East Asian languages - dual language major?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I need some advice on universities and colleges, if you please.</p>

<p>I've seen so far two universities that offer a dual-language major (I'd like to take Chinese/Japanese if possible) for East Asia Cultures and Languages (University of Kansas & University of Pennsylvania. Alhough, I've only been looking for about a month or so). However, I haven't exactly seen good things about the University of Kansas, and I'm not sure I'd get into University of Pennsylvania.</p>

<p>So I'm wondering, does anybody here know of any other universities that also offer a dual-Japanese/Chinese major? You know, learning both Japanese & Chinese without having to double-major. Universities in the US, Canada, Hawaii--I don't mind where, as long as my major is there.</p>

<p>Also, would knowledge of both languages beforehand help out? I know very basic Japanese (self-taught), and almost no Mandarin (community classes in freshman year).</p>

<p>I am a junior, and currently being home schooled in the Midwest. My GPA has never dropped below 3.7-ish (lowest grade in high school was a B in English when I was in 9th grade, and that is the only B I've ever gotten so far; bet anyone can guess my ethnicity :P), but I'm unsure if any of my curriculum can be considered AP, even though my old principal is pretty sure it's advanced, if not explicitly listed as AP. </p>

<p>I got 80th percentile on the PSAT, and I have not taken the ACT/SAT yet this year (I plan to in June).</p>

<p>I'd also like to state I'm home schooled for another reason. I'm not a social person. So institutes with a low-party/Greek scene would be preferred. Or at least, ones where I can easily ignore said scenes. I don't want to be sleepy in class because somebody decided to throw a party at 1AM. I just want to learn as much as I can, go to classes, learn the languages & cultures, and I'll be perfectly fine. XD</p>

<p>I'm actually aiming to be an English teacher overseas (Japan, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, though I'm leaning towards HK), so if said institute also offers the graduate's TESOL MA degree, I'd appreciate that~ </p>

<p>Any other suggestions regarding my university/major/career choice are welcomed too! I'm just trying to get things straightened out since... my mom won't stop bugging me. And being home schooled, I have no access to a counselor. My parents weren't born/schooled here, meaning they have no idea about this stuff other than it's expensive, so therefore I'm having to rely solely on the internet. Hopefully someone here can give me some sort of help.</p>

<p>Thank you for reading, help, etc. (:</p>

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<p>University of Pittsburgh offers both languages. However, I am not sure what you mean by a dual major. At Pitt, the dual major is two majors that have very little overlap in requirements.</p>

<p>Just for reference, my daughter’s advisor suggested that she only start one new language at a time. She had wanted to take Russian and Japanese and had studied German in high school. Additionally, as you look at schools, you will want to take a look at course schedules and timing. At Pitt (the only school I really have much knowledge about the language programs), the first two years of Japanese study require seven hours of lecture and recitation time for a five-credit class.</p>

<p>As you look at language programs, check out the number of courses offered and the depth of their full-time faculty in the departments. Good luck with the search.</p>

<p>If you haven’t already done searches through College Board, it will give you some direction as well as far as what schools offer what programs.</p>

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<p>Thank you, I am browsing the University of Pittsburgh’s website right now.
And I never thought to look at course schedules, so thank you, I should probably start doing that now. That’s probably why I want to do the dual-language major, since I’m assuming if it’s offered as such, it means courses won’t overlap.</p>

<p>Dual-language major as in learning both languages within one degree? At least that’s the idea I’ve picked up from these:</p>

<p>[East</a> Asian Languages and Civilizations<a href=“scroll%20to%20the%20%22Dual%20Chinese-Japanese%22%20major”>/url</a>
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www2.ku.edu/~ealc//undergraduate/index.shtml#six]KU”&gt;http://www2.ku.edu/~ealc//undergraduate/index.shtml#six]KU</a> East Asian Languages and Cultures | Undergraduate](<a href=“Home | East Asian Languages and Civilizations”>Home | East Asian Languages and Civilizations)</p>

<p>I think I’d be learning both languages, but ultimately getting the bachelor’s degree in ‘East Asian Languages and Cultures’ instead of a single language (‘Japanese’, ‘Chinese’, ‘Korean’, etc.). Anyone feel free to correct me on this, I’ve never thought about universities ever until this year, sigh.</p>

