BA (Hons) Japanese Studies, Graduated 2008

The four years I had studying at Leeds were fantastic; the city is lively, the course was stimulating and exciting and the student atmosphere on and off campus was excellent, I had mixed emotions at graduation when I realised that my student life was over and now I had to move on to a career.

I chose to study at Leeds because it has an excellent reputation for East Asian languages and I knew from past experience that it had great student nightlife. I had never studied Japanese before, but I had learnt both French and German at school and since I had an interest in Japan, I thought university would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about a language and culture that fascinated me.

The first year was a very intense, fast paced introduction to the Japanese language and to various aspects of contemporary Japanese society. The Japanese lessons and the social events organised by the Japanese society meant that there was ample opportunity to practice speaking with the teachers and with the Japanese exchange students. The Japanese teachers were always on hand to answer questions or give extra assistance. I did find the first year very challenging, there was a lot to learn in a short space of time but the second year spent abroad in Japan more than made up for it.

For my second year I stayed with a host family while studying at Konan University in Kobe. The Year in Japan programme provided by Konan was a purpose built exchange programme with about 25 students from American, Canadian and English universities, consisting of small conversation based classes every day in the morning and cultural classes in the afternoons. My Japanese improved dramatically as I was totally immersed in the language day and night; my host family were excellent and took me away skiing and away for some of the Japanese national holidays. There was about 30 of us from Leeds going to different universities in Japan for the year abroad and a few of us all met up for New Years in Tokyo, which was an amazing experience.

The third and four year at Leeds was based around consolidating and improving the Japanese we had learned abroad, studying new vocabulary through reading comprehension exercises based on topics that we as a group could choose, such as American troops in Okinawa issue. The teaching was very good and once again the language teachers were very supportive and willing to help if we had questions or needed further assistance.

In addition to the compulsory Japanese language modules, there was also a large amount of elective modules that could be taken based on personal preference. One of the reasons for me choosing to study Japanese was to forge a career in international business and I was able to take Japanese business, politics and literature classes. The teaching was outstanding and all of the classes were very enjoyable and have proved to be very useful to me. The staff and everyone on the course were very friendly and we formed a very close-knit community.

As a city Leeds is fantastic, there is plenty to do and there is never a dull moment. The University is located very close to the city centre as is the majority of the student accommodation. I stayed in Devonshire Halls for my first year and immediately met friends for life. The Halls were within easy walking distance to shops, restaurants and bars.

Since graduating in 2008, I signed up with a Japanese recruitment agency in London and almost straight away I was offered a job working in Nikkei's European Headquarters, marketing their economics database service to financial institutions. I am using my degree on a daily basis and I consider myself very lucky to have had such an enjoyable University experience.