Want to learn Japanese quickly? It's possible..
January 7th, 2009
Cornell University's Japanese/Chinese Intensive FALCON course (http://lrc.cornell.edu/falcon/index.html)
This is arguably the most intensive course offered anywhere in the world, the Japanese course consists of 9 hours of Japanese a day for a summer or up to a whole year.
Everyone I know who has done the year course is literally fluent. Not situational fluent or textbook fluent, I mean actually fluent. Although when you think about it, it's easy to see why..In a year they will have completed 2200 hours of Japanese study under professional native Japanese teachers.
It's geared toward college students, but is open to high school students. Though I think the cut off age is 17, as the dorm system cannot allow people younger than 17 living in the dorms.
To join you need to fill out an application, that among the usual things asks how much do you study Japanese, where have you studied it, what books have you covered, etc. You also need to write an essay on "Your career goals and how they relate to Japan". I believe this is the part that they mainly judge you on. I highly doubt they'd accept someone that put anime or manga as a reason, but would favor someone who said they wished to become a defense lawyer for foreigners in Japan, or a business man, teacher, etc. Also the number 1 thing they look for is motivation, and I see the highest of motivated students having trouble on something like the year course.
Personally for my essay I wrote what I wrote in the "Why are you learning Japanese?" post on this forum, and i've been accepted into the summer Japanese program. I kind of wanted to go to Japan this summer, but I figured why should I go to Japan if my language skills are still crap?
These programs are also very expensive, the summer one is going to cost me $6,000 not including room and board. The academic year course costs around $27,000, the same as tuition to Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences.
So basically I posted this for anyone who really wants to learn Japanese, at any means necessary in the shortest amount of time. A year is a very short amount of time, especially to learn Japanese.
If anyone has questions or such I'll be happy to answer them.
皆さんありがとう:bow:
ええ、日本で英語の教師になるでしょう。そして、日本 で教えましたあとで、アメリカに帰って住みます。でも 、これは変わるかもしれません。
ああ、そうですか？英語を教えに日本に行くと求めてい る価値が助ｪある目的ですね。(The goal of going to Japan to teach is well worth pursuing?) 今は日本にどのぐらいいる嵐閧ｩわからなくても、日本 語を知っていればいるほど面白い旅行が出来るんですね 。「どんなに時間がかかっても日本語をマスターしたいと思う」とか「日本語を流暢になれるためにいか なる努力も惜しまない」というSacredBlueさんのように 誰も私の決意を変えられない。ですから、将来、一、二 年間勉強しに日本に行くつもりです。でも、いまはSacr edBlueさんはお金も時間も沢山あるようだすけど、私は どちらもないんです。:bow:
What about the summer program though? I'm very curious about that part. I checked the site a tad, but could you offer any more info yourself? Did you take the summer or year? What is main differences between the time and material covered?
Thank you for the information Elizabeth. I see if the admin(s) can help me hunt him down. If anybody else has had an experience at either of the institutions mentioned above, please post and let us know about it!
:D :p
Keiichi
:blush:
:bow:
SacredBlue is no longer with us, unfortunately. Specifically, he has only been back once that I know of since this posting circa Jan '04. :bluush:
:D
So, could you please let us know how the summer course progressed, whether or not you feel it was a worthwhile experience and how much your Japanese (all forms (i.e. reading, writing, speaking and listening)) has improved as a result?
I wanted to do a Japanese program at Mulberry, but I decided against it. I wish you luck! Your Japanese skills don't seem too "crappy" to me!
I'd post something in Japanese, but then you'd really see what "crappy" Japanese is!
Good luck!
:clap:
将来「ビズネスとか」に使える見込みがある (Do you have the hope, possibility Japanese can someday be used in business?) ので日本語を勉強していますか？ どうして日本語を勉強していますか？
ところで、「あとでさえ」という阜ｻはなんでしょうか ？ 多分「あとでも」と言いたかったのですか？ [Even afterwards] という意味になりますね。
将来「ビズネスとか」に使える見込みがある (Do you have the hope, possibility Japanese can someday be used in business?) ので日本語を勉強していますか？ どうして日本語を勉強していますか？
ええ、日本で英語の教師になるでしょう。そして、日本 で教えましたあとで、アメリカに帰って住みます。でも 、これは変わるかもしれません。
ところで、「あとでさえ」という阜ｻはなんでしょうか
？ 多分「あとでも」と言いたかったのですか？ [Even afterwards] という意味になりますね。
はい、これを言いたかった。ありがとう！:bow:
I wanted to do a Japanese program at Mulberry, but I decided against it. I wish you luck! Your Japanese skills don't seem too "crappy" to me!
ありがとう＾＾I hear alot about Mulberry, apparently that's where the U.S. Government sends all of it's FBI and CIA agents to be trained. It's also supposed to be very hard, because in the dorm you stay in you're not allowed to talk English (even with friends), watch English movies, read English magazines. All in Japanese! But that's the best way to learn ね
What about the summer program though? I'm very curious about that part. I checked the site a tad, but could you offer any more info yourself? Did you take the summer or year? What is main differences between the time and material covered?
I haven't taken the course yet, I will be taking it this summer. However from talking to the people who've done it and work there I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. The FALCON program uses the book "Japanese: The Spoken Language" by Eleanor Harz Jorden. This book is used for Japanese classes at Cornell Uni, Yale, Wellesly College and up until recently, Harvard. I believe the summer course covers Book 1 and the year covers the whole series.
I have this book, and it's purely focused on speaking, which in essence is what the FALCON course focuses on. Even though the Romaji system used in these books make me sick, students don't need to worry about it because the course focuses that much on speaking and listening. What makes the book shine is how realistic and un-textbook like it is, for example you learn speech patterns and status/gender-specific particles right from the start. So it pretty much does its best to make you speak like a native.
:bow:
I didn't want to do the Japanese program because, although I believe speaking is the most essential part of the program, I probably wouldn't be able to handle it. I know you are thinking "Well, you are going to Japan! You'll have to speak!" I guess I am just trying to hold on to not speaking Japanese, because I sound like a dork. Ha ha ha :)
But, then again, practice makes perfect.
Hey, have any of you ever been to a language school before???
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