What to do and what to expect? Japanese Language.

[Sety]

Hey everyone! A friend recommended me this website because I'm not sure what my next step should be.

I am interested in getting into a Masters Program for Japanese (the Language, not literature), but here is some information about my educational background.

I have a Bachelors in English (with a pretty bad GPA: 3.06 Overall *this was the result of taking a science major for the first two years, and I ended up switching my major to English when I realized I rather focus on a subject I actually liked*). So, I already know I'm in pretty bad shape for a Masters program at the moment. 

My dream goal is to be a Japanese Language professor in an American university. 

I have taken 2 years of Japanese language during college, and I absolutely loved it!  I have only 2 recommendation letters from my Japanese professors. I have been to Japan two times (2 weeks in total), and I taught in South Korea to get teaching experience. Originally, I was aiming to get into JET and obtain fluency first, but I'm still confused with my position in life, and I'd like to know which seems more ideal and realistic.

I'm currently teaching English online for a pretty popular company, so my teaching experience is continuing to progress. I also have 1 recommendation letter from the Korean middle school I taught at last year, if that helps with anything. (Although, to be frank, the letter is pretty simple and poorly written in English).

A few more things I'm concerned with is if a college did want me is the fact that I have absolutely no money to pay for a Graduate School loan. I'm barely making enough money to even pay for my undergrad loan.

I've researched schools with Japanese Language departments, but they all seem to want three recommendation letters, and I'm afraid my intermediate level skills aren't enough? I'm continuing to study Japanese on my own, but if you have any suggestions, I will gladly listen to them.

 

 

[fuzzylogician]

Quick thoughts: 

- Unfortunately, I am really not sure that Japanese Language professor is a job you can have. First, you are not a native speaker and admit your level isn't very high; there is no shortage of native speakers who are looking for these teaching jobs. Second, teaching language courses is often done by people who aren't quite professors but instructors at the college level, meaning on contract and not tenure track. They usually have a higher teaching load and no research/advising responsibilities. If that's what you mean, you should frame it that way, because it sounds very different. But either way, I am not convinced that this is at all realistic.

- If you're serious about this, I would start by searching for job ads recruiting people for jobs like the ones you'd like to have. Get a sense for what's out there and how many jobs are there in general. Look several years back. If you are not discouraged at this point, look at the requirements more carefully. What skills do you need to have? I assume at the very least fluency, if not being a native speaker, would be a bare minimum. You can also look at the kind of degree these people should have and if there is anything mentioned about a teaching certificate or other experience. Are these requirements something that you can meet or study for? If so, then your next step is to get started on those requirements.

- Two options: maybe you need to improve your language skills independently of a formal degree program. That might take a few years and entail living in Japan for a while. This would be my guess. Then maybe a degree in education or teaching a foreign language is what you want. Or, you can study the language as part of your degree, but then you need to find the right programs that will allow you to do that. Would Japanese language programs actually give you the training you need for the job you want? Carefully look into that, because I am not so sure, I would bet those programs are more theoretically oriented and might teach you lit as well and prep you for a PhD, mostly. You need to read up on program requirements and compare them to the job ads.

- There is likely no way around the 3-letter requirement. You need to think about who else could write you a letter and cultivate those relationships. You should probably have a letter from professor from undergrad. I assume you haven't been out of school for that long, so you'll need to reach out to your professors and ask if they would be willing to write you a letter. It might be a good idea to give them materials (papers from classes, your SOP) and to offer to speak with them on the phone before they write the letter, so they can remind themselves of who you are and what you're about. This step should only happen after you've figured out what you are going to do. 

[kaykaykay]

Try to teach English in Japan for a couple of years. Or try for an MA in Japan (in a subject you like). I doubt that you could get enough fluency in Japanese even with two years of MA to teach it.  Japanese is a fun language as a beginner but it is rather difficult on higher levels.

Edited March 6, 2016 by kaykaykay

[historicallinguist]

1 hour ago, kaykaykay said:

Try to teach English in Japan for a couple of years. Or try for an MA in Japan (in a subject you like). I doubt that you could get enough fluency in Japanese even with two years of MA to teach it.  Japanese is a fun language as a beginner but it is rather difficult on higher levels.

