Hello and welcome! If you haven’t, you might want to check if there are any internship/research opportunities available in conjunction with your study abroad program there. I know some universities offer internships with their abroad programs in Japan, so OSU may be able to help you there.

I also hope to study abroad in Japan during my junior year. Should be exciting! Best of luck in your studies!

Welcome and hello! I bet there are several great opportunities for Air Force members who know Japanese. Best of luck in your endeavors and studies!

Hello and welcome David! I think planning on using Japanese in your future career is a great way to stay motivated (obligation/necessity is a superb motivator). It’s great that you are already seriously thinking about the future at 14. It will pay off big time in the years to come!

In order to get a profile icon, you should follow this step (taken from Koichi’s “Forum How-To” thread):

Get a profile image

Set up a gravatar at http://gravatar.com with the same email you’re using for TextFugu. It should automatically appear a bit after setting it up (sometimes you have to give it a little time, though).

Best of luck with your studies and ambitions!

Welcome! I also look forward to the day when I can watch anime without subtitles. Good luck!

I think a philosophy thread could be very enlightening, and I expect we would be able to keep it very civil and respectful. Philosophical/religious discussions are wonderfully invigorating; debates are silly and pointless.

And I suppose the reasoning for my position towards whether the word fits comes from my deep love for science. The scientific method is an incredibly powerful tool, and I am in awe of anything (especially anything which is the product of human efforts and thought) that eludes its capabilities. Anyways, perhaps another thread would be better for this discussion.

BBB:

For the record, since starting on the kanji, I do think I couldn’t possibly disagree more with the following statements unless this were sarcasm, Koichi:
(Under the page for 才)
“You have a cross. Why is there a slide / stroke going through the cross? Why, because religion
really was a ‘stroke of genius.’
When you think about crosses and religion, it’s hard to help but think of how it’s changed and affected history. So genius.”

Obviously a remark about Christianity, which bears the cross of their savoir as their symbol. I find my opinion remarkably opposing this, as I find Christianity to be the mark of ignorance, gullibility and thoughtless subservience. I would have probably left with no remark if it wasn’t stating something as ridiculous as basically ‘you should remember the kanji meaning genius by remembering how genius religion is’. That only makes it harder to remember, quite honestly. It goes against everything I’ve come to know, which is going against mnemonics.

Note: Before I begin, I would like to say that I hope I do not offend anyone with my statements; I am not disrespecting anyone’s beliefs or values.

I am not a “religious” person, but I think it is easy to consider religion “genius.” For example, even if one considers religion a completely man-made creation without any truth to the supernatural elements, such elements cannot be disproved by scientific methods (at least, when it comes to the question of the existence of a supreme being). Although recent discoveries have suggested that there was no need for divine intervention for the universe to be created, that does not prove there wasn’t, and we lack the experimental and analytic abilities to do so. Now, regardless of how one feels towards any religion’s doctrine or adherents, that is pretty genius. I would call an argument that cannot be disproved and explicitly requires and promotes faith as a major tenet (in response to the lack of undeniable proof) “genius.” Any complaints against a religion can really be dismissed based off those two qualities, and, if one considers them entirely human creations, than that is a really impressive creation. Also, the point that religion has had such a huge impact on human history is completely valid. Since genius does not imply “correct,” “moral,” or “right,” I think it works quite well.

Like I said, I don’t mean to “debate” religion here (open online debates on religion or politics are rarely smart ideas), but I hope this has perhaps helped in seeing how religion could be considered genius regardless of one’s beliefs and feelings towards it.

(I also wrote that with Christianity mainly in mind, but I am aware that there are many religions to which my points might not fit as well. I am sure there can be considered genius in their own right, in some way or another.)

Good luck with your studies!

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.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by  Patrick.