View Full Version : [OT] Nobby and University...
Hello there, I'm currently on a Wonderful Btec ND I.T course since I messed up my AS levels last year, leaving me with only a C in English.
I want to go onto University to Study BOTH Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, However I do not give a shit where the university is, or the whole "Go to a blah blah city, great for drinking, blah blah night clubs" as I hear Everywhere I go.
Like I said, I don't give a shit about Social or Night life, I want to go to University for the Education, nothing more !
Looking at league tables, I'm very worried that I could select a poor university in teaching methods etc.
I'm predicted to get ALL 20 units on this Course at Distinction, even though I'm only required to get 12 at Distinction to receive the full AAA alevel equivilant.
Plus I'm planning to make a PSP game as my project next year also, which I have HIGH asperations for.
I'm trying my best to make up for my laziness and fuckups in my GCSEs and A level attempts and I'm hoping to get into a good University accordingly.
Like I said, Quality of teaching in my course is key.
Looking at Cambridge University's Japanese course info, they say students will have achieved near Fluency/Native level by Year 2.
Nowhere else have I seen such a statement and here you can understand why I am concerned.
I know I messed up a lot of my chances probably, however I believe my Life experience and love and Need for such attending of course is enough to show at the interview how much I've dedicated my life towards studying this.
I need to know what University Under Oxford/Cambridge in Rank, that would give me key level of quality of learning environment.
My lecturers here don't have a clue, so maybe someone here will.
Thankyou :)
Nobby <3
have you thought what you want to do with education? i mean, just cuz ur a japanophile doesn't mean u'll get a job or anything
I'm not a "Japanophile" like those American geeks wearing Naruto headbands, singing Evangelion and other Anime Theme songs at Karaoke bars which I saw everywhere in Akihabara. I'd rather you didn't use such slander against me as I'm looking at having a Great Professional Career ahead of me.
I Wish to take the degree in Both languages and then proceed to do a Master's Degree in Translation at Cambridge University. This will then give me a period of time in which I get work experience as this is the situation in which most students face "No experience? no then."
I would work freelance doing small translation projects, building my portfolio, then once the Master's is Complete, apply for such a job therein.
Maybe go for a P.HD, who knows.
I'm sorry that you took that post to be slanderous, suppose I could have phrased it a bit more carefully, but it was just a question since I've known quite a few people who took languages who ended up being stuck doing menial translation tasks like translating manuals, and hated every minute of it, they loved the culture and language, but studying a language is something entirely different from loving it.
it's the same as all those people that are now doing a "game development" course/education, which will probably never find a job because game developers don't want game enthusiasts (or only 2 or 3).
So my advice mostly is, find something you really enjoy doing (unless it's translating ofc), and go to japan to some international school, learn japanese there, and study the profession you love. For example I do industrial design, but there's a calling for a lot of industrial designers to also study chinese, so they can work in international teams with production in china.
Sorry to say this, but language courses are a bit of a waste of time in uni if you just want to learn the language. If you're aspiring for Oxbridge you can easily teach yourself a language in a month or two. The courses at university are about the history, politics, philosophy and culture of said country, not so much about the linguistics.
As you said though, there are masters degrees in translation... but that's just a year of work, and narrows your job opportunities quite significantly.
If I were looking to employ someone in IT, I would choose someone with a computer science/maths/physics degree way before I chose anyone with a language degree, even if they did claim experience in the relavent field.
As surprising as it seemed to me when I was young, I thought that learning a new language was only for people who studied it in uni for years. Once you've got the grasp of one, the others follow very easily. E.g. most who have an understanding of an indo-european language can learn a new language from the same group in a week.
EDIT:\ and I'm not sure if this is the case anymore, but Oxbridge used to be very critical of past results. You have to state your GCSE and AS level qualifications even if you failed or did really badly in them. It'll be hard work convincing them that you're not going to do that again.
Excuse me for being critical, for one, I'm not looking at ANY form of career in I.T.
Two, the Requirements at Cambridge for a Master's course are Completely Different in comparison to a BsC/A.
Three, Wouldn't an employer look at acedemic status especially when in a specific field- Language degree, Translation Masters- Translation/ Interpretation Job.
They're hardly going to take a Year's "Hobby Learning" into any consideration.
Edit/ Even if I had been a "Japanophile" - so fucking what?
Making a career out of a passion is probably one of the best things you can ever, ever do.
like i said I am studying industrial design, but before this my previous education was a bilingual education (dutch and english), because I loved the brittish language, mostly from series like red dwarf, monty python etc.
I could have gone for studying english, but ended up in industrial design, which i study at a dutch university, but which is given almost entirely in english, because the field is mostly international.
