<p>What colleges have the best Japanese major programs?
Preferably in California, but I'm also looking internationally or anywhere within the USA.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago has a hell of a program. Many of Natsume Soseki’s books on the market are translations by University of Chicago professors, notably Edwin McClellan, famous for his translation of Kokoro. Norma Field has, in a sense, taken his place and has also gained fame as both a scholar and as a translator of Soseki and many other Japanese authors.</p>
<p>The language program is run by Hiroyoshi Noto, who has written the textbooks for all courses through the third year (after third year, one starts reading academic theses and the like). His books are also popular outside of the University of Chicago, and many top universities use his textbooks for their more advanced courses, especially since there is an utter lack of truly advanced Japanese books on the market. He teaches 3rd year Japanese, and as someone who has taken the course, I can say that it is probably the hardest 3rd-year course in the country - almost everyone to finish the 3rd-year sequence is very near to fluency (which fits, seeing as how only about 5 people a year survive the entirety of the 3rd year).</p>
<p>As for California, I think a lot of universities in California have good programs. In particular, Berkeley’s reputation for East Asian languages is excellent, and many language instructors here at Chicago formerly taught at Berkeley.</p>
<p>Check out Middlebury College. It is famous for language training, and is an excellent liberal arts college, although it won’t offer the range of courses (or perhaps the depth of scholarship) you’d find at Chicago or Berkeley. Georgetown is another possibility, especially if you’re interested in international relations.</p>
<p>These are all highly selective schools. Earlham College seems to have a good Japanese program and is less selective. Maybe phiriku knows something about it.</p>
<p>In my opinion, a good way to get a strong language foundation would be to spend a summer at Middlebury, then a year in Japan, somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd year of college. Then come back to a school like Chicago or Berkeley to study the literature, history etc. Many students take introductory Chinese or Japanese as part of a regular course load, but I think study of these languages really benefits from full attention in intensive courses at the beginning.</p>
<p>I agree with most of tk21769’s points. Middlebury College indeed has one of the best reputations for language training. It is also a valid point that if you take Japanese at research universities, you might get a few things you weren’t looking for. For instance, in my 3rd year at Chicago, we read an article that a Japanese scholar had written around the year 1900 when he had visited the University. Anyone who has read scholarly Japanese from the 18th to early 20th century knows how difficult it is to read. Definitely not for those just interested in basic language skills.</p>
<p>I actually do have a friend at Earlham (who is transferring to Chicago after her 2nd year there). She was primarily a Chinese major, although she did take some Japanese classes. According to her, the courses were pretty good, although they were often too easy. They also used the Genki books, the appropriateness of which I suppose varies from person to person. Earlham does have a reputation for having an outstanding Japanese program.</p>
<p>I believe Earlham is noted for its Japanese program.</p>
<p>Japanese is one of my D’s interests. In addition to the colleges mentioned here, we’ve found major programs at Amherst (their Japanese program goes WAY back), Lewis & Clark (new J. House), Macalester (Japanese house) and a host of others. We have no personal experience with any of the programs. D is interested in LACs, but among larger state universities, UCLA and University of Washington have excellent Asian studies programs which offer Japanese as well as a host of lesser-known languages. If you do not see a Japanese Department at a college, look for an Asian Studies or East Asian Studies Department. Often these offer choices between, say, Chinese and Japanese majors.</p>
My son is also thinking about a Japanese major–he’s applied to Earlham & Willamette, among others. I believe the other LACs he applied to offered some Japanese language classes but the majors offered were more along the lines of “East Asian Studies.” In the Midwest, I know the University of Kansas has a program.
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