I doubt whether it is a good idea to try an MA in Japan. Like many other East Asian countries I know (China, South Korea, etc), masters' programs generally have much fewer student-professor interactions when compared with equivalent programs in the U.S.. It is more likely that for most of the time you attend jumbo lectures with at least 60 students (in many cases more than 100 people), and it is really difficult, if possible at all, to get your professor know you. That is, relationship that could result in some sort of LOR is very hard to cultivate in an MA program in Japan. In addition, assessments primarily take the forms of some kind of standardized tests. Because there are quite too many students but too few professors, the student-professor ratio makes it almost impossible to assess students by combination of coursework and examinations. Of course, tuition in Japan is much cheaper, but bear in mind that there is little funding, if any, offered in most Japanese universities. Do not count on Japanese universities to offer you full funding, as this is outright unrealistic, as far as I know.

 

 

 

 

 

[historicallinguist]

2 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

- Unfortunately, I am really not sure that Japanese Language professor is a job you can have. First, you are not a native speaker and admit your level isn't very high; there is no shortage of native speakers who are looking for these teaching jobs. Second, teaching language courses is often done by people who aren't quite professors but instructors at the college level, meaning on contract and not tenure track. They usually have a higher teaching load and no research/advising responsibilities. If that's what you mean, you should frame it that way, because it sounds very different. But either way, I am not convinced that this is at all realistic.

- If you're serious about this, I would start by searching for job ads recruiting people for jobs like the ones you'd like to have. Get a sense for what's out there and how many jobs are there in general. Look several years back. If you are not discouraged at this point, look at the requirements more carefully. What skills do you need to have? I assume at the very least fluency, if not being a native speaker, would be a bare minimum. You can also look at the kind of degree these people should have and if there is anything mentioned about a teaching certificate or other experience. Are these requirements something that you can meet or study for? If so, then your next step is to get started on those requirements.

 

Adding to what Fuzzy said, I do not think to be a Japanese Language professor is a realistic goal. I know quite a number of people in this field. Many of them not only have an M.A. but also Ph.D.s from some quite good universities. But even if you got a Ph.D. in Japanese linguistics/Ed.D in Education (teaching Japanese as a second language), it is more likely that you are going to be some kind of part-time/adjunct lecturer for a very long period of your life. The problem of the field is that there is an over-supplying of Japanese language teachers/professors/lecturers (you really also need to take into consideration of the great number of Japanese students who got their degrees in Japan and want to work overseas to teach Japanese. For Japanese students, working overseas (especially in the U.S.) is a much desired path than working in Japan, because entry level jobs for the young in Japan are really a nightmare where you really get very little paid but tons of works to do. If you do not believe me, try some kind of Kaisha in Japan and work as a salaryman for a month.) , and, in addition to this, there are not that many people studying Japanese in the U.S.. 

I know a very senior professor who has a Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from Princeton, and who is a tenured professor serving as the chair of the department. This person was never assigned to teach Japanese, even if everyone knows that he thoroughly fluent in Japanese (both literary and spoken and classical) (and knows more Japanese words and the grammar of the language than many Japanese native speakers.). Because he is not a native speaker, he is assigned to teach subjects such as literature, society, culture of Japan, etc. The job of teaching Japanese language , at least in my university, is always assigned to native speakers of Japanese, who are contract workers given the title of adjunct professors (with one or two exceptions. But the few tenured ones are also native speakers of Japanese). In addition to these, I know there are a long waitlist of Japanese native speakers who have an MA/PhD in either EAST ASIAN STUDIES/TEACHING JAPANESE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE/APPLIED LINGUISTICS. These people are quite a lot in terms of number. I seriously doubt whether it is realistic for a non-native speaker to jump up to the top of this waitlist and get selected as an instructor to teach when extra sessions of Japanese classes are open.

Finally, my personal experience also tells me that this is not a realistic option. I am pretty much fluent in Japanese in addition to several other Asian languages (all are not native though). As expected, I never get any decent jobs to teach these languages. Again, there are just not that many people studying Japanese (or other major Asian languages such as Chinese and Korean, not to mention Mongolian and Tibetan) and the over-supply of people who can teach Japanese (and other major Asian languages) just make the market of teaching Japanese in the U.S. so competitive that it is nearly goddamn impossible to get a decent job without being a native speaker in the first place.