(just as another example)
if you're really passionate about becoming a translator with no other qualifications or teacher/PHD in the japanese/chinese language, ok go for it. But if you want to do something more (even for translating technical manuals for example, an engineer degree with a language course is more useful than someone with a PHD in japanese translation), search a job/education that you love doing, then do it with the japanese/chinese.
They're hardly going to take a Year's "Hobby Learning" into any consideration.
no, but a year working in a chosen profession in china/japan will probably win out over the japan/china degrees (if the job has anything other than linguistics in mind)
i know for a fact that chinese companies are looking for engineers with chinese courses, instead of simply translators that have no idea what most engineering terms or processes mean
maybe something like a political/social course combined with a degree in the languages might be an idea?
I agree with Big here, why study in the UK to learn Japanese? Head out to Japan and study there instead, you'll pick up the language in a couple of months and if your expected results are good enough, you'll have no problems getting into a Japanese school.
You'll also pick up on aspects of the language you won't be able to pick up just by study, but don't get your heart set on learning to read and write Japanese, most Japanese people themselves forget how to read squiggle properly (or at least the hard bits).
You can easily gain a qualification in Japan, you may need to check which would be equivilant to the qualification you could get over here (as well as its international status) and of course you get to watch the best Anime ever created in Japanese!
http://perso.wanadoo.es/imperio3/multimedia/wall/sailor_moon03_1024.jpg
Doc Holliday
18-05-09, 17:57
Excuse me for being critical, for one, I'm not looking at ANY form of career in I.T.
Two, the Requirements at Cambridge for a Master's course are Completely Different in comparison to a BsC/A.
Three, Wouldn't an employer look at acedemic status especially when in a specific field- Language degree, Translation Masters- Translation/ Interpretation Job.
They're hardly going to take a Year's "Hobby Learning" into any consideration.
Edit/ Even if I had been a "Japanophile" - so fucking what?
Making a career out of a passion is probably one of the best things you can ever, ever do.
get some proper advice. dont come here looking for it if you dont like what people write nobby. you should have sussed that by now.
Edit/ Even if I had been a "Japanophile" - so fucking what?
Making a career out of a passion is probably one of the best things you can ever, ever do.
if your passion is translation work, yes ;) but the average japanophile can't make a career out of his passion.
we're not making fun of you, or even saying your making a bad choice, at least the only thing I'm saying is that you have to think through whether you like the Japanese and Chinese culture and language, or you like translating things from and into those languages, which are two separate things as far as I can see it.
and agreeing with doc, if you don't want people to give their opinion, why post on a forum, and why even this forum (which is not generally known for it's insightful career advice)
Ya know the best thing about this forum? It's full of really nice people, probably because you end up killing each other in game all the time.
I played FFXI and used another forum for that:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10
Go read the posts on that forum and you'll find a bunch of +1 tossers who will flame you to high heaven and back again if you mis-spell something due to dyslexia, if your opinion differs in any way from the sheep mentality, you'll also get "rated down" and flamed, they really need to hire Niddy for a month.
So yeah, whilst I wouldn't come to you lot for advice, I'd come here a long time before I went to a more "friendly" forum like alla.
Is Cambridge actually particuarly good for Languages (note - not imply it isn't, just not my area of expertise)? There are a lot of things that the OxBridge universities actually aren't the best for, although relativley few things they are poor for.
Also, be very, very cautious with leauge tables. For example, teaching scores are based on internally set targets. A university/department wants to raise it's teaching score, they just have to set lower targets. They want to raise the proportion of 2:1s/1sts, they have to mark a bit more favourably, or just be more forgiving in the exam boards that year. Your best bet for selecting is to prepare a shortlist of universities based on talking to people in the field, leauge tables and others. Visit them on their open days, see how much you like the place and what is going on there (this does matter. You probably don't need a massive party town. You do need somewhere you will be happy, or your studies will suffer). Speak to the staff and if you can current students. Apply to the 6/5 that you can through UCAS. Go up to them when you are invited, get a more complete overview of the course. Be very suspicous of language courses that don't send you abroad for a year.
Ignore the people saying you can learn the language in a couple of months somewhere. Sure. you can learn functional, getting by stuff. If you make friends among natives, you can even get decent colloquial language in a year or so. However it will be a long, long while, with plenty of study probably at a local university or school to understand the writing, grammar and rules etc enough to do anything professional, especially in writing and to translate, you need to be able to get all the subtlties of a piece too.
