Linguistics and Japanese Studies BA

This four-year course is run jointly with the School of East Asian Studies (SEAS).

You spend your third year at one of our partner universities in Japan.

In Linguistics, compulsory modules provide you with the analytical tools and concepts that are essential for anyone studying human language. Optional modules give you the chance to specialise in areas of the subject that catch your imagination, including language acquisition, historical linguistics, or the study of language in its social and cultural contexts.

The Japanese side of the course combines intensive study of the Japanese language with modules on Japan and East Asia. Modules include contemporary society, minorities, politics, economics, gender, modern history, business management and international relations. There are also modules in modern literature and the pre-modern language.

SEAS teach Japanese intensively from scratch - speaking, listening, reading and writing. You learn phonetic scripts (kana) from the outset, and learn roughly 2,000 Sino-Japanese characters (kanji) needed over the four years of the course.

By the end of the first year you will have covered most of the core grammar of the language. From the second year you start to deal with real texts, including newspapers.