Thoughts on attending language school for a year or two before applying to Japanese university?

6 comments

1. N4 is a very low level to be starting at but doable. It’s all a question of money; language school is more cost. If you can afford it then it can work.

   Going to Japanese uni is also not necessarily terrible and you can leverage it well potentially. When you start looking at unis you also need to look at English ones. Getting a Waseda/Sophia/Keio degree from an English program will be far and away better than some mid-tier no-name Japanese program. You’ll have gotten a better education, networked with wealthy international schools kids and bilinguals, and have a better name on your degree, which will open more doors than saying you’ve done classes in Japanese, as long as you’re functionally fluent in Japanese anyway.

   You also need to consider that you’ll be rusty for math et al when it comes time to do entrance exams and the like, so you’ll need well use time in language school.

   In the end it’s all about you, and about luck (also the crapshoot of where the economy is in 5-6 years from now and all).

   A lot of the regular loudmouths here will tell you that going to Japanese uni will doom you, but as someone who went to a Japanese uni and got a very good and well compensated finance career out of it, and with classmates who are almost all very very successful, I can tell you they’re talking out of their ass when they say you’ll get nothing if you go to Japanese uni. Nothing is guaranteed and it’s literally years of hard work, but you can do a lot.

   Edit: it looks like LaikaCat, who I believe is one of the mods here, responded to me below. I have the notification, and I see there’s still upvotes and a reward, but it shows as user deleted and comment unavailable.

   I’m guessing they responded and they immediately blocked me so I can’t respond? Really weird and sketchy conduct, especially for a mod. Artificially gaming things so it looks like they got the last word. Seemingly proving my point here about how there’s a lot of bad or objectively incorrect advice from weird people going around.

2. I go check Go!Go!Nihon! For language school. I’m currently applying using it and it’s kind of easy. They’ve been extremely helpful to me and my situation

3. > But my question is do you think it’s a good idea? To attend language school before to possibly attend university in Japanese?

   If you’re going to attend university in Japan, the only choice that has any real value is to do it in Japanese. Japanese universities will require that you’ve scored at least JLPT N2 before they’d consider your application. A language school will definitely help you get there.

   That being said, Japanese universities are globally ranked rather poorly. You mention studying in the US as an option, which overall is the vastly superior choice. Most universities will give you the option to study abroad for a semester or two so you could try Japan out with the kid gloves on before finishing off your more valuable US degree.

   What is it that you are planning on studying?

4. > But my question is do you think it’s a good idea?

   The attending a language school before university *is* a good idea and *is* what plenty of people do. They aim for getting at least N2, but hopefully N1, before they start university.

   > I feel like this will probably give me a better chance at a job than earning a degree in English and the education would be better.

   You are correct. There’s a pretty big gap in quality between the Japanese-based and English-based instructions.

   > Though I won’t be happy if I made that choice instead of following through with what I want most.

   Sure, because you’re 19 and dumb. No offense. You don’t know how the world works yet, and think you do. You’ve spent your entire life sheltered from reality by your parents, so you *believe* you can do anything and follow your dreams and yada yada yada happy ending.

   But ***reality*** doesn’t care about your feelings. The people who tell you to study in the U.S. (or wherever you are) and move after gaining experience are being pragmatic. And realistic. Realistically speaking, this ***is*** the best way to achieve your dream of… Wait what is your dream? Visiting Japan? Going to Japan? Moving to Japan?

   In any case, there’s the smart way of doing this, and the dumb way of doing this. The smart way will increase your success rate to very high. The dumb way won’t. The smart way is get your degree at home, get experience, and then go to Japan (this has the caveat of before, depending on the field you will need Japanese education). The dumb way is to rush to get to Japan, graduate with a Japanese degree, and then go through the shinsotsu pipeline which will guarantee very slow career progression and shit salary.

5. I don’t live in Japan, but am planning to in the future, so you can definitely take what I’m saying with a grain of salt, but here’s what I think:

   I know it can be enticing to want to study in Japan, since it may feel like your losing some of your most fun years by spending it in a place that you dislike or aren’t comfortable in. Because of this, spending those years in another country and experiencing all those new things may seem attractive, but I think it will be financially tough on you.

   Personally, I’m going to graduate with a degree in comp sci, then travel. I’d recommend that for you too, for whatever youre majoring in. I think it’s better to come here and work, since ur degree will probably be more valuable if you get it abroad in your native language, and you’ll spend less time in school paying for your expenses and tuition (if you live with your parents)

   If you don’t live with your parents, at least by not living in Japan, maybe you’ll spend less money doing things lol.

   Ik it’s hard being somewhere you want to get out of really badly, but if you think you can tough tough it out, I think it would be better for you in the long run to study in your home country, then come to Japan come you’ve got your stuff sorted. Who knows, if you work really hard, you maybe be able to graduate a year early😊

   Either way, there are probably more pros than the ones I’ve listed, but more cons too, so it’s up to you to decide what you want.

6. I did exactly this (CS degree in Japanese) however the language school isn’t enough. Most of your language progress will be from self study and applying it in your daily life to reaffirm what you have learned. The formal teaching is good in that it provides structure. Also, be sure to surround yourself with Japanese friends otherwise you will end up like those bitter Gaijn that have been in the country for 10 years and can’t string two words together.