Personal Statement:Linguistics with Japanese 1

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Language is an undeniable force; it surrounds us, it moves us, it passes information from generation to generation and without language human civilisation would stop in its tracks. However, what interests me more than anything about language is that it can personify who you are and the society you live in, and so by learning a language you are exposed to different viewpoints, which therefore exposes you to new ways of thinking and challenges you to adapt to different ideas. However, the Japanese language and society have always interested me in particular. One of the reasons for this is that modernity and tradition live side by side in Japan, as exampled by a Japanese woman I talked to on Skype. She believed in Shinto, the native Japanese religion which states that kami of living and non living beings live side by side by humans. This surprised and interested me because it was completely different to what I had learnt about other religions at school. However, it turns out that many different traditional practices are common in Japan, for example the festival Shichi-Go-San and sets of traditional social practices (such as bowing). I hope that by learning the language, I will be able to learn more about practices such as these and continue to challenge the social norms that I have learnt by living in the UK, and in doing so learn about Japan's. This will also help me to understand some of the cultural references in anime and manga that I take an interest in as a hobby.

Despite the differences between Japan and the UK, there are also similarities that also interest me because I did not even know they existed, and never knew that they would have existed before reading about them. This brings a sense of familiarity about the Japanese people, when all too often people emphasise the differences between the Japanese and the rest of the world. One example of this is the fact that immigrants of Indian origin live in Japan due to the up rise of the car industry in Japan, when people transferred there for work. This lead to the promotion of Indian culture in Japan and lead to the opening of Indian restaurants which is similar to what happened in the UK after World War Two.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

Linguistics also seems a natural pairing to Japanese, especially seen as it can help me more fully understand their language and social customs and therefore enhance my Japanese learning. An example I found of this is that salarymen in Japan are often paid to go to hostess clubs by their companies (as reported by Allison, 1994). This allows them to talk informally about the hostesses and therefore open up to one another in a non hierarchical environment, which would just not be present in the workplace. This also reinforces their sense of being in a group by adhering to heteronormity, as within the clubs they are dominant over the women (although this is not to say that is the everyday practice of Japanese men). This helped me understand how the society of the workplace in Japan is different to ours and how this affects language. It also helped me understand that society is important in determining ways in which language is used, and so I would like to take this further at university. More generally, linguistics would also challenge me answer questions which have no straight forward answer such as; 'Is there a gay language?' or 'Does language influence the way we think, or does the way we think influence our language?'. Ambiguous questions like these were explored in my psychology classes and I enjoyed them because they helped me develop skills of critical argument, and dismiss that common explanations of behaviour should be accepted.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Overall, by completing a degree in Japanese and linguistics I hope to be in a position where I have challenged my own views on the world. I also hope to have developed language skills that I can then use for the benefit of other people, such as in a teaching career.

Universities applied to:

• University of Newcastle (Linguistics with Japanese)
• University of Manchester (Japanese Studies)
• University of Leeds (Japanese and Linguistics)
• University of Sheffield (Japanese Studies)

Grades achieved:

• Geography (A2): A
• Biology (A2): B
• Psychology (A2): B
• Extended Project (AS): B
• Chemistry (AS): C

How personal statements have changed?

The current personal statement format, with three 'scaffolding' questions, was introduced by Ucas in September 2025. This personal statement was submitted before then, using the old essay-style format. It has been carefully edited into the three-question format, with all of the original wording kept.

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