Ph. Ds in Japan - Printable Version

Ph. Ds in Japan - Printable Version

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Ph. Ds in Japan - Zgarbas - 2013-05-15

[boring background] Right, so I finally decided on an MA and am currently at a loss about some future choices.
I'm now graduating Japanese&English philology and am going to pursue Literary Studies in English, slightly against my better judgement (my only other choices would be East-Asian studies, which I'm not that interested in, or abandoning Japanese in favor of cramming Spanish/German for EU translations MAs... but I've worked too hard on Japanese to abandon it now). I really want to pursue literary translations, even though they're not that good of a career choice, especially in my country. Horrible competition and low pay aside, I want to work with literature for a living.

Problem is, I want to integrate Japanese into the plan. While I have no doubts about being able to translate from Japanese by the time I finish my MA, I want to work on my production and reach a level where I'd feel comfortable translating into Japanese... I don't think I can reach that level unless I actually live in Japan and interact with it real-time. Getting a Ph.D there sounds like a solid plan. Of course, academia in general confuses me, so I wanted to maybe take a short cut and ask for info here. Most info on the net seems to be about Ph.Ds in physics, maths and other disciplines which I think handle things quite differently...
[/boring background]

So, questions would be as following:
1. In general, how do Ph.Ds in Japan work? Do you teach on the side? Do they offer any support for international Ph.Ds or do you have to support yourself? MEXT doesn't really have any offers for Romania atm, aside from one offer for which I don't qualify.
2. I can't really seem to find too many humanities-related programmes. Is there a website where I can find them?
3. I'd love to go for Japanese classical poetry studies, but am not sure about what level I'd have to have to get in, or if there's even an programme for that. IIRC, some people on the forum were specializing in that; how do they work, exactly? Should I cram on classical grammar beforehand? What level were you at when you started? Is the focus on the language, the history, translations into contemporary language, or all of the above?
4. Would it be a problem that my MA is in English? Over here you can basically switch specializations as you wish, not sure if that goes for Japan.

General experience from people who followed Ph.Ds in Japan would also be nice ^^

Thank you!

Ph. Ds in Japan - vix86 - 2013-05-15

Zgarbas Wrote:MEXT doesn't really have any offers for Romania atm, aside from one offer for which I don't qualify.

I'll type up something more bit later, though my interest in Grad programs in Japan has been Masters only but I don't see what you mean by no offers. There are offers,

BURSE DE CERCETARE ("Research student")
This is the same MEXT scholarship available in most parts in the world. You can apply for it like a Ph.D, sort of. At first you won't be a Ph.D student, but you'll have funding and can study and apply to take the exam and enter as a Ph.D student later on. Then you can switch the scholarship over and use it while finishing your Ph.D. Ph.D and Masters though are separate.

Ph. Ds in Japan - Jarvik7 - 2013-05-15

Don't know anything about doing PhDs here, but regarding classical:

You should get a decent grasp of classical Japanese grammar, lexicon and orthography, as well as how to read old Japanese calligraphy (hentaigana, kuzushiji, etc.) before expecting to do any real study of the poetry itself. Otherwise you will spend 99% of your time just trying to figure out what the sentences mean before you can even begin to analyse the poetry itself.

You will need to know a lot of poetry to understand anything as Japanese poetry tends to be all about references to other works. Being slow at reading the text itself will make building up your knowledgebase all the more difficult. Of course, you could read stuff that has been put into modern orthography and printed with footnotes explaining references, but you won't be doing any groundbreaking research that way (plus, the calligraphy itself adds to the meaning of some poetry).

Example of what you should be able to read:
http://www.marcytilton.com/images/category92/Japanese%20Calligraphy.jpg

I was past JLPT1 level when I started classical, but I only studied it for 2 semesters and never kept it up post-grad, so I've gotten rusty. ( Not much demand for classical in the automotive marketing industry Tongue

) I studied Jpoetry before that in modern orthography, so my classical study was just in being able to read classical & calligraphy.
You can reasonably start getting into classical around JLPT2 level if you like a challenge though.

Ph. Ds in Japan - Zgarbas - 2013-05-15

Oh, I didn't realize that was MEXT =/.

I really need to go to the embassy to get more info. Basically, to get an entry for that one there is a ton of bureaucracy and for some reason they rarely mention stuff like, say, which universities you can apply to, what actual specializations you can follow, etc. (people still sign up blindly so there's no real need to). I'd also have to go through the crazy web of recommendations, and my undergrad results aren't exceptional so... I'll look it up, but I have little hope for that one Tongue

.

