East Asian Linguistics Graduate Studies

[jobm]

Hi everyone! I am still on my undergraduate studies and I major on linguistics. I am really interested in Chinese and Korean linguistics and I really want to study these languages in the graduate level after my undergraduate degree. But, I am still currently working on my skills in these languages and I have only learned them formally for two semesters at least in our university. Unfortunately, there are no higher courses offered for these languages. So, I would like to study my graduate studies in China, Korea or Taiwan (or maybe Japan but I have not studied Japanese yet.). I really find the graduate program of UCLA in East Asian linguistics very interesting http://alc.ucla.edu/graduate-program-/prospective-graduate-applicants/alc-graduate-programs and I am thinking to study there. But here are the cons:

 

1. I want to study in an East Asian country particularly in China, Korea, or Taiwan to improve my language skills in Chinese or Korean.

2. I would just like to have a terminal MA degree for now; I am not confident to take an MA linguistics degree here in our country since the topics being researched here are not East Asian languages.

3, I think it is expensive; and there are more Korean and Chinese scholarships available for graduate studies here in our country compared to American scholarships.

 

Pros:

1. UCLA definitely has the program I like.

2. UCLA is known all over the world for being a good university.

3. I will be able to study in America.

 

Please help me in case you know there is an East Asian linguistics graduate program in Korea, China, Japan, or Taiwan. If ever you are an East Asian linguistics MA or PhD student in UCLA or in other universities, I would really appreciate your opinion regarding this topic Or if you know if there is a university that has a good linguistics/Asian studies/East Asian studies program in those countries and which I could integrate Chinese and Korean linguistics (maybe like a double major or something), please inform me. 

 

I would really appreciate any suggestion, thank you very much, guys!

[OneEye]

If I were in your situation, I'd spend a year or two (or three) abroad learning the language(s) you want to research to a useful level before you go to grad school. There are great scholarships available out there for learning Asian languages. If you can do a year as an exchange student during undergrad, then live abroad for a year or two before starting grad school, that would be ideal.

 

If you can go to UCLA, I wouldn't recommend going somewhere in China or Taiwan instead, especially if you want to do Chinese linguistics. There's a lot of really bad work done in the field by native speakers who can't seem to shake off the traditional ways of doing things (looking at everything from the standpoint of the writing system) and insist on doing research from the standpoint that Chinese is somehow unique and doesn't behave like other languages (and foreigners could never possibly understand...that's a direct translation of something in one of my books, by the way). That's not to say that there's no good research done here, because there is. It's just really overshadowed by the sheer amount of bad work. You'll likely also get some really bad professors, like my current dialectology teacher, who may know their field well but insist on standing in front of the class and reading journal articles aloud to you rather than actually teaching. You'd have to live and study here for a few years before your language skills would be sufficient for graduate work anyway, but you'd be much better off just auditing a few classes here once you reach that level and then going to UCLA for the actual degree.

 

Just my two cents.

[Onwards & Upwards]

@OneEye, I have read many of your posts in the past and I have to say that they have inspired me, at least in part, to pursue a master's degree program (Chinese history) here in China.  After a few years on the mainland, my language level should be good enough or almost good enough to take a crack at the graduate level coursework next year.  I've also received a scholarship that will fund my studies.  In any case, I'm aware that the quality of the education may not be comparable to what one may receive in the US, but I still believe the program will make for a good opportunity to develop my language abilities, especially to a level that will allow me to pursue further studies back in the states.  What do you think, though?  Do you really think it's best to not get involved beyond auditing?  Also, may I ask what your language level (including ancient and literary Chinese) was like before starting classes in Taiwan last fall?

[jobm]

Thank you very much for your insight, @oneye Yes, I applied for an exchange program for China and I hope I could get it *crosses fingers*. I am currently working on my Chinese and Korean and I hope before I graduate, I would have reached a competitive level of proficiency. As I can see, you are studying your graduate studies in history in Taiwan, right? 