<p>Hmm… I’m somewhat worried about them being different languages, but the fact that kanji characters in Japanese are derived from Chinese characters gave me some reassurance. Russian & Japanese are completely different in pronunciations & letters, but Mandarin & Japanese share several factors. I already know how to pronounce Japanese, & read 2 of the 3 types of alphabets. The only problem I have is reading kanji, which is the alphabet that came from Chinese characters. I’ll have to ask some of my other language-learning friends what they think of studying multiple languages at once. (I have a friend who’s taking Cantonese [I wasn’t aware that could even be learned], Japanese, and French all at the same time–I think she’s insane, but she assures me she’s fine.)</p>

<p>College Board is currently my main help right now as far as majors, but when atmosphere come into play, it’s kind of no help. </p>

<p>Thanks again for all your help!</p>

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<p>First, as someone who has minored in East Asian Studies and knew dozens of people who attempted to learn both Chinese and Japanese, it is better to get one solidly down before starting the other. </p>

<p>Trying to learn both at the same time is not only a ton of hard work, but could also add confusion to the mix as there are many traditional Chinese characters/Kanji which not only have differing pronunciations, but also different meanings. Several Chinese and Japanese grad students have recounted how this messed them up when they were studying the other language in college/grad school…and they had their respective mother tongues down. </p>

<p>Second, I’d search for universities and LACs with strong East Asian studies programs. </p>

<p>One you may want to consider is Oberlin College which has superb Chinese language instructors from my own experience and superb Japanese instructors from those of my classmates. It also does not have a big party hearty atmosphere so you’ll be fine there. However, a critical part of the college experience is learning to interact with and get along with fellow classmates so you should try to carve out some time to join clubs or get involved in a few ECs of interest. </p>

<p>Others include Middlebury, Swarthmore, Barnard, Macalester, practically any Ivy, Stanford, UC Berkeley/LA/Irvine, UW-Seattle, UChicago, UMich, etc. There’s probably much more…especially in the last 10 years considering the great expansion of East Asian language programs in US colleges.</p>

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<p>Ah. That makes sense, then, especially since you’re speaking from experience. I’ll have to think about which to learn then. Chinese is spoken more widely than Japanese, and considering I want to work in HK/TW, it’d help. Would you happen to know what kind of Mandarin Chinese is most commonly taught? Traditional, Simplified, etc.</p>

<p>I find Japanese easier to learn, but that could just be me. The tones in Chinese just confuse me is all, but since I like both about the same, I want to learn whatever will be most enjoyable and increase my chances of employment overseas. (Since I am currently the only one in my family not going into the medical field, there’s a lot of pressure on whether my pay meets the standards of everybody else, sad as it sounds.)</p>

<p>I… probably will end up checking out extra-curriculars and clubs, as much as it scares me. My mom will probably get mad if I don’t, anyways. Though I’m not exactly sure what kind of clubs & such are established in universities–I’m guessing not the same kind they have in regular high schools?</p>

<p>So far I’m still looking at University of Pennsylvania as well as Indiana Uni in Bloomington.</p>

<p>Ivies intimidate me a little but, but I’ll check out all of them anyways, and the ones you’ve listed. Thank you! (:</p>

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<p>Beloit in Wisconsin also has languages. I don’t know where you are in the Midwest, but it might be worth a look.</p>

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<p>Learn both as you’ll certainly need it in Taiwan and to some extent, Hong Kong. </p>

<p>It is not really an issue as IME, the standard US college-level Chinese courses taught at Oberlin and Harvard start off with traditional characters in the first-year…then ease you into simplified in the second year. If you have the first year down…you eventually be able to figure out many of the simplified characters without too much difficulty. </p>

<p>Unless things have changed in the last 10 years, most US college Chinese language courses follow this format.</p>

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<p>Middlebury has a great Chinese department and I’m sure that Japanese is strong as well. Traditional and simplified are both required and I think you won’t find that in all programs. Make a list of schools that have both languages and then assess them according to overall academic quality as well because you could change your mind about a major.</p>

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<p>If you do find a Chinese language program that only teaches simplified…run as far away as possible. It is a sign of a watered down program and it certainly won’t serve your stated post-college goals very well.</p>

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<p>@MD Mom: Ah, I live in Missouri. Kind of the middle of nowhere.
There’s Washington U here, but again I’m always very paranoid I won’t be accepted to such high-ranked schools. I’ll check Beloit out as well, thank you.</p>

