Recently I’ve been asked a lot of questions about my course at Sophia. Originally I just replied to the emails but as a lot of them had similar questions I realized writing this FAQ would be useful both for me (as a time saver!) and for people interested. If you have any questions that aren’t on this FAQ, please don’t hesitate to send me an email, and I’ll either add it to here or reply to you privately.
1. What Is Sophia Like? (Accurate: 2010)
Easily the most common question, and also the hardest to answer. I’m going to answer question in relation to my experience and that of other exchange students. I’ll start with the good points. It’s right in the centre of Tokyo, making it nice and easy to get to (although not so much if you end up in one of their distant dormitories, like I did…) and also handy for going out. The building and it’s facilities are, for the most part, really nice and modern. The library is big and useful, apart from the annoying ‘Please be quiet in the library’ announcements which are by far the loudest thing in there.
OK, the bad points. Whilst I think Sophia is a good university, I think it has a long way to go in terms of exchange students. That is 100% true when it comes to management. I hate to say it, but the people in the international department office are beyond unhelpful, they are downright uninterested. I’ve been to them more than once asking for help or assistance, and every single time they have let me down. On top of that, the system Sophia uses is very strict. Despite explaining multiple times that I cannot, as a UK student, receive credit for English language classes I am being forced to take six hours a week of them. I know this is standard procedure by friends at other universities (for example, Chuo) are taking all their classes in Japanese. Sophia has good support for exchange students, but if you want to experience real university life as opposed to the foreign experience, forget about Sophia.
I know that gives Sophia a hugely bad image, but that’s just me. I think if you can get credit, or if you want to study something alongside Japanese, it’s a great system. But it is very strict. Interacting with non-English speaking students is also a challenge, as everyone in your department will speak English. I advise joining a non-recommended circle or club to get around this.
2. What are the Japanese classes like? (Accurate: 2010)
Quite good, I think. Yes, there’s a lot of memorization and plenty of words you will never use, but that’s just a fact of language learning. Especially under the Japanese approach. The teachers in general know what they’re doing, and when you go into higher classes there’s good chance to practice speaking. In comparison to my course at Sheffield the amount of work is far lower, although I don’t know how much I do in comparison to other universities.
My only complaint is that the textbooks are really old. I wish they’d change them. I am sick of reading about what people think of the employment system of 1994.
3. What is your curriculum like? (Accurate: 2010)
You have to take at least 10 hours a week of classes. Mandatory Japanese will take up between 6-8 of these (or more if you take the intensive course, although I didn’t so I know nothing about it). As a result I have to take these daft courses in history and so on. The university will not let you take courses taught in Japanese unless you have passed JLPT 1. Yes, it’s an incredibly stupid restriction, especially on students who don’t need to pass classes. If you want to try to fight this limit I wish you all the best, but you will be going up against the ever lackluster FLA Department staff.
4. Should I go to Sophia? (Accurate: Forever? I guess?)
I think it depends on your ability. If you’ve never studied Japanese or you are beginner / low intermediate (JLPT 4 or JLPT 3 level) I would say yes, definitely. The beginner classes, from what I can tell, are pretty good, and there’s English support on hand. The Intermediate and advanced (JLPT 2+/1) classes are good too, so from an academic standpoint I would say yes. But for those who want to immerse themselves in Japanese I would seriously reconsider. You will be speaking English at least six hours a week in your English taught classes. There is no getting around this, the university is ridiculously dedicated to these rules. I would say a university outside Tokyo (for example Kanazawa or Okayama) would be more suited to the ‘All Japanese All The Time’ approach.
5. Do you like Sophia? (Accurate: Until I die)
I am 50/50 about the place. Some days, when I manage to avoid the bizarre administration, speak a decent amount of Japanese and generally get the feeling I’m in Japan, it’s a great place. Very international, lots of people mixing a lot and it’s a great time. Half the time however I just feel like I’m in a state university in America. If I could choose again, I would not choose Sophia but that’s because it has too many exchange students in my opinion. But I think as far as academia goes it’s a great university.
I tried to be as honest as possible in this FAQ. As you can imagine it’s probably not what Sophia want to see on the internet but I value honesty so I’m going to post it. Who knows – maybe one day they will allow us to enter other departments, and that simple rule change would I think make a huge difference. I don’t see it happening any time soon, but it would be lovely.
I hope this has been useful in letting you make a decision. Obviously, everything here is subjective. It’s my opinion that I based on my experiences. I’m sure there are plenty of people at Sophia who love every minute of it. I’m just not one of them.
Possibly Related Content:
Would it not be possible for you to just go into lectures in Japanese and sit in the room? At the lectures that I went to nobody took a register or anything…
It sucks that you’re forced to do so much in English!!
Jen: That is probably what I will do. But it’s irritating to know I’m going to get loads of bad marks and poor attendance just because I go to lectures I care about.
I don’t think you’ve been too harsh at all. I plan on going on exchange for 12 months in 2012 and it’s really important to me that I don’t spend all my time speaking in English with other gaijin.
There are a lot of people who just go on exchange for the experience and they’re not too interested in studying the language. So it sounds like Sophia would probably suit them just fine.
