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AnonymousAndrew AKA Tony Robbins everyone!
He probably gets paid more and gets more sex out of it.
I’m bigging you All up for free even you b-b von crumb can be a useful member of society.
DOES BB STAND FOR BROKEN BISCUIT?
Do you know Dave Liquorice?
No matter what you will never become Japanese. This is completely down to the fact of how you look. However I feel like Hikosaemon(Jvlogger) came fairly close working a salary-man job for several years at the exact same level as Japanese, but ended breaking down due to stress. That should be enough proof of it being able to be done, but he is fluent in Japanese as well.
Despite the really really horrible audio, I feel like you should watch this, and it might help make you understand things better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYvpHPT0ZM0I deeply respect this guy for what he has achieved.
Well this topic has certainly evolved, haha. That’s good though, lots of interesting info here.
Since it seems like I need a 4 year degree (or at least it makes it much easier) to work in Japan, that’s really going to be my biggest decision I’m thinking about now.
Do I:
A) Just continue focusing on art(already have an associates) while studying Japanese as a hobby (taking tourist trips)
B) Go back to school for 2-3years to get a Bachelors in Japanese while doing art on the side. I know people said to not major in Japanese, but I feel I would rather do that than to get a bachelors in art. For art jobs, degrees don’t really matter. They want to see your portfolio. So that’s why I’d rather major in Japanese. This would be a very big change for me, so it is a very difficult decision to make. Going to school for another 2-3 years doesn’t sound awesome, but working in Japan does.Another possibility, is I hear you need a Bachelors or Bachelors equivilent. I wonder how they’d accept having 2 associates instead haha. For example, if I just got a minor in Japanese.
I wish I knew more about art-related jobs so that I’d be able to provide some advice, but, unfortunately, I’m rather ignorant about that stuff. But, if you want an ignorant person’s thoughts, here they are: it seems the point of majoring in Japanese (for you – I’m assuming) would be to master the language as much as possible stateside. If I understand you correctly, you do not want to actually use that degree for a job, it’s rather for fluency purposes. I’m going to operate on the assumption that you want to do something art/graphics related for your job (that’s what I gather, at least). If this is your goal, and you were to major in Japanese, then it seems you would have to also work on your art skills and portfolio on the side. However, let’s say you decided to continue with art for your bachelors instead. In order to achieve fluency, you would have to study Japanese on the side. Well, in this limited scenario, I see two possible paths:
(a) Degree in Japanese, Art on side or,
(b) Degree in Art, Japanese on side
In order to better choose, it seems you need to think about which one would be easier to do. Would it be easier to learn Japanese on the side or to work on your art skills/portfolio on the side?
Personally, here’s my advice. I would (and this is of course me, my reasoning, you are a completely different person than me) get a bachelors in art and learn Japanese on the side, and here’s why. I think it would be easier to learn Japanese on the side rather than work on your portfolio on the side. In order to snag a job, I would think that your skills/portfolio need to be pretty damn good. While your Japanese needs to be very good, as well, it probably doesn’t need to be as good. It seems that it would be easier to get your Japanese to the “required proficiency level” through self-study than it would be to get your art skills/portfolio to that level through self-study(I, of course, do not know your skills, so this is a guess). Thus, college would help you better your art-skillz more than self-study could (again, guessing), and self-study, if done well enough, could be enough for your Japanese.Also, say you get a job in Japan. It would be easier to improve your language once there than it would be to improve your art. Thus, it would be better to go to Japan with your art being better than your Japanese, and I think option (b) would do that.
Those are my ignorant, rambling thoughts on your matter. Hopefully there was something useful in there.
EDIT: I wrote that assuming you were going to go back to school, which apparently is not actually decided yet. So, it’s potential use is very limited since I make a lot of assumptions, but whatever.
As for myself, I too wish to work in Japan in the future. My plan is to be a math professor/researcher at a university. In order to accomplish this, I plan to double major in mathematics and Japanese in college. The next step is where I’m uncertain. I know I want to go to graduate school to earn a doctorate, but I’m unsure where. If I went to a Japanese university for graduate school, that would make getting a professorship job there easier, plus I’d be able to improve my language skills and learn more about the culture at the same time. If I went to an American/English graduate school, getting my foot into some Japanese university’s door may be harder.
I know it will be difficult, but I am confident that if I always strive towards my goal, I will achieve it, one way or another. It’s what I want to do, and I only have one life to do it in, so I might as well try my hardest to get there despite the setbacks. That’s my thinking, at least.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by
Patrick.
Thanks for the advice. Since it’s been a bit, I thought I’d post another update. I’ve been thinking over and researching my options. I’ve actually started the wheels of motion, and sent in a re-entry form to my university with the intended major of Japanese.
So while I’m still considering the above options, here’s a new option C.
C) I major in Japanese. Goal being to get a bachelor’s and teach English for a few years, and then transition into a localization or translation job once I’m more fluent with the language. Ideally I’d want to localize video games for the Japanese market or vice versa. To my knowledge, there limited jobs for this both in US and Japan. So if I decide I want to go back to the states, there’s still a job market. I assume these positions are hard to get and get filled quickly? I’m only guessing. Worst case scenario is that I find some other translation job (I’m sure there’s got to be something). But I’d be lying if I said that this Option C wasn’t the option I was leaning towards the most at the moment.I realize that getting a bachelors in art would probably make more sense and take less time (as more credits would transfer), but I can’t deny the fact that lately I’ve been devoting more time to my Japanese than my art. I figure I’m going to try out the Japanese major. The first year at least would be a light class load since my GERs are basically done. This will give me time to work on my 3D Art still just in-case. Because eventually I feel I will have to make the choice of either going full Japanese focus or full art focus. One will eventually overtake the other. Maybe I’m wrong? But 3D can take a lot of time.
Now, back to option C. I hear Japan looks at age a bit for teaching jobs and that if you want to teach at a university level, you would need to go to grad school. I don’t want to teach at a university level, I was just examining the possible career paths. I just want to teach for 3-5 years or whatever, and then move onto something like localization of games. Hopefully I wouldn’t need to go to grad school for that? So about the age thing – I’m 23 now. Assuming I’d be 27 before I move to work in Japan. Will that be too old for the teaching jobs? Or is that still young for Japan?
This topic has been really helpful, btw. I know every post is just an opinion, but sometimes that’s what you need to just bounce stuff back and forth.
27 is not too old at all.
I came here when I was 23, now 26. My brother was 27 when he came, and one of my coworkers was 31 when he came. I’ve even heard cases of some older (into mid or late 30s) but I will admit, the majority tend to be younger, but I think this is just because more younger kids apply and so they out-weigh the older ones.
27 is fine.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by
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