@Jarvik: thanks for the input ^^. I am currently going through the 百人一首 in my free time and am getting slowly accustomed to some forms and meanings, but I'm mostly dead without the handy explanations. I think they might be a bit more user-friendly than other anthologies though. I'm doing all of this on the computer though, since the calligraphy scares me silly =/.

Ph. Ds in Japan - dizmox - 2013-05-15

You can apply directly to graduate schools and have them recommend you to for MEXT scholarship funding.

There is a reasonably high likelihood you'd be expected to start out at 修士 level, after which you can continue to the doctoral program and request for your scholarship to be extended to that.

Ph. Ds in Japan - yudantaiteki - 2013-05-15

Jarvik7 Wrote:Example of what you should be able to read:
http://www.marcytilton.com/images/category92/Japanese%20Calligraphy.jpg

Do we have to read it upside down? Smile

One thing about doing classical studies in Japan is that by the graduate school level, the students will be fairly experienced in classical Japanese, having studied it for 10 years (3 middle, 3 high, 4 college). They're not experts, and you definitely don't have to study classical for 10 years to be as good as them (since they didn't really do it intensively, esp. in middle/high school), but you need a decent basis.

Kuzushiji is not as important; most people will have had some training at the college level but probably not a whole lot. It may not be very important for you to read kuzushiji depending on your topic, and it's a little easier to bring yourself up to speed on that than the classical language in general.

Ph. Ds in Japan - vix86 - 2013-05-15

dizmox Wrote:You can apply directly to graduate schools and have them recommend you to for MEXT scholarship funding.

The only problem with university based recommendations for the MEXT is that they are fairly competetive. The embassy recommendations are completely separate from the university recommendations. Usually the university reccs will be interested in your academic standing and such and you can't even apply for the chance for them until you are accepted as a student which means you need to pass the 入試 usually. (Some Unis are doing away with the entrance exam for int'l students, but most haven't)

In Zgarbas's case, I'd recommend s/he do the embassy route. I'd be willing to bet that Romania gets very few applicants for the MEXT. So a decent application thats well thought out and planned is likely to get accepted. I mean there was someone else on the forum here that said the embassy basically gave them the scholarship because no one else really applied. Embassies have a certain number of applicants they can recommend, if they have 10 spots and only 3 people apply, then those 3 area probably getting it.

Zgarbas Wrote:I really need to go to the embassy to get more info. Basically, to get an entry for that one there is a ton of bureaucracy and for some reason they rarely mention stuff like, say, which universities you can apply to, what actual specializations you can follow, etc. (people still sign up blindly so there's no real need to). I'd also have to go through the crazy web of recommendations, and my undergrad results aren't exceptional so... I'll look it up, but I have little hope for that one

Its really not a whole lot of bureaucracy. You can apply to any specialty in graduate school. Its not restricted to certain things. You can go to pretty much any university in Japan as well, so long as the school accepts you (I don't mean 入試); and the odds of that will go up if you have a professor that will take you on as a student (ie: You have emailed them and asked them after you got the "ok" from the embassy for the scholarship). The letter of recommendations are important but you only need 1 university professor and 1 from your current employer if you are currently employed. If you aren't employed then you only need 1 letter. If you aren't on good terms with at least one professor, then I'd highly suggest you work on that because that might come back and bite you in the ass later on. I can't say a whole lot on how much GPA factors into the decision but the statements on research plan are the most important part of the application process and may sway a decision more than your grades.

And again, if hardly no one applies, then the chances are good that you won't have to even compete. Honestly, I can't see why you WOULDN'T apply seeing that you live in Romania.

Ph. Ds in Japan - Zgarbas - 2013-05-15

Don't underestimate the amount of people fighting for international scholarships around here Tongue

. It's quite competitive, and the Romanian academia is hilariously intricate, especially for the Japanese section. Just take my word for it, there's a lot of competition and I haven't exactly got a head start. I guess it would come down to whether the mext guys call the preliminary shots or our head japanologist... I'll still give it a shot after the MA, maybe things might change in 2 years (and I'll have a better academic record by then). There's the 50+ people per year who are taking the East-Asian studies MA for the sole purpose of enhancing their chance of a scholarship that I have to worry about though.

Quote:One thing about doing classical studies in Japan is that by the graduate school level, the students will be fairly experienced in classical Japanese, having studied it for 10 years (3 middle, 3 high, 4 college). They're not experts, and you definitely don't have to study classical for 10 years to be as good as them (since they didn't really do it intensively, esp. in middle/high school), but you need a decent basis.

