Japanese and Linguistics

Over the past 150 years, Japan has experienced change at a rapid pace but has nevertheless retained its fascinating cultural heritage.

Study with us and you will develop the linguistic, intercultural and analytical skills to engage with this dynamic society in an interdisciplinary way.

Japanese and Linguistics make an excellent joint honours choice by combining the study of:

• a modern language in its cultural context

• the expression and creation of meaning

You will benefit from the same Japanese language training as our MA (Hons) Japanese students, but will be able to focus your studies on the social scientific understanding of language.

On our programme, Linguistics options of particular relevance to language students cover:

• sociolinguistics - the relationship between language and society

• variation in the languages of the world

• first and second languages acquisition

• Global Englishes

Japanese

Edinburgh is the only university in Scotland to offer undergraduate honours degrees in Japanese.

Our programme has been carefully designed to enable you to become an expert on Japan. You will also learn about the country's place in East Asia, one of the world's most important and influential regions.

Our language courses will develop your skills in speaking, listening to, reading and writing Modern Japanese. You can start the language as a complete beginner, or at a more advanced level - we will place you in the right course for you. Our programme is not for native speakers, but we welcome heritage language learners.

A highlight of the programme is spending Year 3 in Japan, studying abroad and experiencing Japanese culture firsthand.

Linguistics

Linguistics examines how language works, describing how sounds, words, sentences and conversations combine to express and create meaning.

You will also study different aspects of language, including:

• its uses in everyday life

• how its use varies across society and evolves over time

• how it is mastered by children

As you progress through the programme, you will have the opportunity to plan and test scientific hypotheses about linguistic phenomena using specialist linguistics and phonetics equipment.

How long it takes to complete this degree programme

This programme is studied over 4 years, including a year abroad. This enables us to build choice and flexibility into your studies, giving you time to explore options, find what you like and build your skills.

Your first two years will be your pre-honours years. They will give you a good grounding in the Japanese language and in the study of Japan and of linguistics.

In addition to your core courses, you will broaden your education and skill set by choosing option courses from a range of disciplines. This gives you the chance to build your intercultural awareness in other areas of the arts, humanities, social sciences and beyond.

Your final two years will be your honours years. You will spend Year 3 studying abroad, gaining lived experience of Japanese and East Asian culture. Year 4 will be tailored to your interests in specific topics or approaches to Japanese studies and linguistics. You will also further develop your Japanese language and translation skills.

Programme benefits

• Take the only programme of its kind in Scotland.

• Study over four years, including one abroad.

• Combine practical language learning with language science.

• Try out different subjects in your first two years.

• Join societies related to what you are studying.

• Delve into fantastic libraries and collections.