You can certainly PM me if you want more details.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by historicallinguist

[kaykaykay]

11 hours ago, historicallinguist said:

I doubt whether it is a good idea to try an MA in Japan. Like many other East Asian countries I know (China, South Korea, etc), masters' programs generally have much fewer student-professor interactions when compared with equivalent programs in the U.S.. It is more likely that for most of the time you attend jumbo lectures with at least 60 students (in many cases more than 100 people), and it is really difficult, if possible at all, to get your professor know you. That is, relationship that could result in some sort of LOR is very hard to cultivate in an MA program in Japan. In addition, assessments primarily take the forms of some kind of standardized tests. Because there are quite too many students but too few professors, the student-professor ratio makes it almost impossible to assess students by combination of coursework and examinations. Of course, tuition in Japan is much cheaper, but bear in mind that there is little funding, if any, offered in most Japanese universities. Do not count on Japanese universities to offer you full funding, as this is outright unrealistic, as far as I know.

 

 

 

 

 

Not true. Any of it. And I lived there for quite long including doing an MA there too.  If you get to the postgraduate level you can talk to the professors as much as you want and they will give you rec letters. There are no standardized tests anywhere in Japanese colleges, (normal- nonstandardized tests for undergrads sure but that happens in the US too). grad education is seminar based.  Plus there are generous fellowship options. In addition usually there is some form of  language training.

Edited March 6, 2016 by kaykaykay

[Sety]

Thanks for your answers everyone.

My Japanese professor was actually a foreigner who was able to live in Japan and become fluent in it, so I assumed that the competition wasn't that bad. She now teaches Japanese literature in some college in NY. I forgot the exact name, but I didn't think it would be this bad :/

[historicallinguist]

5 hours ago, kaykaykay said:

Not true. Any of it. And I lived there for quite long including doing an MA there too.  If you get to the postgraduate level you can talk to the professors as much as you want and they will give you rec letters. There are no standardized tests anywhere in Japanese colleges, (normal- nonstandardized tests for undergrads sure but that happens in the US too). grad education is seminar based.  Plus there are generous fellowship options. In addition usually there is some form of  language training.

Maybe I am wrong. But I do not understand why, based on my experiences with international students from Japan in the U.S., they seem to me so desperately trying to go to school in the U.S. at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and subsequently make every attempt to try to stay in the U.S., if what you said is indeed true.  The bottom line is, everything else being equal, you will be likely to do more works and put in more efforts in a Japanese university to achieve the same grades that you can more easily to get in an American university. (of course, there are exceptions, I have to admit, but this is the general trend, I think).

Yes, there are generous fellowship options. But the problem is that they are likely to be external fellowships you got to apply and compete with a huge number of people who sometimes include Japanese students in Japan. These fellowships are there, yes. But the likelihood to get them is another story. Again, you will need to put into more efforts to get Japanese fellowships than their American equivalents. Departmental funding is rare in Japanese universities. You will really need to make efforts to apply for external funding, and may not necessarily be able to get any of them. Again, Japan is a highly populated country where relatively small amount of resources are distributed among a large population, and this very fact makes things such as funding/schooling in general extremely competitive (e.g. take a look at the past problems of Japanese University Entrance Exams (i.e. センター試験）and compare them with the past/practice problems of SAT. You will have a sense of how much more challenging (sometimes unnecessarily challenging because it is made difficult only because there are too many people taking the exam and the examiners are trying to eliminate the vast majority) is Japanese assessment system than its American equivalent ). It is a great place for tourism, but probably not a great place for getting funding/studying abroad, unless you are so fond of Japanese culture and language that you think studying in Japan is the best and only way to understand its culture and language better.

 

[historicallinguist]

6 hours ago, kaykaykay said:

Not true. Any of it. And I lived there for quite long including doing an MA there too.  If you get to the postgraduate level you can talk to the professors as much as you want and they will give you rec letters. There are no standardized tests anywhere in Japanese colleges, (normal- nonstandardized tests for undergrads sure but that happens in the US too). grad education is seminar based.  Plus there are generous fellowship options. In addition usually there is some form of  language training.

