Hi, I’m currently a second year university student and I’d like to do an exchange semester next year, I’m currently considering Japan and China, Japan would obviously be my first choice but the number of places is extremely limited.
If I go to China I will obviously have to learn the language (at least to some extent) which makes me wonder how I should tackle Japanese if that’s the case? Should I just put my Japanese study on a hiatus, or should I try to do a bit of both?
For those of you who have experienced a similar situation, what did you do? How did it affects your semester? Your Japanese level? I’m even more concerned as I’m French so it’s not like I would have to learn Portuguese or Italian…
1 comment
Not all of this is my personal experience:
There might be Japanese students in your program. A friend of mine studied in France and there were some Japanese students in his SA program.
When I studied in Japan, I was able to take a French class. Assuming your level of Chinese is sufficient and you can get permission, you might be able to take a Japanese class too. I don’t remember how it affected my French study at the time, but I don’t think it really benefitted me in terms of credits. If you’re self-studying Japanese it might give you some benefit.
I’m currently between JLPT N2 and N1. I finished my undergrad in 2012 and my Masters (after a hiatus) in 2018.