Undergraduate in economics with a minor in Spanish. I maxed out the Spanish courses at my university by my junior year and wanted to continue learning a language but the Brazilian Portuguese class was full. My backup was to take the Chinese class but that was also full. There was one slot left in Japanese 101 so I jumped in on that.

Long story short - I fell in love with Japanese very quickly and found RTK when googling for Japanese learning strategies. A few months later, the Japanese consulate general came by my Japanese class and gave a presentation on the JET program. It sounded very interesting so I casually threw together an application in case I couldn't find a job in banking when I graduated. Low and behold the market went straight to hell around the time I graduated (Lehman shock) and my two job offers were taken off the table and I ended up going to Japan on the JET program.

The JET program sent me to Ehime in Shikoku where I learned Japanese up to a fairly high level. I stayed there for three years, learned a lot of Japanese, and generally had lots of fun. JET is a good experience and I highly recommend it.

Now I'm at an MBA program studying international business with a focus on Japan. I'm trying to not go insane from my crazy workload of 12 credits a semester of business and 9 credits a semester of intensive business Japanese.

I started studing Japanese when I was 16, did linguistics (major) and East Asian studies (minor) in college. I had some vague ambitions of being a translator but I didn't know how to get my foot in the door without actually living in Japan, and one year there was enough to show me that I was perhaps not best suited to that life (not least because I'm very tall for a woman; when my shoes wore out I had no options but imported men's sneakers.)

So I did grad school for library science, and now I'm a librarian and a published author. I don't do a lot with Japanese, but I'm fine with that, except that I wish I had more time to read Japanese.

Studied Languages in College, then BA Hons in Linguistics in University. Some Masters courses in Linguistics as well.

Taught French and English as second languages for a while.

Translator for over 10 years. Still tutoring for fun.

Been gaining experience in simultaneous conference interpretation for a few months now.

Started studying Japanese 3 years ago (12th language).

I'm currently studying physics and nanotechnology on my first semester, and since Japan is pretty far in the particular fields I plan to specialize in, it doesn't seem like a bad thing to know Japanese by the time I graduate. Other than that there doesn't seem to be any immediate correlation between my area of study and my passion for Japanese.

Undergrad computing & networking. Not sure how exactly I'm going to make this send me to Japan yet, possibly JET program. Planning a 2-4 week trip to Japan this summer regardless, have a friend over there that may be moving to England for a while soon so hopefully then I can boost my Japanese skills

I am mechanical engineer. I worked 2years abroad in Hong Kong after my graduation and I will head to Tokyo in coming January

[Zgarbas]

AlexandreC Wrote:Started studying Japanese 3 years ago (12th language).

Out of curiosity, what are the first 11?

Tourism major, national economy minor.

Japanese and English studies are just a hobby but nonetheless, I am determined to get far.

Zgarbas Wrote:

AlexandreC Wrote:Started studying Japanese 3 years ago (12th language).

Out of curiosity, what are the first 11?

French, English, Norwegian, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Yiddish, ASL and Mandarin.

Initially medical, but that then changed to chemistry and then specifically environmental chemistry in my masters course.

That was then followed by the JET programme for a few years, where my main focus has been learning Japanese and travelling.

Next step I guess is finding a job where I can combine my two areas of study (scientific and Japanese).

mutley Wrote:Initially medical, but that then changed to chemistry and then specifically environmental chemistry in my masters course.

That was then followed by the JET programme for a few years, where my main focus has been learning Japanese and travelling.

Next step I guess is finding a job where I can combine my two areas of study (scientific and Japanese).

Science translation with a knowledge of chemistry. You could get into science translation if your Japanese reading/translating skills are good.

Yeah, I think that'd be my goal eventually. Whether I can/want to go straight into it though is still undecided. I like the idea of being a freelancer once I'm a bit older (late 30s- 40s) so that I have a bit of freedom to move between Japan and the U.K..
I've passed N1 and can read through science magazines without too much difficulty so even if I haven't got the Japanese level required now I will eventually. It's the other skills required which are as a much of an issue now.

