the Miami Consulate.

The sky is the limit--just go for it and enjoy yourself.