Japanese Education (College & Universities)

[aozora04]

Hey there! Please bear with my rambling...
My name is Eliora and I went to Japan through the Rotary exchange program. I went from St. Paul, MN to Ashikaga-shi, Tochigi -ken from August 2010 - March 2011. It got cut short because of Fukushima. ...I was 99 miles away from it and they told me to come back anyway. It was supposed to be a year exchange.
But long story short, I love it.
I'm still in high school now--I will be a senior starting September (For those who doesn't know, schools in US starts during September) so it's time for the college application time!
I've been looking up Keio University, Waseda U, Ritsumeikan and Nihon U. All of these has great programs both in English and Japanese.
Btw, I'm decent in Japanese. I was supposed to take the level 3 Noryoku shiken back when I was in Japan, but I couldn't because of the natural disaster. But I've been studying, and now I'm studying from level 2 textbooks too.
PROBLEM is...WHEN should I apply?
All of the applications for this year means I will be a student (if accepted) to whatever daigaku starting April. ...While in US, April's still the 4th quarter/middle of 2nd semester of high schools.
Plus, they want the standardized test scores results, too. In MN we take ACT, not SATs. I WILL take the SAT if that's really necessary (since I've been planning to take the SAT 2 subject tests anyway), but I'm an IB diploma candidate. Japanese universities I've looked up so far DOES accept the scores. But again, I won't have the scores by November (which is when most of the applications are due). :?
I haven't decided on my major yet. I want to be a writer (Young Adult author), but I also want to teach Japanese. I love the language--I want to be a translator of some sort. Maybe be a part of Square Enix (lol)
So do I apply this year or next year?
Would it be better to go to college in US?
Would it be better to go to college in Japan?
:?
Thank you!

 

[Glenski]

Japanese HS and university students are not given a good education, if any, in writing in either language. I know because I've taught in both venues.

If you want to be a writer and need the education for it, I'd say stay in the land of 10,000 lakes. If you want to be a translator, get as fluent as possible, and get specific training for translation work.

 

[johnnyG]

Sorry, Glen, I'm an avid reader of your posts, both here and elsewhere, but I really have to disagree.

"Japanese HS and university students are not given a good education, if any, in writing in either language. I know because I've taught in both venues."

If you mean 'in creative writing' at the high school level, I would more than agree. (Tho that world is a blank to me, as I've never taught that level.)

At the uni level, I've used 4-12 pane picture stories (untitled, not narrated, and no balloons giving dialog) with great success. And believe it or not, students can be quite creative when constructing stories around some of these basic cues. Some of it is amazing.

***

OTOH, aozora, as a writer, is probably looking for experience and stimulation, rather than finding a creative writing program. Given that, if she (?) can find her muse here in some other program/situation, then more power to her.

**

aozora, I'd also suggest ICU, which is western Mitaka, which is in western Tokyo. They deal with lots of international students, and I think they may have late Aug or Sept admissions for someone in your situation. Also, tho you probably know, the Japanese gov't (or schools such as ICU) offer reduced rates for overseas applicants.

Got to run for dinner right now, but may add more to this later.

 

[johnnyG]

and adding

Also, I have two daughters, one 3rd year uni, the other 3rd year of high school. They have gotten (and will get) a far, far better education here than they would have had we moved (at some point in the past) to the states "for their sake".

So we're apparently on the successful side of some divide (domestic vs foreign education), and while I do understand that there are others, similar to us, that have not had such a fortunate experience, various troubles, and so on, there are folks here who do very well by the Japanese education system.

***

aozora, I have a former colleague who now teaches both ESL and JSL in the Seattle area. He's back once a year (and was just here) bringing groups of JSL students for a couple weeks each summer. It's a good gig.

Immersion--coming here for the language--has both advantages and disadvantages. You can't pick up the final polish of a professional translator without being in a good academic program. But there's also an awful lot of day-to-day stuff that is hard to get without being here.

There's a whole forum section on MEXT/scholarships--are you exploring that?

**

Finally, as a parent, what you're targeting looks wonderful. But how about adding some other skill on top of translation and/or creative writing? Are you good at computers (explaining tech things), or talking to people, or do you have any hobbies/interests outside of what you mentioned in your initial post? Develop yourself into an area that you like if at all possible.

**

And hey, maybe the most important point: you've apparently got the fire burning in you for what you're talking about. Go for it.

Bite in on that as hard as you can and go for it!

 

[Glenski]

Also, I have two daughters, one 3rd year uni, the other 3rd year of high school. They have gotten (and will get) a far, far better education here than they would have had we moved (at some point in the past) to the states "for their sake".

I was only referring to courses in writing, not to overall education.