 

Oh, I also heard that it is also very different to study graduate studies in China/Taiwan. I heard there is no "academic freedom" in regards to what you would like to research on. It is just like the teacher dictates your research. 

 

I continue on searching and I saw this one from University of Oregon: http://eall.uoregon.edu/graduate-programs/eall-linguistics-and-pedagogy-masters-of-arts/ It seems promising as well. But, I want to focus more on theoretical linguistics and not on pedagogy. 

[jobm]

Do you also know some "chinese government scholarship"-like scholarship for foreign students in the United States?

[OneEye]

The idea that I may be partly responsible for a major life decision of someone I don't know is a bit stressful. 

 

While I recommend against the OP doing grad school in Chinese linguistics in China or Taiwan, other fields aren't necessarily the same. There is a real benefit to doing an MA in something like Chinese history or literature over here, namely that you're able to access source materials much more easily and you're able to interact with scholars at the front line of research in your field. Doing a degree here leaves you with the ability to write a publishable-quality paper in Chinese and present it at a conference, which is desirable because many of the most important conferences are held in China and Taiwan, at least in my field.

 

Now, some of the drawbacks still apply. Methodology is generally outdated in my department, though I've heard it tends to be better in history departments. And then there's that one teacher I was talking about, but so far he's the only one. But on the other hand, you can get training here that's extremely hard to come by in the US or Europe. I took a class last semester which detailed the processes by which character forms can get corrupted over the course of their evolution. I'd never be able to take a class like that in the US, and it will be a crucial part of my skill as a palaeographer in the future. Then there's the language component. I know several PhD students from top US universities who are having serious trouble doing their dissertation research because their Chinese isn't up to scratch. If you can do graduate work here, you won't run into that problem, and you can focus on your research instead of having to worry simultaneously about bringing your language skills up to par.

 

So yes, in certain fields, doing an MA, or even just a year like me and one of the others in my department, can serve as an excellent base from which to pursue a PhD later. Especially if you get a good scholarship.

 

Before I started the program, I had worked as a translator for a few months and had read big sections of several books in my field in Chinese, so my Chinese was decent. Not outstanding, but I haven't really run into any problems language-wise. My classical Chinese is fairly good, but of course not as good as my Taiwanese classmates, all of whom have undergrad degrees in Chinese and have been reading 文言文 since they were in middle school. I was in a summer 文言文 reading group a year before starting the program (here's what we read), and continued to read occasionally from 古文觀止 and 王力's 《古代漢語》 books after that.

 

Out of curiosity, which period are you planning to study?

[gato]

They have inspired me, at least in part, to pursue a master's degree program (Chinese history) here in China.

What school are you going to be studying at? Have you read kdavid's thread about studying for a History MA in Harbin?

[OneEye]

jobm,

 

I'm actually in the Department of Chinese, focusing on palaeography and excavated texts. 

 

What aspect of Chinese linguistics do you want to focus on? If it's historical linguistics, phonology, or dialectology, you should look into Asian Studies departments as well as linguistics departments. Off the top of my head, schools like the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, and Ohio State University (they have an MA in Chinese Linguistics) all have excellent Chinese linguistics faculty.

 

One thing you might consider is doing an MA in Chinese as a foreign language in China or Taiwan. It's not linguistics, but the barrier for entry language-wise is lower because you'll be expected to improve your language skills as you go, so you won't have to spend as much time bringing your Chinese up before applying. The programs tend to have a decent linguistics component to them, and you'll come out of the program with good Chinese and a taste of what's to come in your PhD, without getting the full brunt of all the negative stuff that comes with doing graduate work here. Those departments tend to be much better equipped to deal with foreigners because more of us apply there, whereas my department doesn't really know what to do with us, so the teachers end up lowering their standards for us, which is very frustrating.

 

I don't know about scholarships for foreign students in the US, unfortunately.