As am aside. I'm at the University of Leeds, postgraduate study now. I am however a sciences student. They do an excellent range of joint honours degrees (beyond what most places manage) and the language school is massive, with additional support from the less academic language centre. Also, I've been told from many different sources that the Leeds MA Interpreting is the best in the country by far, with the European Commission making it their primary recruiting point. I'm unsure of whether their translation masters is as well thought of. Of course, you needn't do a post-graduate course at the same place as your undergraduate. Also, most people I know have been doing european languages, although I do know a few chinese students.
(Oh and nitpick - it's BSc or BA in the UK).
hmm yeah, suppose chinese and japanese is totally different from learning a germanic language. But still, unless you want to focus entirely on literary or spoken translation, you will probably need another degree or some other education that makes you valuable to some people.
Japanese is one of those weird languages which actually has no links to other languages. Most of us Euroblokes trace back to Indo-European, with mine eventually getting on to be British, before the bloody English took over (yep, interesting fact, the British language is actually Welsh, mwahaha!!!).
And there are cute things, like the Japanese for cat (猫) is the same for cats, they don't have plurals or something, they have modifiers, we might say "10 cats" but they will say "cat" with a modifier on the end that'll tell you "its 10 cats".
They also enjoy skipping lots of words, like we do. We do it with "I gave a vase to Nobby and Niddy" instead of "I gave a vase to Nobby and a vase to Niddy" the 2nd vase is implied, Japanese do this all the time with everything and you got to guess what they are talking about.
It's also one of the languages that write back to front! "The amazed he ran down the street" is English, and incorrect, but Japanese is "Odoroita kare-wa michi-o hashitte itta" which says exactly the same thing and is correct.
I think you also need to be really good at your own language before you can learn Japanese, not in speech, but in every aspect of speech, nouns, pronouns, verbs, auxillary verbs etc. Japanese pronouns are not pronouns, they are referential nouns, and I have trouble remembering what the hell a frikken verb does :(
Anyhow, if you own a DS (which everyone should) you can use it to learn Japanese, though I'm trying to forget Shii and replace it with Yon, even though Shii and Yon are the same thing.
Interestingly if you mix up Japanese numbers, you make words, but I can't remember off the top of my head which words because I'm old and forgetful and can't even remember what year it is :(
if your passion is translation work, yes ;) but the average japanophile can't make a career out of his passion.
we're not making fun of you, or even saying your making a bad choice, at least the only thing I'm saying is that you have to think through whether you like the Japanese and Chinese culture and language, or you like translating things from and into those languages, which are two separate things as far as I can see it.
and agreeing with doc, if you don't want people to give their opinion, why post on a forum, and why even this forum (which is not generally known for it's insightful career advice)
My Friend's friend, too had the same idea as me.
She did a single Major in Japanese and nothing else.
Her First job... guess what?
She now works for Pokemon !
Not that I'm saying I will end up in the same boat, but still, First job-> Pokemon.
Achieved a BsA at 2.2.
This cannot be ignored.
I have to admit, i'm not happy with all the "arseholey" comments putting everything down like they know everything.
It's easy to say "Go to the country, you'll learn in lingo in a month."
Utter Shite !
I've spent two months in Japan, I learned NOTHING new.
You can't learn from Natives who cannot speak your own language to tell you the difference. However one thing I did notice, my reading speed increased heavily. However other than that nothing.
It's also easy to say, don't go to a UK university to study, study in Tokyo...
Yeah... ok, VERY REALISTIC!
The amount of money I'd require is simply impossible for me to achieve.
I have a friend who didn't go to University to study Japanese, He's in Tokyo on an intensive course.
He's a selfish cunt however, made his dad get him a Loan of 20K.
I'm not like that nor will I even expect anyone to provide for me.
I've been looking at League tables for SPECIFIC Departments, both Guardian, Times and student review league tables etc...
Cambridge/Oxford came out at 100%.
fine, what exactly did you want from the people here?
I genuinely wanted to help u and warn u for some of the dangers of doing only a language study, but screw that
just a quick question about uk school system, isn't it hard to get into Cambridge and Oxford? (i dunno, here every1 can join every school, and tuition is the same for all uni's)
edit: still didn't read my post properly? I was asking mostly what your passion was, translating or the culture as an experience?
Nobby, going to Japan for 2 months on a holiday is a lot different from going there for 2 months with the express intention of learning the language. No one ever said you would get fluent in 2 months, you won't get fluent in 2 years, it takes 10 years of practice to become fluent in *any* subject, be that learning a language or learning to play the piano.
Go there on holiday, and you're a tourist doing touristy things, go there to learn the language and really immerse yourself in the entire experience and you'll pick up a lot more of the language than you would spending a year in some class over here.
Ok, it costs 20k, that isn't a real problem if you know where and what to ask. Have you bothered to check if there is a graduate programme from a business with interests in Japan/China who will not only pay for you to go to Japan/China, but will also pay for your education, and once your education is over, will give you a job because you have trained for them?
