sociologic

Hi, to put my two cents in, if you want to teach Japanese in the US, I would suggest getting a MA in Japanese linguistics with a pedagogy focus in the US somewhere (the University of Hawaii at Manoa comes to mind, especially because if you get an graduate assistantship (GA), you will be tasked with teaching your own language classes which will give you invaluable experience). Most of the universities I know of require an MA in the language that you will be teaching. Of course to get a professorship, you will need a doctorate. However, I know that at many universities, the language courses are taught by instructors and graduate assistants. The professors only teach upper-division courses on culture, history, linguistics, etc. So depending on what you would ultimately like to teach (language vs. linguistics), the level of graduate study you'll need to pursue will change. An extra hurdle for you as a nonnative Japanese speaker may be that even if your goal is to only teach Japanese language courses, you may not be seriously considered unless you go on to have a PhD in Japanese, not just an MA. (Honestly though, if you seriously want to teach Japanese language OR linguistics at a university, I think going for the PhD is a good strategic idea. The number of people graduating with a foreign language MA is increasing, so many of the graduate students I know in specific language linguistics program are graduating with PhDs so that they will be competitive for any employment opportunities at the university level in the US.) In my own personal experience (I am a native Japanese speaker and am graduating with an MA in Japanese linguistics), it seems like most of the language teaching positions are filled with native speakers, unless you are a teaching GA. However, if you are not a native speaker, you will likely need to have some certification of proficiency before you will be able to qualify for a GAship. I think a common exam is the JLPT. I forget when it's offered (I think it's only once or twice a year?), but that might be a good starting point for you to see how your current language proficiency is. In considering my fellow grad students in my program who are not native Japanese-speakers, it does seem like all of them either graduated majoring in Japanese/East Asian Studies and/or have lived in Japan for at least a few years. So if you take the JLPT and are not satisfied with your score, try for the JET program (or some other teaching job that will take you to Japan). It will give you so much pragmatic knowledge and insight which you just cannot fully learn in the classroom and will be fun to talk about with your future students. A lot of the non-native teachers I know are amazing Japanese language teachers because of their insight in learning Japanese, so please don't feel discouraged! But realistically it could potentially be a lengthy process for you to reach your goal of teaching Japanese at a US university. Ganbattekudasai! Good luck!

Thank you! And congratulations on your acceptance to Arizona! I'm still waiting for UW-Seattle, UC Davis, CUNY, and Florida. The fact that UW started sending out notices last week was worrying; I still haven't heard anything from them, but I'm hoping "no news is good news" applies right now.

Hi, I was accepted to the PhD program at Purdue this week, and I am waitlisted at the University of Oregon. Still waiting on a few more schools, but I am really excited to have (the potential of) an offer!