<p>Any current students have anything to say about the Japanese program at Yale? I don't know a thing about the language currently, but I am considering completing my language requirement this way and if I like it taking it as a second major or something.</p>
<p>bump. good program, bad program, easier/harder than chinese, great/terrible teachers, big/small program. All the info for chinese is readily available. I know that it is a large program with great teachers, and that the students work very hard but in the end (over eighty percent) earn A or A- grades. Anyone know anything about japanese in comparison?</p>
<p>I’ve been asking around for you but have gotten meager response from my small pool of Yalie/-affiliates. So far people are only telling me that it’s a great program, that both Chinese and Japanese are great but Korean is a little lackluster insomuch that any of the languages are. (Not that you’re considering Korean, though.) The Japanese program is supposedly about half the size of the Chinese. Teachers are all pretty great as far as I’ve heard. I’ve also heard that the Chinese program is kinder towards beginners and offers more support/a better learning experience in that regard. But of course, I’ve taken neither yet so can’t speak personally! </p>
<p>The one thing I can speak personally on is the introductory Chinese course package, which is truly excellent. I’ve used a lot of introductory textbooks over the years (once when I was a beginner and after that other books for review), and I think the course package Yale uses is really great, maybe even better than actual textbooks out on the market. No idea about what the Japanese textbooks look like.</p>
<p>I’ll let you know if I hear anything else.</p>
<p>having lived in singapore for seventeen years, i’ve seen my fair share of chinese learners. </p>
<p>many singaporean kids just can’t wait to stop taking chinese classes (which they get to do after 11th grade). it can be draining and uninteresting if you’re not completely driven to learn the language. chinese involves learning tons of characters, which can be quite different from the alphabetic languages we’re all used to. </p>
<p>for japanese however, every person i’ve seen learning it has been driven by a genuine passion for the language and no one carries a oh-its-something-i’ve-got-to-do attitude into japanese classes.</p>
<p>that might just say something about the way each language is taught in singapore or about the languages themselves. i wouldn’t know. i’m sorry if this isn’t relevant to what you were asking but i’m convinced you’ll have a better time with japanese than chinese, regardless of departmental strength.</p>
<p>I have a number of friends who’ve taken Japanese at Yale, and all of them loved it. Class sizes are the same across all the popular languages - about 10/class, but the total size of the Japanese program is significantly smaller than that of Chinese. I’d estimate about 1/3 the size. I don’t think florilegium is right about Japanese being less kind to beginners than Chinese, at least I’ve never heard any complaints in that regard, and the course evaluations for intro Japanese are terrific. So I’d say it’s a great program, probably about equally hard as Chinese (maybe a tiny bit harder), with great teachers.</p>
<p>Also, though not relevant to the OP, I’m taking Chinese at Yale and think srrinath’s post is completely wrong. Chinese is great, and if you actually want to learn the language (which seems from his post not to be the case for many Singaporeans), there’s no reason you’d have a better time with Japanese.</p>
<p>A final point - Chinese, Japanese, and Korean at Yale all share a huge advantage - the Light Fellowship. A quick google search can get you more info than I can provide here, but basically it allows more than 100 Yalies per year to study abroad in China, Taiwan, Japan, or Korea for free. And I mean really free, tuition, airfare, housing, food, application fees, visa, and miscellaneous expenses all covered. I’m in China for the second summer in a row (Beijing last year, Harbin this year) without spending a cent of my own money - they give you enough that I’ve even been able to use fellowship money to travel in China on my own - the budget for food is ridiculously large given Chinese prices. So if you’re interested in any of those three languages, take it, you won’t regret it!</p>
<p>thanks a lot! now i’m completely convinced I’m going to take one of the two, but I have to decide which. my eventual goal (though very tentative) is to get into banking or something similar, so either language would be as pragmatically appropriate as personally enriching</p>