Japan is one of the most important technological countries in the world (although the UK is still the country that put forward over 50% of the worlds technology over 100 years that was picked up on a world wide basis). China is one of the growing world economies so companies know that if they was to be able to survive in 15-20 years, they have to have people over there *now* getting in on the bottom floor and working up.
Coming to a forum though and asking for advice, then telling everyone who gives you advice to basically fuck off, isn't very endearing, try the Sun, maybe Dear Derdrie will be able to offer you advice that you want to hear.
You don't seem to remember my ORIGINAL question.
I merely asked which university is Under cambridge/oxford in rank which could possibly offer the same level, or efficiency of teaching.
And yes, I've already looked for graduate programmes from businesses... for years now :(
I looked at student loans, career development loans... Anything which could have funded me to have learned there, since two years ago, I was 100% AGAINST going to sixth form. There was NOTHING to support me, nor did I want to work full time for a whole year. 3 days a week at 16+ hour shifts is enough to make me ill as it is.
so could we go back to my original question rather than putting down the degree as a whole.
http://www.monbusho.org/
Thing with languages, I'm Welsh, and I moved from Wales to England when I was 12. I asked my teachers "yo, can I learn Welsh?" and they said "nope, its illegal for us to teach you Welsh in England".
Anyhow, as you are wanting to study Japanese in a UK uni, you should be elligible for a scholarship under Monbusho which is funded by the Japanese government.
Japanese studies students: Applicants must be from 18 to 30 years old. Applicants must be enrolled as undergraduate students in faculties or schools which major in Japanese language or Japanese culture in a university outside Japan at the time when they come to Japan and must be enrolled in the home institution at the time when they return to their home countries. Students majoring in the fields other than Japanese language or Japanese culture who wish to study various aspects of Japan ( engineering, economy, agriculture, architecture, art, etc.) as part of their major studies should apply to the JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization) for admission to the Short-term Student Exchange Promotion Program.
Coming to a forum though and asking for advice, then telling everyone who gives you advice to basically fuck off, isn't very endearing, try the Sun, maybe Dear Derdrie will be able to offer you advice that you want to hear.
Plus I never told anyone like that.
I merely ask a SIMPLE question, as said above, and I get Put down by someone Refering to Engineering Degrees...
Someone who obviously has done NO form of research
For years, I've planned out this career, researched it, studied for it for years as hobby to truly know I want to study it fully.
And I get a load of unrelated nonsense.
So Understand from MY damn point of view of the crap I have to read of non researched stuckup Arses.
Could we answer what I asked previously first.
Biglines - Language graduates are actually very employable. Not necessarily with a language role, but they are well thought of by generic graduate employers in the UK.
Nobby - you seem to have ignored what I said to rant back at others. Also, as I have already said it is a BA (Bachelor of Arts) degree, and a BSC (Bachelor of Science) (as well as a couple of others like BEng and so on). Not BsA - that's sounds closest to a common chemical used in Bioech experiments, or perhaps the British Swimming Association.
One of the best things you could do is contact people you might like to work for (translation companies etc - look into those who do the english translation of Japanese games or manga/animé maybe? or instruction manuals?) and ask them what qualifications they would like to see, and where they would recommend. But seriously, open days, prospectuses. Read course details, talk to staff, form an impression of how competent they are and how much the course overlaps your interests.
Doc Holliday
19-05-09, 14:47
rant thread. still failing to see why hes ranting too.
never let your fears get in the way of your dreams nobby.
Thread needs to be closed :)
D
Typical nobby thread, he comes here begging advice and then gets completely uppity with the people that try to help him. Listen kid, change your attitude, suck it up, and do whatever you need to do to go where you want with your life. Success isn't for the weak and it isn't for pussies, you'll go through hard times and you'll have to make hard decisions. I guarantee you that, but from what I've heard you don't sound like you even half way understand the way the world works. Oh well, you'll learn one way or another.
P.S. Stop pissing off the people that are trying to help you.
Doc Holliday
19-05-09, 19:34
Plus I never told anyone like that.
I merely ask a SIMPLE question, as said above, and I get Put down by someone Refering to Engineering Degrees...
Someone who obviously has done NO form of research
For years, I've planned out this career, researched it, studied for it for years as hobby to truly know I want to study it fully.
And I get a load of unrelated nonsense.
So Understand from MY damn point of view of the crap I have to read of non researched stuckup Arses.
Could we answer what I asked previously first.
just one more thing and not intentionally trolling so please dont see it that way but nobby if you researched it so long and hard why the fuck are you coming to this forum of all places to ask for help and advice?
your stringing yourself up with your own rope here dude. take a piece of kanadax's advice as its some fucking good advice.
