Hi there, hope you're all doing well.
I needed some advice on the process of how a lot of you actually ended up moving, if you wouldn't mind. I don't mean to ask obvious questions, I have researched a lot of my questions but with no actual answers, so I thought it'd be best to ask here.
So, for anyone not in England, we have exams for 16-year-olds called GCSEs over here and exams for 18-year-olds in college/6th form known as A Levels. I did Japanese GCSE and obtained a grade 9 (the highest possible grade) and am expecting either an A or A* in Japanese A Level when I get my results (2nd highest and highest grade, respectively). This puts me at around very high N4 or very low N3 level (it's a little hard to actually assign proper JLPT levels to them because A Level Japanese doesn't have a set vocabulary list like GCSE does, and some kanji that you may expect in certain levels doesn't appear on either specification, whilst some others do) and I plan to continue studying well after this, as I really love the Japanese language! I have reached this level solely by being tutored privately (which I've paid for with my own money) and sitting the exams at a private exam centre. I also plan to take the JLPT relatively soon! I would like to do N3 first and then move to N1 when I feel comfortable enough.
But… the problem is, I'm getting my degree in English Literature. I know that this immediately rules out a lot of potential career pathways for me and may even make it pointless even considering moving entirely, I've read horror stories about how much of a dead-end job teaching can be and how it makes life horrible over in Japan, etc, but because of my awful abilities in STEM subjects such as Mathematics and Science, I wasn't really able to take those subjects for A Level (I would've failed miserably, despite passing both, my 6th form had required GCSE grades for taking either at A Level, which I didn't meet). For my A Levels, I did English Language and Literature, Japanese, Business Studies, Media Studies and an EPQ (EPQ is just a 6,000-word dissertation that you can do optionally in your own time on any topic you choose and get an extra grade from it. I did it because it lowered the entry requirements for my university if I got an A lol), so I didn't really leave myself a lot of options, which is my own fault. Am I totally screwed here? I can't really back out of my degree now and opt for something else (which I couldn't anyway, the options would be worse or equal to an English degree with my A Level subjects), so should I just give up on my dream of living in Japan when I'm older?
I never took up learning Japanese solely because of a desire to move to Japan, I just thought the language itself was very interesting (I'm a massive nerd for foreign languages) and took it on as an extra academic challenge that ended up sticking because of how much I enjoyed learning it. I'm only 18, so perhaps I shouldn't be planning out my life in such a manner, but I've always considered moving to Japan as a 'goal' that I'd like to meet. I've been there on holiday before and loved it, though I understand that going there temporarily is different from moving there!
So, being brutally honest, am I entirely screwed? The Japanese language is always something I'm going to hold dear now regardless of the possibility of moving to Japan, it's became a massive part of my life now that I wouldn't trade off for anything, but moving to Japan has been a dream of mine for years now and I'd like to know whether there's perhaps something I could do after completion of my limiting degree to either up my chances of ever getting a sustainable career there as I advance my proficiency in Japanese, or if I should just give up on the dream entirely? I am going to a very well-respected university in England (it's part of the Russell Group, a group of 24 of England's 'best universities' such as Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, etc. that are internationally recognised for their excellence in research and education).
Thank you in advance and I apologise for the essay. Have a good one. 🙂
by TheRegularBelt