[lakers4sho]

I happen to go to UCLA (undergraduate), and am very close with some of the people in the ALC dept. Of course everyone will have his or her own experience, but our Chinese linguistics program here is wonderful. We have the top guy in CL in our faculty (Tao Hongyin), and his students proceed to do wonderful things after graduating. I am friends with the graduate students there and they have nothing but good words regarding their experience.

 

I don't know if you can go to China or Taiwan or whatever while being a student here though, as you'd probably have to do some sort of TAing to offset the stipend and whatever costs they wish to cover for you. Although, I'm not sure if they'll do that for an MA student. A Ph.D. student gets funding, but you'd probably have to fund yourself as an MA (unless you have some sort of fellowship).

 

My primary field is in the physical sciences, so I'm not sure how much this applies to the social sciences, but in areas as such as Math/Physics/Chem/etc., universities are more reluctant (close to nil) in hiring MA students, they take the Ph.D. student 9 times out of 10 during the application process.

 

 

lakers4sho

[Onwards & Upwards]

@OneEye, Haha. No need to be stressed.  I have wanted to enroll in a master's degree program ever since I completed my undergraduate history degree.  My point was that some of your posts in the "2014 Aims and Objectives Progress Thread" simply lent some inspiration, even if it was done inadvertently on your part.  Besides, I'm sure I'm not the only one who is encouraged by the updates on your impressive goals and rigorous coursework.

 

Anyways, thanks for your opinion.  I hope to study historical religious studies and focus on Buddhism (perhaps Buddhist historiography) which will probably lead me to the Tang Dynasty and the periods directly preceding it.

 

@gato, I will most likely be studying at Xiamen University.  I haven't yet read kdavid's thread about his studies, but I will search for it as soon as I can.  Hopefully he had a positive experience...

[roddy]

We have a member doing (done?) post-grad study at Xiamen, but in a different field - steveh, see here. He might have some useful info, and I can see he's logged in recently. 

[OneEye]

O&U, that's kind of you to say.

 

Chinese Buddhism is one area that's a big hazy question mark to me. I know almost nothing about it. I guess that's to be expected, since my work focuses almost entirely on the pre-Qin period, but it's a gap I ought to fill in the interest of being culturally literate and well-rounded. It's hard to pull myself out of 古文字學 though. There seem to be more classes on later periods offered in most departments, though, so you'll probably have a nice selection. Xiamen University has a Chinese department, so I imagine their history department is also good.

 

I'd recommend applying to a few schools in Taiwan, too, just to expand your options. If you already live in Xiamen, it shouldn't be that big of a change. The accent is really similar, because Taiwanese Hokkien is very close to the Xiamen dialect. There are really good scholarship opportunities here, too. I didn't get the big MOE one that covers the tuition plus a monthly stipend, but I got a partial first-year scholarship. Later, when I said I wasn't going to enroll, they bumped me up to a much bigger scholarship that more than covered my first year tuition and would have covered most of the second.

[jobm]

Thank you for all your advices! Especially to @oneeye. Sorry for making you kinda burdened of my situation~ 

 

Actually, I want to study theoretical synchronic Chinese linguistics. But yes, I also want to study on Classical Chinese but I haven't started yet so I do not have a clear idea on what I am going to study @oneeye ) Oh, as I can see from your post, maybe some linguistics department in China would teach older theories in linguistics and maybe I won't be able to apply newer theories.

 

Also, @oneeye, I have also looked some of those universities and some of them only include Chinese linguistics (I also want to study some Korean linguistics as well XD) That's why, I think UCLA's program is much better for my case.

 

@lakers4sho really? what you said make me excited to study in UCLA. Since I am not that rich and I still need to support my family financially, I think my finances would be my problem. But, I am willing to do TA or work at the same time. 

[OneEye]

Sorry for making you kinda burdened of my situation~

 

Not at all. That comment was directed at Onwards and Upwards. 