Also, sure, there are seminars. But seminars can mean many things. In the U.K., seminars actually mean colloquia where a bunch of guest speakers come and give out a lecture every week and there is a short Q@A session right after the lecture. Size of seminars in the U.K.,  at least, in my current school, is huge. This is what seminar means in the U.K.

As for Japanese seminars, to my knowledge, the class sizes in Japan are general huge, sometimes jumbo.(of course, with exceptions). How many people are your seminars?

[kaykaykay]

1 hour ago, historicallinguist said:

Also, sure, there are seminars. But seminars can mean many things. In the U.K., seminars actually mean colloquia where a bunch of guest speakers come and give out a lecture every week and there is a short Q@A session right after the lecture. Size of seminars in the U.K.,  at least, in my current school, is huge. This is what seminar means in the U.K.

As for Japanese seminars, to my knowledge, the class sizes in Japan are general huge, sometimes jumbo.(of course, with exceptions). How many people are your seminars?

No they were proper seminars with 10-15 people. And you belong to an advisor too who will have a special seminar to his/her students. Plus he/she will advise you on your thesis. Actually better master's programs than in the US as in Japan MA is a step towards the PhD. (the PhD program will not have any educational part and it is 3 years like in the UK)

Edited March 6, 2016 by kaykaykay

[kaykaykay]

1 hour ago, historicallinguist said:

Maybe I am wrong. But I do not understand why, based on my experiences with international students from Japan in the U.S., they seem to me so desperately trying to go to school in the U.S. at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and subsequently make every attempt to try to stay in the U.S., if what you said is indeed true.  The bottom line is, everything else being equal, you will be likely to do more works and put in more efforts in a Japanese university to achieve the same grades that you can more easily to get in an American university. (of course, there are exceptions, I have to admit, but this is the general trend, I think).

 

 

I meant fellowships for international students. You do not have to write any of the entrance exams when you get those. You do not have to compete with Japanese students. You do not even have to compete with Chinese or Korean students who have their own programs. I did not have to. If the Japanese Ministry of education wants you you are in (look at MEXT scholarships) but there are a bunch of others. Also the OP wanted to learn Japanese. So I guess his goal is not to get good grades only (btw in small seminars it is much easier to get good grades). I am not sure why you want to discourage people from studying in Japan. The language is difficult but if you want to learn it anyways it is fairly nice (full tuition, good stipend, beautiful cities, good food). undergraduate education has big classes and it is less personal but I am at in a big public university in the US and we have huge classes as well.

Edited March 6, 2016 by kaykaykay

[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!

[fencergirl]

Hi @Sety. So just to clarify you are thinking of either going straight into a Masters program for Japanese Language (in the US or Japan?), or doing JET or similar first to increase your language skills? Also, I guess I wonder why you want to teach Japanese language as opposed to something else related to Japan? It seems like you want to go down a teaching path - what are your feelings about doing ESL or TEFL in the United States?

As to whether your goal is realistic... Unfortunately I'm going to have to agree with some of the others above and say no. Possible, maybe, but realistic, no. As others have mentioned, you will be at a huge disadvantage not being a native speaker. Furthermore, even native speakers with excellent qualifications in teaching Japanese language often cannot get a tenure-track job but adjunct or teach at community colleges. If you are open to those kinds of positions, there's (maybe?) a chance. But is that really a worthwhile payoff after the years of hard work and the expenses of a graduate degree? I'm not so sure.

But if you think if is, you will definitely need to improve your language skills first. You say you have taken 2 years of Japanese level Japanese. To be honest, that's not very much. I remember reading that for English speakers studying Japanese without any kanji background, it takes on average something like 6 years to achieve proficiency in Japanese versus only 1-2 years in a language like Spanish or French. (Of course you can definitely do it faster depending on how many hours you put in per week, such as in an immersion program). And that's to achieve proficiency, not the kind of fluency you would need to be Japanese language professor at university. Just to get an idea of your ability, have you taken the JLPT?