IceCream Wrote:^^how about Linguistics Tykkylumi? It fits together quite well with the more analytic aspects of philosophy, and is pretty interesting too...

I did think about this, but I'm not sure! I did ask some students who are taking Linguistics with Philosophy at my university if it would be a good subject to switch to, but they said that it's rubbish :/
Though everyone who I speak to seems to love Communication and Society if they take it, so I guess other people's opinions don't really count for that much...

Edit: I did sort of think about taking History, but I haven't studied it since before GCSEs so I would probably be jumping far too into the deep end. Oh well. I will carry on with what I'm doing for now I guess.

well, yeah, i don't think taking other people's opinions is necesarily a good idea... it really depends on what you're interested in.

If you enjoy the more analytic side of philosophy, and things like philosophy of language, you'll probably enjoy linguistics too.

Or, if you're interested in using knowledge more practically, depending on what modules your university offers, linguistics can give you a route into speech therapy.

I guess the best thing to do would be to think about which area of philosophy you enjoy most, and then think about what subjects fit with that. For example, if you like philosophy of psychology, psychology is a good fit. If you like ethics & politics, politics, public policy, or economics would work well (or law, but that comes afterwards usually as a conversion). If you're really into ancient greek philosophy, studying ancient greek will help a lot. It'll also depend on your plans for afterwards though, i suppose...

I'm Spanish, and I've studied Industrial Engineer with a minor in Electronics and Automation (plus some programming). Probably the most important decision for me was to learn English , it has enriched my life a lot since I can look for almost anything in the internet, or technical books , etcetera, plus communicate with lots of people thanks to both Spanish and English.

English obviously helps me tremendously for my career, Japanese I would not think so (unless I'm terribly lucky and I'm recruited at some Japanese multinational company). But I love Japanese culture, and I think it will be at least as useful as English in my personal life. Plus, it's a lot of fun learning another language! I'm sick of learning technical things that I won't use ever.

Mechatronics Engineering, self specializing in Robotics, which is somewhat related to Japan, but my specific interest in Robotics (underactuated robotics) doesn't seem to be considered enough in Japan, I'm planing to apply for MEXT scholarship. Currently working as an Industrial Control Engineer and I'm loathing it LOL.

Though I'm now focusing on Robotics, I still have a great passion for mastering he Japanese language. What sparked my interest in the language is my interest in languages in general (I think that languages are the most elegant thing one to know).
I came to know Japanese from Anime, though it's been a long time since I watched Anime I still like Japanese.

Edit: After loving the language I learned more about the country and the culture, which I found to be VERY interesting, and so I regularly watch Japan culture related videos on Youtube. I wish to work there for at least 10 years.

Studying Information Systems. I always loved technology and realized I wasn't that good at programming, so IS kind of fit into that weirdly... I'm going the information technology management route in my major. The major didn't really translate into any interest for Japanese but I've always been interested in Japanese culture so I started learning for my own goals.

International relations (undergrad) and business (master). Wished I knew Japanese better then, since my undergrad thesis was business between Japan and Australia. Now Japanese is only a hobby and personal goal.

I have a BFA in Acting. Japanese for me started out as a hobby (getting into anime and what-not), but now I'm starting to fancy the idea of comparing American and Japanese approaches to performing theatre or methods of Acting.

Wow. Noticing all these other majors, I think I'm the odd man out...:p

Majored in Mathematics, Statistics, and economics, but learned relatively nothing in spite of almost a 4.0. got half way through the actuarial track but truth seeking took focus over working an office job. Learned more in economics after graduating from youtube videos from the mises institute, and more statistics in practice from blogs like http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/ http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/ and http://anthonycolpo.com/

japanese interest started with anime and i like the way it sounds when talking (dislike the singing) the kids are cute and i'd love to be farming in the countryside or teaching physed, maybe.

Biology, specializing in Medical Biology. I really have no direct professional interest in Japanese, other than that I will most likely take the JLPT test when I feel I am ready for it. It will make for an interesting footnote on my resume atleast.