 

Oh, I also heard that it is also very different to study graduate studies in China/Taiwan. I heard there is no "academic freedom" in regards to what you would like to research on. It is just like the teacher dictates your research.

 

That doesn't seem to be the case in Taiwan. I've had a lot of freedom in choosing my research topics. I don't know what it's like in China though.

[gato]

Here's kdavid's thread that I mentioned.  He studied at Heilongjiang University in Harbin.

 

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/36466-graduate-school-in-china-%E2%80%93-a-history-major%E2%80%99s-perspective/

Graduate School in China – A History Major’s Perspective

[Onwards & Upwards]

@roddy, Thanks for the tip.  I'm sure he has some valuable insight to share.

 

@OneEye, According to some websites, Xiamen University's philosophy and religion department is ranked relatively high.  There's also a well-known Buddhist educational institute right next to the campus.  The history department, on the other hand, didn't make the rankings.  Even so, it still appears to offer a balanced selection of courses.  I'll certainly have to do some more research, but perhaps it will make sense to change my major if I'm unable to incorporate the religious studies into my history degree.

 

I considered applying to a few universities in Taiwan, but later changed my mind due to personal circumstances.  I've heard Taiwan as a lot to offer in many regards, though, and I still plan to travel there.  Maybe I'll even get a chance to study there later down the road.

 

@gato, Thanks for the link.  His report basically confirmed my general understanding of the education system on the mainland.  Nevertheless, even though kdavid had a rather negative experience, it still seems he was able to make great strides in his language abilities and personal studies.  Hopefully Xiamen University will be able to facilitate all of that and more (without the headaches). 

 

He also mentioned that his contact at a US university said his degree and accompanying language skills will be helpful in pursuing a PhD program back home.  As such, I'll be even more curious to hear how he fares in the next step of his journey.

[OneEye]

If you're approaching the MA as a possible stepping stone to a PhD program, you should contact the professors you're interested in working under for the PhD and see what they recommend. I've found that contacting the departmental secretary first (so that you can say "I contacted Mr./Ms. Whoever and they told me I should email you") makes you much more likely to get a response from the professor. Sort of a screening thing, I guess.

 

You may find that the prestige of the MA program is not a key factor to a PhD admissions committee like it might be if you did your degree in the West. An MA from the US, UK, or Europe shows you have some of the requisite theoretical understanding and at least fledgling language abilities. You also probably understand Western academia fairly well after having spent 1-2 years as a graduate student, and may have begun networking with influential professors in your field. The prestige of such a program plays a big part.

 

On the other had, an MA from China or Taiwan shows that your language skills are probably 100% up to the task of anything you may need to do in graduate school, and that you probably have much broader cultural knowledge than your peers who didn't do their degrees abroad. The prestige here doesn't matter unless you studied under someone really famous. The important thing is that it demonstrates your preparedness from a language standpoint.

 

At a certain large, west-coast research university, I'm told an MA from a Chinese-speaking university (any decent one) is like a golden ticket, but other places may differ. I myself was advised by one well-known professor that the most important thing was to get as much language and cultural training as I could get, and then that same professor later advised me to also spend some time studying in Japan before I start my PhD if I can (and I will be, starting this fall).

[Takeshi]

I don't know much about mainland China, I don't really get the impression that Linguistics is really big there. In Taiwan two schools I've heard of that are strong in Linguistics are 中正大學 and 清華大學.

 

http://e001.ccu.edu.tw/front/bin/home.phtml

http://www.ling.nthu.edu.tw/NTHU_Linguistics/home.html

 

There is also 香港中文大學 in Hong Kong. I will be studying there from next year. They also mainly work on Chinese Linguistics.

 

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/lin/new/en_index.html

[Onwards & Upwards]

@OneEye, Alright.  Thanks very much for sharing.

[jobm]

oh @takeshi, yes, linguistics is somewhat more studied in taiwan especially in chinese and austronesian linguistics. thank you for recommending some schools there oh, i haven't checked on hong kong schools~