I think you need to get experience living in Japan. The best way to improve your Japanese is by living in Japan, and (this is coming from someone with experience) realizing what a huge gap there is between a couple years of college Japanese and actual fluency. Also, language is intimately related with culture and there are certain things you will not be able to understand without having the experience of living there. An intensive language program like the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies would be ideal, but that has a pretty hefty price tag. On JET at least you are actually earning money and still should have plenty of time to study. There are also some Master's programs in Japanese Studies these days where you can take Japanese culture/history/etc classes while also taking Japanese language classes. This would also be another option, and is less expensive than a Master's program in the U.S. Definitely look into the Monbukagakusho scholarships as well for graduate study and language study in Japan. 

Perhaps you can try out one of those options while keeping an open mind about your career path. After a couple years you may find you want something different than you thought, like government work or translating. As far as applying to graduate schools in the U.S., you definitely need 3 recommendations but not all 3 have to be from Japanese language professors. Academic references are generally better though unless you have an a really strong professional reference (ideally from someone in a related field).

Anyway, these are just my recommendations based on studying Japanese for ~6 years and living in Japan for 3 of those years (btw, I'm not fluent yet though I passed JLPT N2 and can converse comfortably on most subjects). Seems like the best thing to do would be to get advice from someone who has actually done what you want to do, like your professor. I hope you don't feel too discouraged but rather are better aware of your options.

[historicallinguist]

3 hours ago, kaykaykay said:

I meant fellowships for international students. You do not have to write any of the entrance exams when you get those. You do not have to compete with Japanese students. You do not even have to compete with Chinese or Korean students who have their own programs. I did not have to. If the Japanese Ministry of education wants you you are in (look at MEXT scholarships) but there are a bunch of others. Also the OP wanted to learn Japanese. So I guess his goal is not to get good grades only (btw in small seminars it is much easier to get good grades). I am not sure why you want to discourage people from studying in Japan. The language is difficult but if you want to learn it anyways it is fairly nice (full tuition, good stipend, beautiful cities, good food). undergraduate education has big classes and it is less personal but I am at in a big public university in the US and we have huge classes as well.

This sounds like some fellowships that are nationality-based. If this is the case, it would be something extremely competitive to actually get it. Second, I think in terms of finance it does not seem to me it is a wise option to study in Japan. True, some highly competitive fellowship by Japanese Ministry of Education (i.e. Bunkasho) offer full funding for international students. But would the stipend be sufficient for you to live a decent life in an expensive place such as Tokyo? You can certainly try, but I think it would be really hard.

Tuition is quite cheap in Japan compared with U.S. institutions. It is not surprising that these fellowship would cover the tuition. But you need to also consider the implications of the  cheap price tag as it is relevant to the quality of the education you get, regardless whether it is funded or non-funded. 

I studied Japanese and I am fluent in it. But I have never been to Japan. Nor do I have any intention to go to that place for studying, getting a job, or living, etc, in the near future. I feel that it is a really gerontocratic society and it is better for me to get old first and then to visit there so that I could be better positioned, whether it is for a job, researching, or studying.

 

 

 

[historicallinguist]

 

 

3 hours ago, kaykaykay said:

No they were proper seminars with 10-15 people. And you belong to an advisor too who will have a special seminar to his/her students. Plus he/she will advise you on your thesis. Actually better master's programs than in the US as in Japan MA is a step towards the PhD. (the PhD program will not have any educational part and it is 3 years like in the UK)

If this is the case, I would strongly recommend people not to do a MA/Ph.D. in Japan. First, it sounds like there is only one person who will take care of the supervision of your thesis. It sounds very similar to the U.K. system. This is not really the ideal thing you want to get because there is very little hand-holding you can get out of this very one person.

In addition, I doubt whether you will have the freedom to choose advisor for your MA program in Japan. I bet it is assigned to you, whether you like this person or not. This could create potential problem, if you dislike this person but cannot change this guy/gal. Still, I think you will get much more personal attentions from a Thesis committee in the U.S. than a single thesis supervisor in Japan (and in the U.K.). 