You don't seem to remember my ORIGINAL question.
since I'm dutch I have no idea about the schools in the uk, so I wasn't able to answer that question. Instead I tried to give some other related advice, since it seemed you were willing to listen to some people. I think the other posts make the point more linguistically.
you react about the same way the Chinese exchange students in my university react when they are given constructive feedback from fellow students. they get all worked up because they think just because those people are fellow students, they in no way are able to offer a valuable opinion, so only see it as if it's an insult or criticism.
Apparently it's a cultural thing, dunno the English term for it, but a mate of mine who studied in Singapore saw the same thing. We here are used to commenting in class on work of other students, when he did that in Singapore all the student got mad at him because they thought he meant to down talk or insult the work, apparently in China only teachers give feedback, while he was just used to giving feedback to fellow students.
With a language degree u need alot of Fantasy, Practicly every job that has something todo with English and japanese will be good for you. The first one i would like to mention is Language teachers. With a Bachelor in language u got a SAFE position as a teacher in japan. (for english)
Other things u could do would be trading or callcenter or something where Jap skills are usefull.
But its mainly usefull if u wanna go for good to japan.
Its just how u can sell yourself, if u give the employer the feeling u are "totally Superior", (appereance charisma and so on) then he will not even check ur paperwork.....also they mostly do anyway so its better to have something official with a nice sounding name
But think about Japan, they are crazy, Expensive and really really strange.
I need to know what University Under Oxford/Cambridge in Rank, that would give me key level of quality of learning environment.
My lecturers here don't have a clue, so maybe someone here will.I’ve had a quick look (anything to distract me from work just now ;)) and I can’t really find a whole lot of info which may be useful. What I’d do if I were you is make a list of all those that you think may be suitable, and simply give them a call. Don’t bother emailing, as you’ll just get a prospectus sent to you, and you appear to have some very specific questions. If you get on the phone to one of them, you’ll strike up a rapport and they’ll be more comfortable talking off the record. Ask to talk to their admissions officer. If they're not available, don't talk to others, ask when you'd be able to get in touch with them (or else you'll just get a prospectus... :p) You’re a travelling Nobby, so perhaps do a tour of the country visiting them on open days.
One thing I will say; go for it. Whilst you’ll hopefully come out the other side with a skill that can earn you money, a lot of places just want people who are of the mindset “I want a degree”. You’ll learn far more than Japanese at university, and develop a confidence in your own abilities, telling you that whatever problem you’re up against you will soon understand it, and hence won’t give up easily or become discouraged. I think this is one of the key traits a lot of corporations look for when they advertise for a graduate. If you can combine this with something you love doing, then all the better. I wish I had had such a clear idea of what I wanted to do when I was choosing a university. Don’t compromise :)
Typical nobby thread, he comes here begging advice and then gets completely uppity with the people that try to help him.
To be fair I see where he's coming from: he asked a very specific question that somebody here (a very diverse, very intelligent bunch on the whole) may be able to offer help in and generally received (what seems to me unbidden) instruction on exactly where his life plan is wrong and been told that he's naive. Perhaps we should have tried to address his question more, rather than attack his premise for asking it :angel: However well meaning, I guess that’d raise most people's heckles :P
(Uhoh, I just broke my "never post a contrary opinion on the Internet" rule <3)
Though I would just go and kick a turtle or pick on a dog or something in response...
Typical nobby thread, he comes here begging advice and then gets completely uppity with the people that try to help him. Listen kid, change your attitude, suck it up, and do whatever you need to do to go where you want with your life.
P.S. Stop pissing off the people that are trying to help you.
Yeah thanks for that Kanedax, funny how my last thread was merely some help with C++ code which I was IMMENSELY Grateful for. So Kanedax, uncalled for, and unneeded attacking/Bullying. Which I'll ignore for now...
why the fuck are you coming to this forum of all places to ask for help and advice?
your stringing yourself up with your own rope here dude. take a piece of kanadax's advice as its some fucking good advice.
Oh and Doc, lovely piece of advice I shall take into account- Look at Kanedax for wisdom. o_O
Steven seems to understand my frustration in which I thank for such a response, and Cmaster too. Thankyou for giving me the responses I needed, two pages later :rolleyes: I shall continue looking at the league tables for top 10-30 universities based in the modern language department and compare their course info therein. Call them and ask specific questions to my need and even find out their open days. :) Cheers
james_finn
20-05-09, 15:40
Nobby from my own experience at two different universities (and also having collaberated with a few other *good* universities in London) I have come to the conclusion that you shouldn't put too much faith into the league tables. I'm at King's College London in the Physics Department - the university as a whole is a supposed top 20 in the world university, but there are areas here which are lacking for such a top university.
