I guess you could consider yourself lucky. Iz heading for the engineering field. For a while, at least.

I think Anki and similar programmes are pretty useful for all sorts of subjects. Even if you are studying Psychology 101, you could probably enter typical exam Q&A into the SRS to help you study !

Regarding College degrees I have to say "Bah, Humbug"! When I was young for years I listened to people say College is great, college will help you get a good job, college will make you a better person. So off to college I went, racked up some huge loans which took me ages to pay off. Unfortunately
a) College never helped me get a good job (I have a job, but I can't help thinking that I could find a job like this without a college education).
b) Even subjects I thought would be interesting were made boring by college professors. (Moral of the story: choose useful subjects because whatever you choose it is sure to be boring)
c) I took a large variety of different subjects from Computer Science / Maths to Psychology, probably anything that was useful could have been distilled to a couple of semesters. Certainly I agree that Maths is probably not the most useful subject, unless you plan to be an actuary or something. Even engineers seem to largely use books of formula, rules of thumb, and computer software to do design. They never solve some tricky different equation for example.
d) Mandatory subjects may be useful in certain courses, but I agree for liberal arts degrees they are probably a waste of time.
e) The university I went to was relatively prestigious which meant lots of coursework, tough exams and assignments. But I can't help thinking all that stress was unnecessary since the material covered was of no real value or needlessly difficult.
f) In my opinion the knowledge actually required for a lot of "professions" isn't that great, and the amount of study and exams are over the top. Obviously for something like medicine you do need to be pretty tough on making sure people's knowledge is up to scratch, but some of the requirements like 2 semesters of organic chemistry are probably not that relevant for the clinical practice of medicine. Similarly I think I could probably do a job such as lower level civil or mechanical engineering design, without too much additional training, but unfortunately the license requirements would require lots more study and exams.

So, what are my thoughts on College? It is worth going, but, choose your course of study very carefully. It is my personal belief that it is really only worthwhile spending a lot of money on a college education if the course leads to some sort of profession such as licensed engineer, accountant, architect, lawyer, pharmacist etc. I did a double major in a science and a liberal art, but it didn't really payoff. Some people who go to college might be better off pursuing a trade, or maybe going to some sort of technical college that offers vocational training.

Sorry for the long post, but I have always felt that society puts up unnecessary barriers and that the college education system and requirements for certain professions could use some reform. Thanks for reading !

I worked as an english teacher in Japan. You definitely need a college degree to get a job there as it is a visa requirement (unless you are eligible for a working holiday visa, but then it is really tough as you are competing against college graduates). But I should say that having a college degree in no way guarantees a decent job, nor does having fluent japanese. I knew a lot of people with kickass japanese who were doing the same english teaching jobs I was. I'm in no way trying to discourage people, just pointing out that if you want to get a good job in Japan it is probably useful to have skills that are in demand in addition to speaking english / japanese.

Hashiriya wrote:

i was just wondering if any of you guys have used anki with any other languages besides Japanese.

Yea, I use it to keep my Thai up when I'm not there. And although English is my first language, I also use it for more obscure English stuff like 'jumentous' and 'callipygous' to show off with down the pub LOL

Basically I just throw anything and everything I want to learn/remember in.

~Mex

Hashiriya wrote:

well, the visa problem won't be a problem for me, as i am getting married to a 日本人 in a few months.. but i still think that having a bachelors degree really helps you get a decent paying job there... my dream job would be to be hired on at a game company like Square-Enix, Capcom, or Namco or something along those lines... i was hoping to be able to become a translator of some sort if my japanese ever got to that point... if i was to get a dual major, is there any other field of study that you think i should get into? any advice would be appreciated ^_^

Yes, make us all jealous why don't you T-T /goes to cry in corner

Seriously though, congratulations!

Also, yeah, it'd be a dream to work for one of those companies.. Maybe one day!

Last edited by CaLeDee (2008 November 11, 2:56 pm)

Another warning: Translation in the game industry pays nothing.

Mcjon01 wrote:

But, on a related note, does anyone have any experience reviewing math in an SRS?  I'm having trouble deciding how to formulate my flashcards.

I seriously have no idea how or why anyone would do this.

Then again, who knows. Maybe an input-method would lead to astounding results!

I should experiment with this!

Tobberoth wrote:

CaLeDee wrote:

Yeah I don't understand the no pay for overtime. Here, you get extra money for staying overtime. Why don't people just go home when their finishing hour comes? I'd be straight out the door!

Because of the other reason why working in Japan sucks: They fire you, and they fire you bad. Sure, you COULD go home when your work day is done... but you wouldn't have any job to return to the next day.

It's really like that everywhere in Japan? That's hard to believe. I'm sure some places are fine..

Jarvik7 wrote:

It depends on the job. Regardless, most foreign employees aren't held to the same standards as Japanese employees in regards to overtime and vacations.

差別！ I thought this wasn't the case in modern countries.. Surprising really. Would never get away with that in this country. At least not in the jobs I've worked at.

Tobberoth wrote:

Jarvik7 wrote:

It depends on the job. Regardless, most foreign employees aren't held to the same standards as Japanese employees in regards to overtime and vacations.

From what I've heard, foreigners are treated even worse. (That is, if you're a foreigner who got employeed as a Japanese, not a foreign worker who was hired specifically or as some part of an exchange.) I've heard quite a lot of horror stories from foreigners working in Japan (not English teachers though, I don't really think it counts since they DEMAND people who are foreign for it).

I've heard good and bad things about teaching English in Japan. It could really be up to chance whether you find yourself in a decent position or a terrible one..

working overtime without pay does exist in america too... at my job (i'm a nurse) if we get an admission near the end of our shift, our administrator still wants us to clock out if we are full-time and are going over 40 hours that week... he would want us to stay and finish it without pay and if you didn't you would get written up the next day.. luckily i don't apply to that because i am just working part-time while i am in college but i see what a lot of the other full-time nurses are going through... i didn't realize that translation in the gaming industry pays little though... that sucks... i know i could get a decent job at an airport or something like that but i would really prefer to work somewhere that involves my passion (videogames). i have heard of english teachers making up to $50 an hour teaching business english though...

Jarvik7 wrote:

My job involved dicking around on my cellphone for 80% of the time waiting for the students to finish their questions.

now that sounds like my kinda job ^_^ *writes down back-up plan*

EDIT: by the way, if you guys ever need help with getting a fiance visa just send me a private message... i know an excellent lawyer that can help you get it done at a fair price my fiance just got her visa approved at the US Embassy in Tokyo the other day...

Last edited by Hashiriya (2008 November 11, 5:41 pm)

I'm starting up with French and absolutely cleaning out the French About.com and BBC sites.  I really never want to type up a sentence for Anki, ever.  If I can't get vocabulary out of online drama scripts and news sites, then I don't want it.

Last edited by phauna (2008 November 11, 5:47 pm)