I am not sure whether Japanese Ph.D.s have dissertation committee. But I bet there is no such thing in Japan. Your description sounds like you are going to have a single supervisor to take care of the progress of your Ph.D. dissertation throughout the three years, not unlike what is happening in a U.K. Ph.D. program. If this is the case, how are you going to get there references in the future? If this single person has absolute say on your future, that is, whether you can get your Ph.D. or not, it will also be problematic because it could be possible that this single supervisor may abuse the absolute power endowed on him/her so as to take advantage of you. I still think a democratic way, i.e. by majority vote of a dissertation committee, makes more sense, to prevent potential abuse of power.

Edited March 7, 2016 by historicallinguist

[kaykaykay]

2 hours ago, historicallinguist said:

This sounds like some fellowships that are nationality-based. If this is the case, it would be something extremely competitive to actually get it. Second, I think in terms of finance it does not seem to me it is a wise option to study in Japan. True, some highly competitive fellowship by Japanese Ministry of Education (i.e. Bunkasho) offer full funding for international students. But would the stipend be sufficient for you to live a decent life in an expensive place such as Tokyo? You can certainly try, but I think it would be really hard.

Tuition is quite cheap in Japan compared with U.S. institutions. It is not surprising that these fellowship would cover the tuition. But you need to also consider the implications of the  cheap price tag as it is relevant to the quality of the education you get, regardless whether it is funded or non-funded. 

I studied Japanese and I am fluent in it. But I have never been to Japan. Nor do I have any intention to go to that place for studying, getting a job, or living, etc, in the near future. I feel that it is a really gerontocratic society and it is better for me to get old first and then to visit there so that I could be better positioned, whether it is for a job, researching, or studying.

 

 

 

Monbukagakusho. it shows that you are fluent in Japanese. Graduate stipend (after tuition ) is about 155000Y(no tax on it) which is quite enough to live on even in Tokyo. Tokyo is actually not that expensive.you can rent for about 50K . To compare I pay double that amount currently for a shared apartment. You use the 100K to live. It was enough for a quite lavish life compared to here.

Edited March 7, 2016 by kaykaykay

[kaykaykay]

2 hours ago, historicallinguist said:

 

 

If this is the case, I would strongly recommend people not to do a MA/Ph.D. in Japan. First, it sounds like there is only one person who will take care of the supervision of your thesis. It sounds very similar to the U.K. system. This is not really the ideal thing you want to get because there is very little hand-holding you can get out of this very one person.

In addition, I doubt whether you will have the freedom to choose advisor for your MA program in Japan. I bet it is assigned to you, whether you like this person or not. This could create potential problem, if you dislike this person but cannot change this guy/gal. Still, I think you will get much more personal attentions from a Thesis committee in the U.S. than a single thesis supervisor in Japan (and in the U.K.). 

I am not sure whether Japanese Ph.D.s have dissertation committee. But I bet there is no such thing in Japan. Your description sounds like you are going to have a single supervisor to take care of the progress of your Ph.D. dissertation throughout the three years, not unlike what is happening in a U.K. Ph.D. program. If this is the case, how are you going to get there references in the future? If this single person has absolute say on your future, that is, whether you can get your Ph.D. or not, it will also be problematic because it could be possible that this single supervisor may abuse the absolute power endowed on him/her so as to take advantage of you. I still think a democratic way, i.e. by majority vote of a dissertation committee, makes more sense, to prevent potential abuse of power.

I chose my advisor, worked with other professors. I am really not sure why you discuss these issues without any knowledge about them, each and every one of your guesses are wrong. I just said that the MA is better than in the US, I do not think the PhD is better but then again, I think it is comparable to many countries

[historicallinguist]

4 minutes ago, kaykaykay said:

I chose my advisor, worked with other professors. I am really not sure why you discuss these issues without any knowledge about them, each and every one of your guesses are wrong. I just said that the MA is better than in the US, I do not think the PhD is better but then again, I think it is comparable to many countries

Okay, maybe I am wrong and what I said is not applicable to your field (I assume you are in political science). But I still do not understand that, if the MA in Japan (in linguistics/second language acquisition) is essentially better and more affordable than MA in the U.S., why are there more people from Japan trying to study in the U.S. than people from the U.S. trying to study in Japan?