<p>@Hitch123: Thanks for the advice on overall academic quality, I always forget that I could end up changing my major. I’m not sure the the chances of that happening since I love Asia and languages, but better safe than sorry.</p>

<p>@cobrat: Thank you for your insight as well, it helps a lot, especially the part about the watered-down programs. I definitely want to learn both traditional & simplified, since yes, I’ve heard if you know traditional, simplified isn’t that much else.</p>

<p>Thanks, all of you. I’m not quite so lost anymore. Nowhere near certain about where I’ll go and what exactly I will do, but I have general ideas I can work around now.</p>

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<p>“Trying to learn both at the same time is not only a ton of hard work, but could also add confusion to the mix”</p>

<p>I’ve studied both and agree with this. Being a college freshman in a rigorous intro Mandarin course and a rigorous intro Japanese course simultaneously…IMHO, that’s nuts unless you have a long-standing background in one of them. I’d aim for fluency in one language (4 years of study plus substantial study abroad in that country) and basics in the second (maybe 2 years of study).</p>

<p>Knowing how to pronounce the kana is not going to help you much. In any good Japanese course, you’ll be expected to memorize them overnight (or perhaps over a weekend) anyway. So your classmates will have caught up with you on that the first week.</p>

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<p>Have you found a good program? I was accepted to Pitt, but I still have no idea if my declared major :Spanish w/Portuguese major is what my heart wants. I do not kno wwhat I want. I want to speak:Spanish,Portuguese,French,German,Chinese,Japanese</p>

<p>I want to do the Peace Corps, and the first question they ask you is if you have a competence in Spanish/French, which I already have through high school, so maybe I should self-study portugese, and travel and volunteer in Spanish Speaking countries to become fluent in Spanish/Portuguese/French</p>

<p>So I was thinking, maybe I should dounle major in Japanese/Chinese…but it seems as though this is so random for a white/Mexican girl who only knows “how are you?” in both languages. </p>

<p>I want to obtain a MA and was thinking of going to Europe to get my degree, but the whole Chinese/Japanese thing seems so random then…Programs there are things such as international relations/public health, but these majors would not help me be able to go to a grad school on Europe. I love all languages…An I would love to work in Asia and Europe and latin America…what should I do?</p>

<p>My languages so far:
Spanish:I can speak with people/understand tv en espanol
French:Elementary
Japanese: learning (hirigana) characters now</p>

<p>I have no idea what to study or where to go for university…I do not want to study linguistics!!! People always tell me that but I seriously do not have a passion for it…thank you so much in advance</p>

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<p>Curleq…My daughter has taken three years of Japanese and took a semester of Korean in the fall. She likes the way Korean is taught at Pitt. She says that the grammar is the same for Japanese and Korean, so she did well in her first semester. When she was in HS, she tried an intense summer program in Chinese; she learned quickly that she did not like the tones in Chinese. It is different for everyone.</p>

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<p>As a long-term student of both languages, I would say DO NOT try to learn both at once. These are two of the hardest languages you could possibly choose. Most people who major in just one come out after four years without real fluency just because four years isn’t enough time to learn even one of the languages without complete immersion. Trying to do both at once would be not only absurdly difficult in terms of the amount of studying time required, but also incredibly confusing because of the shared characters that often follow very different rules in the different languages.</p>

<p>Basically, what you need to do is pick one. If you study one of them for four years, putting in lots of time and effort, and preferably doing study abroad for at least one semester, you’ll be able to get that one down. After that, you can learn the other one in a much shorter time by building off the knowledge you already have. For instance, it took me 6 months to acquire a reading knowledge of Chinese because I had an extremely high level of fluency in Japanese. Your goal is to learn your first language well enough that the second one becomes easy as pie, in the same way that Spanish is easy for English speakers.</p>

<p>One other thing I’ll mention is that if you’re interested in learning both in the long term, it helps to structure your studying time differently than you would if your ultimate goal was just to learn one language. There are lots of characters and expressions that are archaic and never really used in common speech anymore. LEARN ALL OF THESE YOU CAN, because a ton of them will still get used in the other, especially going from obscure Japanese characters to Chinese, since the Japanese language typically uses fewer different characters. In other words, don’t pick and choose what you feel is important, but rather become a sponge and soak up everything you see, since even if it turns out to be a word you never use in one language, it could be useful in the other.</p>