As far as courses in writing go, if you haven't taught in HS, and you didn't pay attention to what your own children went through (and it wasn't an international school), then you don't have much to agree or disagree about. In terms of writing, my foreign and Japanese colleagues and I have seen very little in terms of courses that teach the fundamentals of writing in either language. Students' ability is also very weak in the first place, perhaps as a result of the electronic age. (Most kids can't use a keyboard very well, but they are like lightning on cell phones.)

Except for some larger universities where there is a specialization towards language majors, writing takes a back seat to all other English courses. I have attended JALT conferences where uni teachers have 1-2 courses at their school, or a whole integrated series of courses. Only in the latter is there any measure of coherency in teaching writing, and this is not what the OP is interested in because the OP is not Japanese. Regardless, my colleagues often complain that J students have serious problems with basics of writing -- creativity, organizational skills, paraphrasing, unity to name the top of the pile.

I work at a science uni. The J science teacher here are in a dreamland when it comes to teaching the kids to write. They only believe that throwing them in the deep end will automatically give students the needed ability for technical writing (in either language). Our resources are severely limited, but even so, the science teachers seem to think that a single course is sufficient. This is not limited to Japan, however, and I'm not happy about that, either. For instance, a paper I read describes major engineering grad schools in the U.S., where the majority of students are foreign. In it, the advisors admit to knowing their grad students have weak skills, and despite these schools having good tech writing courses, the advisors don't push students to attend them, but instead are more satisfied writing 25% of each student's thesis. Pretty much a waste of time for all.

At the uni level, I've used 4-12 pane picture stories (untitled, not narrated, and no balloons giving dialog) with great success. And believe it or not, students can be quite creative when constructing stories around some of these basic cues. Some of it is amazing.

What success you have had in a course is irrelevant here for reasons I've described above. No offense, intended.

 

[aozora04]

My interest

My interests are all over the place. I read a lot of books (but mostly young adult and middle grade) because I review them on my blog. (scholarberry.blogspot.com)
I get books right from publishers like Scholastic, Harper Collins and many more, or even the authors themselves. I started that with the books I read from school library and they were emailing me, offering me their books to review (and I got a lot of copies for free). Even today I just met an author who visited Saint Paul and got a lot of goodies to be given away for my blog readers. I started that last summer (before my exchange year).
I am an avid golfer--my first job is with the First Tee program (teaching little kids how to golf in a week-long golf camps).
I also play the violin--though not as often as golfing/reading.
---
Based on typingtest.com, it says I have 73 words per minute. This is my result for 3 minutes typing the "Rules of Baseball." Obviously I can't prove this since I can't share the link (it says 'you do not have enough posts yet to add URLs to third-party websites.') I know online tests aren't as accurate, but I use the computer everyday to type my reviews or write short stories on Word Document. I don't need to look at the keyboard anymore to know where this key is on anymore.
--
My GPA is 3.5934 and my weighted GPA is 4.1773.
I do not intend to have Creative Writing as my major--because I know a lot of adults who majored in it and weren't satisfied because they weren't taught things like how to actually get published. On the other hand, right now I have the connection to those publishers myself. All I need is a basic English class where grammar is critical.
Then I can just let my imagination work itself out.
I want to be a writer because then I can use all of the information that has been put in my head since I was little. I can use those knowledge no matter what my major is so long I have my imagination (that's in my opinion anyway, no offense to people who thinks that the Creative Writing classes are helpful, really...).
I want to study in Japan because of the culture. And naturally, it would make sense to study English and then teach it in Japan. But then I thought, if I want to study in Japan, shouldn't I study Japanese and major in English? Because that way I get all the native terminology that google translator or dictionaries doesn't have.

 

[Glenski]

I don't know why you listed your hobbies and typing speed. That pretty much is all irrelevant to the main point of your post, isn't it?

GPA? Must be on a scale of 0-5. Most GPAs I have seen were 0-4, but I've heard of the other scale. So, that means you are a B student, essentially, perhaps even a low B. There were quite a few mistakes in your last post (just offering perspective here), so I can see why you feel you need a "basic" grammar class.

Good luck on finding a decent English writing course in Japan. You're going to need it!

Oh, and it's not a good idea to rip stuff for your blog directly from the authors' homepages, like you have done. Very bad form for any writer, if not outright illegal, and I'm frankly surprised that (as you claim) publishers send you materials when you do things like that.

 

[aozora04]

What do you mean by "rip stuff for your blog directly from the authors' homepages"?

 

[Glenski]

I mean you have stuff copied 100% from other sites. Pretty obvious.

"My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody" is a perfect example.

The author's web site (http://www.jessicabrody.com/mylifeundecided.html) says what you have copied is from the inside flap of the book, so even if you claim not to have copied from the web site, you have just broken copyright laws by copying from the book.

 

[aozora04]

Oh. We're allowed to copy and paste the summaries of the books. You're right. The only original part of it is the review itself.