Exchange takes up a lot of time and money so I’m sorry it hasn’t been exactly what you wanted. That said I know you’re making the best of it and have joined a club etc which is a good lesson to anyone wanting to study abroad.
Anyway, thank you for writing this post. I’ve googled and googled for blog posts about the universities I’m interested in and have come up with nothing! So I’m sure your faq will be a great insight to future students. :)
Good read there Mike.
I don’t think you were being too critical, rather just open and honest about your own personal experience there at Sophia. Everyone will have varying views towards it and it is really good to hear an opinion that isn’t 100% biased towards glorious praise or outright hatred towards the university.
If I can just echo what you mentioned about joining university circles/societies whilst at a university in Japan. I found myself in a very similar situation when I was at Kanazawa University – living in a foreign students hall and speaking English almost all day every day. I decided to be a bit more proactive about my Japanese learning (and that really is key to anyone that is going through similar things… to be proactive and take those difficult first few steps) and join a couple of societies. I joined the Jazz Big Band bukatsu and a rock musicians circle and within no time I had made some really good friends with fellow club members and speaking Japanese on a regular basis – not to mention playing live at concerts!
I can’t recommend joining societies enough. It really is a tough slog at first getting accepted into them but once you are, you really feel a part of something special.
Hi Mike!
I’m going to study Japanese in the University of Sheffield next year, and I am really excited about the third year in Japan! I would like to ask you if you know if it’s possible to stay in a Japanese host family during the stay; instead of staying in a dorm (is it an available option?)… I could not find any information about this on Sheffield University website unfortunately =( ^^
Thank you very much!
Your blog is awesome by the way! I love reading it !! =D
Lucy
OK, a lot of comments here. Will reply to each one. :)
Amanda: Glad it was useful. I am *not* saying Sophia is a bad uni or that you won’t learn Japanese while you’re here. But it is *very* easy to slip into the gaijin English ‘bubble’ and very hard to get out sometimes.
Jason: Best advice I think is indeed to join clubs. Especially ones without other foreigners. When you come to Sophia you get a big list of clubs. You should bin that list and join clubs not on it.
Lucy: Congratulations on going to Sheffield! I’ll be your Sempai in September! Living in dorms or whatever is a decision made by the host university, not Sheffield. You can at Sophia – I applied for ‘flatmate’ and ‘homestay’ but got neither and ended up in a dormitory for foreigners, which sucks. The dorms are nice but it’s English-tastic.
Great write up. Studying abroad is a big event and an important choice. Like you said it takes a lot of time and money and you want to make the right choice. I say this as a former study abroad student of Waseda and as a former admissions counselor for another University in Japan. However, a big part of the experience you get depends on what you make of it.
Hey there,
Just found your blog, and I really enjoy it! I’m also living in Japan (as an English teacher), so I can really relate to what your write. At my eikaiwa tonight we talked about blood types…I thought I’d google it to learn more, and I came across the post you wrote almost two years ago, making up things for each blood type — so hilarious! :) (Was going to comment on that post, but thought you’d be more likely to see this on your most recent post.)
Anyway…keep up the good work!
Japanese Words: Thanks :)
Dana: Actually, if you see on the right hand side it shows which post the newest comment is on, so even if you comment on my first ever post (Aug 06!) I’ll still see it and reply if I can :)
Thank you for answering my question Mike-sempai! huhu ^_^
Aw, that’s cool…I should set up my blog to be that way!
Thanks for this!
I’ve been planning on studying abroad Spring of 2011, and Sophia is pretty much my only option (it’s the only place in Tokyo that my university sponsors that allows for only one semester – I can’t go full year if I want to graduate on time, due to my major here).
I actually studied for a summer in Nagoya during high school, and was at an international school as opposed to a real Japanese high school. That facet was a pretty big disappointment for me, since not only did it lead to me only really having gaijin friends (despite living with a host family), but I also had issues with the way it was run (I was placed in a super easy Japanese class that left me really unchallenged – and that’s kind of saying a lot because I like it when things are easy, lol). So I think I get a lot of what you’ve been experiencing. :\ I was hoping it’d be different (or that it at least wouldn’t take as much proactivity to get a group of Japanese friends, lol).
So I’m curious – are there many gaijin that that you know at Sophia who have managed to get a lot of Japanese friends? Also, how is the ratio of free time to work/class time? And how much would you say your Japanese has improved thus far?
Sorry for all of the questions. ^.^; I figure if I arm myself with a ton of information before going, I’ll have a better idea of how to handle what is thrown at me. ;)
And thanks for your posts! :) They have been informative and entertaining.
Lucy & Dana: No problem!
Erin: There are foreigners here who have plenty of Japanese friends. Both myself and the other guy from Sheffield both didn’t have many problems. If you’re proactive, outgoing and friendly of course you won’t have a problem. But you WILL end up speaking English quite a bit. The best thing to do is make friends who have no link with the language department. Or just friends who aren’t from Sophia.
The work ratio (good question, I’ll put it in the post when I update it) isn’t too huge. It’s much less than what I did at Sheffield. I don’t get credits from non-Japanese classes so you can just elect to fail those.
I’d say my Japanese speaking and listening have progressed nicely. Not sure about my Kanji…
Waw, what a great description.
THank you so much for all your work here, really nice…