I've been thinking about making the move, but I've had a hard time thinking about what path(s) would be "better" down the line, and I was wondering if anyone had some advice or experiences. For context, I'm in my mid 20's, graduated last year with a Professional Master's in Comp Sci/Eng. from a US university with a focus on chip design and programming. I've been casually studying Japanese on the side for a few years now (and have been there on study abroad/vacation), but I think passing even N4 would be difficult for me because I haven't been able to put enough time into it. I feel like I'll be able to learn it fairly quickly because I'm already "bilingual", but it would still take awhile based on where I am skill-wise.
One of the paths I could do is continue my education in graduate school. I would have to do a degree in English, but I'm concerned about doing a PhD because my professional masters gave me next to zero research experience, and I don't think I like academia enough to continue pursuing a career in it (which I hear is common for PhD's). I'm not against becoming a lecturer, but that's besides the point. Instead, I could do another Masters, but I'm not sure how beneficial that would be since I already have a Master's degree. I also probably wont have enough time to bring my Japanese level up high enough during the program.
The other path is spending 1-2 years in a language school, and then either applying to jobs or enrolling in grad school (but I'd be ~30 by the time I finish everything). Educationally I'm qualified to be hired, but I only have 1-2 years of part-time experience at a very small US business running menial IT/admin work. I don't think I would qualify for new graduate hiring, and my experience is almost non-existent, so I'm a bit wary.
Overall I'm just not sure which path would be better. I'm already in talks with some professors about joining their labs, so I'll see where that goes, but I'm still keeping the alternatives open.
Thanks for reading this long post. Cheers.
by SnowSwanJohn