Thanks for the reply ^^ (I was hoping to hear from you). What do you think would be a good enough basis? I'm totally into 短歌 at the moment (this may of course change in time), and while 漢詩 and 漢詩-influenced poetry doesn't really get to me, I think I should peruse the 日本書記&co for the sake of general knowledge. I've only recently taken a fancy to　和歌 so I'm still pretty much a noob about it =), barely half into 百人一首 and even that's pretty superficial. I'm starting to get somewhat of a grasp of basic classical grammar (your 百人一首thread was of great help with that, by the way), but I think that if I just practice it slow and steadily next to my usual Japanese exercises I'll get the hang of it soon enough. And maybe learn to be more of a romantic about those poems, since the love themes keep slipping past me ^^'

Ph. Ds in Japan - yudantaiteki - 2013-05-15

You'll need to be able to read more than just poetry; even if you're specializing in poetry you can't avoid reading prose.

I honestly can't say how much is enough -- my experience doesn't really count because I didn't go to Waseda to get a degree, and I had already been studying classical for 6 years when I went there. Most of my interaction was with the doctoral students, but it seemed to me that the master's students had pretty good classical Japanese knowledge too. I just don't know enough of the details to say, and it probably depends on exactly what you want to do and where you go. I wasn't in the group that was doing poetry.

Ph. Ds in Japan - Zgarbas - 2013-05-15

>.< agh, but the prose doesn't bode so well with me. There's something about Sei Shonagon that I dislike (I don't like her poetry either), and the Tale of Genji is too much like a soap opera for my liking. I was hoping to minimize my interaction with it Tongue

Ph. Ds in Japan - yudantaiteki - 2013-05-15

The poetry is so connected with the prose, though, that you can't really ignore it. The hyakunin isshu is somewhat unusual in that all the prose prefaces are stripped from the poems, but that's not the norm. As I said, I'm not specializing in poetry so I can't say for sure, but I think it's unlikely you could do any serious graduate-level research on poetry without doing a fair amount of work with prose also.

Fortunately, the prose prefaces to poems and the uta-monogatari tend to be a lot easier to read than stuff like Genji or Makura no Soshi.

Ph. Ds in Japan - s0apgun - 2013-05-15

Here's a link to a nice article about the process of applying for a PHD program under MEXT.

http://unknowngenius.com/blog/archives/2013/03/18/going-to-graduate-school-in-japan-on-a-monbusho-scholarship/

You may have already seen this but hopefully it will be informative to others interested. If anyone here is honestly considering it the fastest route will be going to the Japanese embassy in your area and asking for information that applies directly to you.

Ph. Ds in Japan - Zgarbas - 2013-05-15

yudantaiteki Wrote:The poetry is so connected with the prose, though, that you can't really ignore it. The hyakunin isshu is somewhat unusual in that all the prose prefaces are stripped from the poems, but that's not the norm. As I said, I'm not specializing in poetry so I can't say for sure, but I think it's unlikely you could do any serious graduate-level research on poetry without doing a fair amount of work with prose also.

Fortunately, the prose prefaces to poems and the uta-monogatari tend to be a lot easier to read than stuff like Genji or Makura no Soshi.

Ah, I misunderstood. I don't mind that kind of a prose, I thought you meant I would have to get heavily involved with the main novels of the era as well. I don't mind uta-monogatari, I think they're quite informative Smile

Ph. Ds in Japan - Zgarbas - 2013-05-17

So, just to show how much a wreck my academic decisions are... I looked more into the research student scholarship. Getting a full research year+MA+PhD directly in Japan would be highly tempting, and I found some past Japanese exams and I think I could take them. The interview would be problematic since I can't speak, but I might find some way to work around that. I wouldn't be too bummed if I failed since I'll just try again after my MA, but I figure it might be worth a shot to sign up. Then there's my rather poor academic record to worry about (low grades+got held back a year).

And then I saw the application form, asking me for universities and supervisors and my final PhD thesis title. Wait What? I've been googling and asking around, and there seems to be surprisingly little information on whether or not universities even have a grad program for Japanese studies, not to mention information like what you actually do there. Anyone got any advice on how I can get my hands on enough information to complete the application form?

(Asked my teacher about it, she's willing to give me the signature for the recommendation, but I'm all on my own about this. Still waiting on a reply from the embassy)

Ph. Ds in Japan - yudantaiteki - 2013-05-17

Zgarbas Wrote:The interview would be problematic since I can't speak, but I might find some way to work around that.

That will be a big problem in Japan too -- you need to do a lot of speaking to do a graduate program in Japan. You'll have to talk to your advisor, give presentations in class, and present at academic conferences. In class you'll need to understand what the professor and other students are saying.

Ph. Ds in Japan - Zgarbas - 2013-05-17

I'm ok with comprehension, but production is my kryptonite. I figured a year researching japanese in japan should give me enough time to fix that, though. Now to find some way to convince them of that Tongue