 

[amayadoli]

On 2016/3/5 at 8:58 PM, Sety said:

I have a Bachelors in English (with a pretty bad GPA: 3.06 Overall *this was the result of taking a science major for the first two years, and I ended up switching my major to English when I realized I rather focus on a subject I actually liked*). So, I already know I'm in pretty bad shape for a Masters program at the moment. 

My dream goal is to be a Japanese Language professor in an American university. 

I have taken 2 years of Japanese language during college, and I absolutely loved it!  I have only 2 recommendation letters from my Japanese professors. I have been to Japan two times (2 weeks in total), and I taught in South Korea to get teaching experience. Originally, I was aiming to get into JET and obtain fluency first, but I'm still confused with my position in life, and I'd like to know which seems more ideal and realistic.

I'm currently teaching English online for a pretty popular company, so my teaching experience is continuing to progress. I also have 1 recommendation letter from the Korean middle school I taught at last year, if that helps with anything. (Although, to be frank, the letter is pretty simple and poorly written in English).

A few more things I'm concerned with is if a college did want me is the fact that I have absolutely no money to pay for a Graduate School loan. I'm barely making enough money to even pay for my undergrad loan.

I've researched schools with Japanese Language departments, but they all seem to want three recommendation letters, and I'm afraid my intermediate level skills aren't enough? I'm continuing to study Japanese on my own, but if you have any suggestions, I will gladly listen to them.

Hi! I'm currently a Ph.D. student in Japanese Linguistics, and I am employed as a Graduate Teaching Associate in Japanese Language.

For a graduate program in Japanese, unfortunately two years is a little low. Generally, in my department non-native speakers enter with at least seven years or so of study, and the ones that teach have held JLPT N1 certification for a few years. Though, many of them spent several years abroad before entering the program, so it's not really necessary that you learn Japanese during undergrad or anything--as long as you have the in-country experience to balance it out, it's fine. 

(As a side note, JET really isn't the best way to obtain fluency, and the application process is both needlessly complicated and largely random. Interac also lets you teach in schools, and they offer in-company language lessons for teachers wanting to improve their Japanese. I haven't worked through them personally, but several people in my building the last time I was in Japan did, and they seemed to enjoy it.)

In language departments, graduate students are most typically employed to teach the language (at least at large universities). The better your language skills when you enter, the more likely you are to be awarded funding.

Someone above mentioned getting an MA in Japan to improve your Japanese--this is also not a bad idea. However, be aware that most programs (that are completely in Japanese) will require at least N2 certification, if not N1, for admission, so working for a year or two while you attend a Japanese language school would probably be the better option in the mean time. (As a side note, if you would be okay with teaching Japanese at the high school level, Waseda University offers an in-English masters degree in Applied Japanese Linguistics which is focused on training non-native teachers of Japanese. Definitely not adequate training to teach college level, but I've seen far less qualified Japanese high school teachers here in the States. This is the website: http://www.waseda.jp/gsjal/english/)

Contrary to several of the comments above, it is absolutely not impossible to be employed as a Japanese professor as a non-native speaker. Non-natives from my department regularly graduate and go on to hold Japanese language teaching positions while also carrying out research on their own. However, it does require extensive teaching experience, near-native fluency (meaning 10+ years Japanese language experience), making serious connections at conferences, and the support of a program with a language pedagogy program within the department. 

EDIT: Also, I'm a non-native speaker. I just realized I didn't make that entirely clear.

Edited March 21, 2016 by amayadoli
added information

[historicallinguist]

8 hours ago, amayadoli said:

hold Japanese language teaching positions while also carrying out research on their own

What kind of research? I am just a little bit curious.

[amayadoli]

1 hour ago, historicallinguist said:

What kind of research? I am just a little bit curious.

I mean, it depends on your research interests and where you were hired. Two of the linguistics track students who graduated a year or two ago got R1 TT positions where they teach both Japanese lx and language, and they still carry out their own research where they are. 

My department has three official tracks (linguistics, literature, and pedagogy), and it also houses some who fall outside those tracks somewhat (like ethnomusicology, history, anthropology, etc.), so it's not as though everyone in a language department is there for the exclusive reason of teaching the language.  However, we all receive the training to teach language regardless of actual research specialty, and that goes for every language department at my school afaik.