Spend the time to go and look around the university - get in email contact with some of the lecturers at the universities you want to go too and ask (very nicely) if they wouldn't mind showing you around. Generally lecturers have more time over the summer months when there are no undergraduates around. This was how I got to see my first university (Salford University) guided by someone who works there and could have been one of my lecturers - obviously he had a lot more to say about the place than any undergraduate paid to take you round.
Above all no matter how good the university - look at the town, and decide whether you could live there for the next 3-4 years.
Delphi
P.S. I think you might have trouble getting into Cambridge, from what I have been hearing recently you need 4 A's at A-level to even get an interview.
P.P.S Spend a lot of time on your application letter, and UCAS personal statement - really polish them and you should be able to get to a good university - some uni's look more at these than the grades your expected to get!
P.P.P.S good luck!
Wouldn't he have missed the UCAS deadline? Mine for University was in January I think, naturally I got a bit too casual with the deadline and missed it (was going to go for my Doctorate - Dr Lexxuk!!).
james_finn
20-05-09, 16:34
Do you not still need to do a UCAS form even if your applying later? Also don't think you need a UCAS form to do a PhD.
Oh and Lexxuk I am working towards my PhD.... 1.25 years to go to being Dr. Delphi :P
/Delphi
From memory (this was a few months ago) you have to apply on the UCAS website before the deadline to guarantee an interview. if you are going to the same uni as your current college the UCAS form isn't as important, but if you haven't filled it out, you won't be able to get an interview.
You need the UCAS to start Uni, and by Nobbys post he's looking to go to Uni, so is starting out, so he really should have filled out his UCAS forms and sent it off for the courses at the Uni he's interested in.
I'm pretty sure the deadline for an interview for the next term has passed though, a few months back?
Nah, because I fuxxed up my A levels, I've still got another year to go.
judging by your only A-level being a C and your fucked up gcses, who didnt lol i would sa cambridge is a far shout with just btec to be honest with you mate
did you guys even read my reference about Cambridge even properly?
*tut tut* :p
The University at the top of my list currently is Edinburgh.
Was ranked in the top 5 universities for their Asian and Far East Language department.
I can do a 4 year Master's in Japanese from absolute scratch there.
So Hmmm :p
Then maybe I'll go on to Cambridge after to do my PhD and finish my education by the time i'm 30 :D
Nobby, this may be unrelated to your first post but I read your comment that you spent 2 months in Japan and didnt feel you had any progression in speaking Japanese. That's utterly frightening. Did you spend time with Japanese people always trying to speak Japanese or did you just go on Holiday speaking English to everyone?
2 months should be plenty of time to adjust and at least learn semi-fluency. When I was 17 I travelled to Finland for 3 months and had no trouble after 3 weeks expressing what it was I needed/opinions, and by the end was able to contribute to conversations with the family I was staying with pretty much fluency. I've had many trips like this, but I thought I'd highlight this one since I had not studied Finnish before and also the language is an isolate like Japanese.
Also if you've done lots of research, you do know that Cambridge/Oxford dont really regard BTechs as entrance qualifications? They just want the tastey A-Levels. But of course you should already know that :rolleyes:.
I love the Finnish language! And the accent is sexy!
Nobby, try http://www.nihongoresources.com/ and look at the lessons, if you can't get past the first lesson (lesson 0) without any hassle, you'll probably have no joy at doing a course. Lesson 0 will introduce you to the hiragana/katakana, and every lesson after that is only in Japanese (no Romaji).
You could also find a book on the Heisig Method of learning Katakana, books on basic Japanese grammar (remember, they don't think like Western languages think) and to gain a basic level of Japanese you will need to remember over 2,000 Japanese squiggles.
The important thing though, is that you can sit down and look at squiggle and say "that symbol is pronounced.....". That website I pointed you at is a fantastic resource wrote by a guy from his notes doing University level Japanese, so its the sort of thing you would be learning if you should do a Japanese language course.
Have you also thought what other qualifications you will do other than Japanese? Just having a language isn't going to be a "lets hire him!" kind of thing, are you going to take English at the same time? Math? IT? Some other high level qualification which would augment the Japanese side of things? If you are looking at *only* learning Japanese with a view to living in Japan to work later on, you'll be in a country where 120 million people speak Japanese, you may get work as a translator, but only if you can show you are qualified to translate it into the target language (English in this case) so could you show you are fluent in English grammar?
デビッド =^.^=
If I could with my Master's, I'd study Chinese too...
I can already get a Job in Japan being an English teacher to kids or what have you, without degree it seems. Looking on Craigs list, I can get jobs playing around 28 quid an hour.
