William Watts

Japanese and Film Studies, 2020

“What I like the most about the course is being able to make friends with people with similar interests. The course allows you to practice your language skills in many forms, such as writing, listening, speaking and reading”

William hopes his degree in Japanese Studies and Film Studies will prepare him for a career in the Anime business.

I chose to combine Japanese with Film Studies because I want to work in the Anime business in the future, and it seemed the ideal combination to prepare me for this. Anime was one of the reasons I was inspired to study Japanese, but I was also keen to learn the language and to be able to communicate with people in Japan. I chose Film Studies because I took BTEC Media at sixth form and really enjoyed it. I think Film Studies will also open up other opportunities in the Anime business such as animation or voice acting work.

I chose Brookes because I had heard first-hand from my brother how good the teaching was and what an enjoyable place it was to go to University.

What I like the most about the course is being able to make friends with people with similar interests. The course allows you to practice your language skills in many forms, such as writing, listening, speaking and reading. My lecturers have all been great! They are really nice, helpful and easy to approach and I have really appreciated how they constantly challenge me to learn new vocab and grammar. I also practice my Japanese on a daily basis by chatting to my course mates, and together we push each other to learn new words. In addition to learning Japanese, we also learn about the culture of Japan, which I know will be useful for my year abroad.

I have joined the Japanese Society, which is a great way to mingle with Japanese people and to practice your speaking and listening. I am also part of the Anime society, which is another great society where you can be around like minded people and take part in fun events. You can really feel comfortable and express your desire for Anime.

My advice to anyone else thinking of studying Japanese and Film Studies would be to talk to your module leaders about how you can tailor the degree to best suit you. For example, if you’d like to do more ‘practical’ elements of Film Studies they may be able to recommend particular modules that would be more helpful.