Should I go for it and study something really unusual?

Question

I am interested in studying Japanese at university, because I've been learning it for three years now and am really interested in it! The only thing holding me back is wondering whether it would really be useful, and whether I could get a decent job with it that doesn't involve moving to the other side of the world? I don't have any career ideas yet, so I just want to do something I enjoy for now, but would this cost me in future?

I am taking French at A Level at the moment, and got an A in my AS, and I am also bilingual German and English, but I don't have the same interest in the language and culture of French than I do for Japanese so I don't really want to study it, and anyway, everyone does French. Can I have some opinions please?

Answer 1

Bi lingual sales people can earn loads if they are in the right area of sales! Just go for it! Good luck.

Answer 2

If you don't want to move to Japan the jobs you could do here, other than translation would be working in the tourist industry, working at a Japanese company with offices / factories in the UK such as Nissan, teaching, working for the foreign office. Possibly journalism.

One thing you could do is e-mail the uni you are thinking of going to and asking them where there graduates are working now.  

Answer 3

Absolutely, the way things are going at the moment we may not be surprised if English becomes less of a world class language. If that happens, anyone who can speak four languages is going to be earning lots, and even if it doesn't, Japanese businessmen would be snapping up anyone who can speak both languages.

Or, you could teach it, or become a Japanese tourist rep, or an airhostess, or anything, really. I bet there are loads of fantastic unusual jobs that you'd never get without a degree in Japanese.

Answer 4

Go with your heart; you should always enjoy what you study and you seem really passionate about this. You clearly have a talent for languages and culture and enjoy learning more about it.

Also try and research some career ideas if you are worried about this. I'm sure Japanese is just as useful as French, and as it is not that widely learnt, you may find you will have less competition when it comes to finding a job.

Answer 5

you can become a translator =0

listen if you like something then go for it

Answer 6

You could do joint honours, french and japanese. Then you will know 4 languages. Possibly you would do japanese as the main subject meaning you will study the language and the culture, whilst just studying french language. Just an idea you could look into if you want.

Answer 7

If that's what you're passionate about, definitely go for it!

Languages are useful in all sorts of jobs, not just the obvious ones like translating and language teaching etc.

You're more likely to get a job if you have a good degree in Japanese than a poor degree in something else.

Answer 8

Yeah you could become a translator or a teacher in a college or university in which you teach japanese...If you really want to do it, then go for it and see where it takes you. You never know you may change your mind and want to go to the other side of the world...you are still young and your opinions will change in the future.  

Answer 9

you could be a translator...the more languages you know the better.