So I'm sure I'd be able to live comfortably with a Master's :p
Remember what I said about a friend of a friend who studied ONLY Japanese and got a 2.2 BA, now works for Pokemon :p
Why doesn't Nobby aim for the same !
edit: And those who don't listen the thrice time round about bloody Cambridge and Btecs...
Look at my First Post !
I can get into cambridge to do a Master's/ Phd with only a 2.i degree from ANY UK institution. As quoted on Their Uni's site.
Nope, you need a degree to join the JET course to teach English in Japan, and the competition is fierce.
I can get into cambridge to do a Master's/ Phd with only a 2.i degree from ANY UK institution. As quoted on Their Uni's site.
HAH...
Nobby, seriously, you cant get into oxbridge with "only a 2:1" from "ANY UK institution" even if it does say so on their website.
I applied along with friends for a Physics PhD, and those with very high 1st class degrees were shortlisted. The rest werent even considered.
It may say 2:1, but this is entirely unrealistic. Especially for the popular courses such as law, language and social sciences.
You have to prove you are truly exceptional to be able to get in on simply a 2:1, usually because you're taking 2 degrees at one time, or you're an international student studying in the UK.
If you want to go to Oxbridge, unless you're a genius, and to be honest given your A-Level grades there's not much evidence to prove that this is the case for you, you have to work your ass off.
And as I said earlier, Oxbridge consider *all* of your academic grades. I've had friends who were rejected for reasons they could only consider were due to poor GCSE results when they received 4 grade As at A-level.
And your attitude in assuming that people on this board "think they know it all" is pathetic. Most of us do know it all because we've been through it and seen the system in action. We're trying to give you advise so you can set realistic goals. If you let your confidence be shattered so quickly then surely you have doubts of your competency when heading into an academic environment and should ask yourself whether perhaps you're best suited to a vocational course in language.
Also I'm still utterly confused as to why you feel you learned "NOTHING" from being in Japan speaking with natives. Are you sure you were in the right country?
fuzzy, your post is good, but you really think it will have any effect?
to be honest Nobby, from what i've read of you, watch and listen hard to this video
http://www.friendsoffoamy.com/videos/forum-bore-em-episode-164
If I could with my Master's, I'd study Chinese too...
I can already get a Job in Japan being an English teacher to kids or what have you, without degree it seems. Looking on Craigs list, I can get jobs playing around 28 quid an hour.
.......
that job is illegal
to get a visa as a teacher in Japan u NEED at least a bachelor, if u dont have this u cannot get a working visa.
to be honest Nobby, from what i've read of you, watch and listen hard to this video
http://www.friendsoffoamy.com/videos/forum-bore-em-episode-164
Indeed, seems to apply to everyone else but me in this forum thread :p
Going to Fuzzy Quack Quack's post, You talk about friends turned away because of GCSE results. Again, this was UNDERGRADUATE position.
Plus the Physics PhD, that was a Science. Not Humanities, enough said :p
Come five years from now, when I've got my First in Master's of Japanese and I get accepted into Cambridge, or get a job at Pokemon, Nintendo or what have you, I'm going to Revive this thread with a...
I TOLD YOU SO !!!
Bwahahhaha !
We'll see in five years time.
I was just having a look at Cambridge, and it appears that generally they expect you to have 4 A grades at AS level, and for the Chinese/Japanese, proof that you are able to learn another language (i.e. a qualification in another language, say French or German, or Spanish).
Nobby, Cambridge is *the best*, its one of the best colleges in the world which means they won't pick up candidates who are likely to get B's because it drops their average down. They have limited places, every Uni does, so will fill those places with people who they are pretty sure will get top grades.
If all you want is to learn Japanese, you can do that on a 25 week course at your local college, for 2 hours a week, costs around £140. Setting your sights at one of the worlds top college with poor GCSE/A-Level's, is setting yourself up for a fall.
I mean, look at me. When I was 7/8 years old, I was reading Issac Asimov and understood what electromagnetic interference was, I even understood about Ion engines and faster than light travel, my reading age was off the chart. I couldn't get into Cambridge because I didn't bother trying in school (the work was too easy so I lost interest in school and went to the beach instead - I blame Plymouth, I came top of the year in my Science exam in my Plymouth school, moved to Penzance and they dropped me to the bottom set for science which means I was in B set for *every* subject).
Sure, if I had applied myself I could have gone Cambridge, or Oxford, or even Harvard, but without the firm standing in GCSE's and A-Levels, Cambridge won't touch you, they won't take the risk that you will bring down their overall rating which in turn would reduce *their* rating on the global chart of "best skoolz".
