Yet the face of Japanese language learning is changing. But these are the exceptions that prove the rule. The Center also has superb and comprehensive courses in politics, economics, business, etc. Japanese programs I attended were also uniformly geared to churn out academics and scholars of Japan, the two notable exceptions being Cornell University’s FALCON program, which puts almost all its focus on speaking/listening, and the Inter-University Center in Yokohama, which goes out of its way to accommodate each student’s goals and desires. Any professor I talked to would either look slightly disappointed, or ask if I were referring to translating literature or Genji Monogatari (psshaw! Everyone knows Heike Monogatari is where the fun is). I was pretty much discouraged from going into translation from the very beginning. I will skip most of my history with Japan and Japanese so as not to bore you readers, but suffice to say like many reading this I came from a heavily academic background before getting into translation and interpretation. I double majored in Linguistics and East Asian Language and Culture with a focus on Chinese and Japanese, and have been studying Japanese around nine years, and Chinese six years. I have professional experience doing Japanese to English translation, which is what I do for the UN, and English to Japanese translation (very rarely), as well as Japanese to English and English to Japanese simultaneous and consecutive interpretation. I currently translate for a specialized branch of the United Nations in Geneva (think your employment is limited to Japan or the US? Wrong!) while at the same time doing freelance and working my way towards a Master’s in Translation & Interpretation. Not just translation, but professional translation as a full-time career. I’m going to talk about another choice: translation. ![]() Whether it’s because most language learners- or at least those interested in such “exotic” languages as Japanese- are inherently more liberal and academia-leaning, or whether it’s because of institutional pressure, many people assume their only choice with a BA in Japanese is to specialize in an aspect of Japanese history or culture and get a Master’s, PhD, and become a professor. ![]() But there is a huge difference between Japanese language programs and, for example, Russian language programs, that many aren’t aware of – the push to academia. Japanese is a popular language at universities and other institutions, consistently having more people enrolled than languages such as Russian and those whose roots run much deeper in Western culture than Japanese ever did. The world of Japanese language learning is quite an interesting place. Ever wonder what it takes to be a translator? Considering going outside of academia with your Japanese? See what he has to say about where your Japanese can take you and how to get there. This week we have a special guest article on translation by a professional in the field.
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