Brisbane POTN: General Ramblings Thread v2.0

-spam- wrote in post #4855059
70 something. But i think he is on baby duty

Well then... there's his weakness.

-spam- wrote in post #4855021
Click on the "POTN Member Activities" link up the top and the the number of posts that is beside this thread.

Clicking the number next to the thread name in the User Control Panel works too, if you are subscribed.

Carjo wrote in post #4855068
Clicking the number next to the thread name in the User Control Panel works too, if you are subscribed.

and so it does...

Wow. There are a lot of quoted smileys followed by other smileys on this page..

Everyone on this page wrote:

leitch wrote in post #4855073
Wow. There are a lot of quoted smileys followed by other smileys on this page..

:p

Heheh, come to think of it, you are right...

Ah, anyways i really should go to bed.

G'night guys, dont spam too much without me

Unfortunately I was not quick enough to get in before you SPAM-bots, so my post actually referred more to the previous page than this one

-spam- wrote in post #4855084
Ah, anyways i really should go to bed.

G'night guys, dont spam too much without me

Me too - if nothing else, I need to be up to take the kidlets across the floodwaters tomorrow morning.

-spam- wrote in post #4855059
70 something. But i think he is on baby duty

hahah I'm not on baby duty, I just had a nap

leitch wrote in post #4854948
Argh, I hate indecision! I'm choosing my course for uni this year, and I can't decide what to do! Last year I was doing a dual degree in Laws/Arts, as I wanted to do Japanese through Arts. Well, having loved Jap at school (and having been quite good at it, too), uni ruined it for me. The course was boring, the lecturer worse, and so I've given it up for the time being (at uni, at least!).

I've narrowed down my choices to two things. First, continue with the Arts degree (the Law is a given - I'm not dropping that one!) and do a double major in International Relations (keeping my 8 finished units of Jap as a minor/my electives). This would mean finishing my two degrees as initially planned and on time - 4.5 years from now.

Second choice is to drop the whole Arts component (and thus render my 8 units of Jap null and void) and take on Journalism. This would mean an extra semester (maybe 2 extra semesters, but the last would only be 2 subjects - both Law) of uni and starting a whole other degree.

I can't decide! They both equally appeal to me on different levels, and I'd love to do both but it's not practical!

Gah!

What uni are you at?

I would really really caution you not to drop the Japanese. As in this is Helen telling you 500 times, think very very very hard about dropping the Japanese.

In terms of job prospects you have a whole whole whole whole whole more doing Japanese than you will have doing IR or Journo.

I did a year of primary teaching between my first and second years of my "IR" degree. I didn't keep up my Indo studies. I tried to pick Indo back up when I returned to 2nd year but no matter the study I couldn't keep up. I have regretted it most days since.

If you enjoyed Japanese once, you will enjoy it again in the future. The Japanese Government offers a lot of scholarships/internshi​ps etc for people who have gradded with Japanese.

leitch wrote in post #4854991
Haha, I'm doing two already, I don't think I could handle 3! Or else I could, but I'd be at uni for ever. I'd love to do Journo, but I think I'm leaning towards Int'l Relations based on the facts that (a) I wouldn't have to stay there longer, (b) you don't need a Journo degree to be a Journalist, (c) Int'l Relations I imagine gives better job opportunities (at least in the sense that there are fewer Int'l Relations getting around than there are "Journalists") and complements the Law side better.

That said, I still don't know.

I have an IR degree. Well close enough to it, it is just a matter of names.

Job Opps - you are doing the law/arts, it will give you more opps than straight law or arts, however only if you can pull a very decent GPA and are prepared to do a lot of extra circ stuff.

With the grad programs law/japanese will get you a whole lot further than law/IR with no language. believe me.

If you need someone to talk to, I am here!

-spam- wrote in post #4854979
Just under 2000 posts

I just found out that one of my core courses is full and i cant enroll in it. Kinda pointless offering a place in uni only to not have enough places in a class they have to do

Ring Uni, you will get in to the class, I remember stressing about that in First Year, It is to do with the system and how they cap subjects. There will be many other students in the same situation.

HelenThura wrote in post #4857776
I would really really caution you not to drop the Japanese.

In terms of job prospects you have a whole whole whole whole whole more doing Japanese than you will have doing IR or Journo.

Although certainly no expert, I'm inclined to agree with Helen. I have been to Japan quite a few times for work and if you are bi-lingual, it opens SO many doors if you want to work across country boundaries, or indeed if you would like to work in the foreign country whose language you speak.

I have met quite a number of westerners there who have great well-paid jobs simply because they can speak English and Japanese. I even met a couple of movie actors who starred in Japanese movies as the "ridiculous westerners" just because they could speak Japanese on screen.

Helen/Glenn -

I don't want to stop doing Jap altogether. My issue has not been that I don't enjoy Jap, it's that I don't enjoy Jap at UQ. It would be a massive waste for me to just give up Jap altogether after 6 years of study and having done Jap exchange programs etc, and having already got to the point where I am quite confident with my Jap and can easily get around in Japan using the language - I think what I'm leaning towards is not continuing Jap @ uni, but rather taking on something else (ie. IR) and continuing Jap outside of uni.

Helen, on the point of graduating with a language in my degree, I don't think that will be a massive issue, really. At UQ, because IR is through arts and done as either a double major or major, there is still room for other work. The way I see it, I can do a double major in IR and I've still got 8 units of Jap from last year that counts as a "minor" (for lack of a better term), and thus I still have that bit of Japanese there on my piece of paper at the end of it. Then, if I decide later this year that I really want to keep doing Jap at uni I can easily change my direction and do 2 majors (of Jap and IR) or revert to my initial plan which was a double major in Jap.

I think the biggest thing is just staying in the Arts faculty with my second degree so that I can chop and change things should the need arise.

In the absence of a career goal I'd probably echo the above comments about persevering with your Japanese major.

If you thought you were going to enjoy Japanese how can you be sure you'll enjoy International Relations. Even if you eventually decide to move into that specific realm of employment you could easily do some postgraduate work for a Masters (or higher) and, in my opinion, be better off.

That being said, unless you do have a specific career goal, I would recommend avoiding spending those 4.5 years immersed in something that you simply won't be able to enjoy.
You don't want to get to the other side still not knowing what you want to do, or having decided that you want to pursue something completely different, and look back only to think that 'Boy, those 5 years were a very expensive waste of time'.
That was my mistake.

P.S. PM me your postal address so I can get you that card reader.

Nick C. wrote in post #4858884
That being said, unless you do have a specific career goal, I would recommend avoiding spending those 4.5 years immersed in something that you simply won't be able to enjoy..

This is exactly what I'm trying to avoid The whole reason for me not continuing Jap (at this point) at UQ is and was because I didn't enjoy it at all last year, for a number of reasons.

Ahh well. Food for thought, thanks for your input guys, I've still got time to decide!

I'll PM you, Nick.