What has been said about A-Levels and GCSEs is still valid for post-grad application.
As I said before, Oxbridge consider *all* academic records.
Again...
It appears you are referring to the Undergraduate side of Cambridge...
I can't just "Pop" down to my local college and Learn Japanese which is the shit that FORCED me to do the fucking A levels in the first place which I hated.
NOWHERE does Japanese here.
NOWHERE does Chinese here.
I found I would have to pay 3K a term to attend PRIVATE colleges in the Cambridge area, or travel down to London every day, paying 150 quid + per week for train which I Simply CANNOT DO !
I'm going to do my Master's at Edinburgh university and get a 1.1 ;)
Get into Cambridge and be Doctor Nobby.
Enough - This thread will be revived 5 years from now ;)
I've had enough.
Lots of colleges offer courses in Japanese, my local college is actually a University and *doesnt* teach Japanese, but go a little bit further to Truro college and you can learn Japanese. If they teach Japanese in Cornwall, which lets face it, has 3 sheep and 2 cows and thats the tourist attraction, they are bound to teach it in colleges in more metropolitan areas.
We are trying to be helpful in trying to show you the realistic side of things Nobby, nothing more. Realisticly, Cambridge/Oxford want *the best of the best*, students who have straight A's in GCSE's/A-Levels, and *you* will have competition from people who have 11 A*'s, 150 A*'s, 983645 AAAAA*****'s, can you honestly look at your past school performance and say "sure, its as good as someone who got A*'s in all their subjects, they will easily choose me over them, even though they also got the same mark's in their degrees as I did".
Doc Holliday
29-05-09, 18:45
its gonna be 5 weeks not 5 years before you post some other wierd and wonderful thread seeking advice from your peers nobby. thats a fact.
the only way you could get past that wall of stubbornness is if you find the logical evidence that phd's need to be somewhat better than average for cambridge...
I dunno, but even in the netherlands where almost every bachelor and master in university is free for anyone to attend (only medical has some sort of random selection), the phd's are generally only for those they think are at the top of the field, for a world famous prestigious university like cambridge, phd's will be far more selective than uni's here. And the fact that they don't say what sort of qualifications you need for a phd is that it differs from person to person. Some foreigners with years of experience in the field might get to do a phd, but as far as I know, PHD is a job at a top research institution, you can't just start there
One tip I got from Uni which is not really well known.... Don't go to a "main" University, go to one of their satellite branches. Like my local is Camborne, but thats part of Plymouth University, but the local college *has* to stay better then Plymouth University. Also with the smaller ones you may find you get a better level of tuition, rather than having 500 people in a class, you may find you have..... 10. For Math's we had umm, 11 peopleish.
Oh, and when you go to eat lunch, always sit near the chocolate vending machine, you'll be amazed how many hot chicks bend over to pick up their chocolate :lol: :lol: :lol: :angel: :lol:
One tip I got from Uni which is not really well known.... Don't go to a "main" University, go to one of their satellite branches. Like my local is Camborne, but thats part of Plymouth University, but the local college *has* to stay better then Plymouth University. Also with the smaller ones you may find you get a better level of tuition, rather than having 500 people in a class, you may find you have..... 10. For Math's we had umm, 11 peopleish.
I dont really agree with this at all.
The non 'main' universities cannot come close to offering the same level expertise from modern research due to the lack in budget.
Anyone can learn an undergrad course from textbooks, but when you come to do a research degree or a masters programme, it's pretty essential that the university you attend is at the forefront of modern research.
Also when learning the more advanced modules for which the text books have not even been written yet. To have teaching from the people who have actually conducted the research in invaluable.
The thing with the little Uni's that are still part of the main Uni but seperate is that the little Uni's have to ensure that they maintain a high average grade. If they are under-performing they may lose their link with the University they are linked with.
Sure, for some subjects you need to go to the big Uni, but then for those subjects the smaller one probably won't offer the same subjects anyhow. My Uni was Cisco/Microsoft/etc so for IT you could gain the same qualifications as you could at Plymouth University, but with a much smaller class size and more 1 on 1 time with your tutor. For something like "advanced biology of black holes in the past looking through a really old telescope with day trips on a UFO" you wont find the same resources at a smaller, but for standard subjects (languages, maths, IT) a smaller one can easily be better than a larger one.
Plus with a smaller site, you find less guys to offer competition with hawt Uni chicks :D
For years I've been meaning to ask...
Are you male or Female Lexx?
Both, but I try not to let my penis touch my vagina :angel:
lexxuk clones... disturbing thought
Lexxuk on its own... disturbing thought :D
having a disturbing thought or being a disturbing thought? :p
When it comes to me, there is usually no difference :D
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