<p>Hello! What’s the East Asian Languages and Literatures major like? I was hoping to learn Japanese or improve my Chinese in college, but online it says that it is a major only. Is there no way to just learn either Chinese or Japanese as a minor at UVA?</p>
<p>Also a little irrelevant, but what is the abroad studies program like at UVA? Will I get the chance to study in China or Japan?</p>
<p>You can just take the languages, but after a certain point you would have to major to continue possibly? That is how it is in the Spanish department. I’m not sure how Chinese/Japanese restricts upper level classes. You can’t minor in just a language in mesalc/ealc, you would be taking culture classes as well if the minor existed.</p>
<p>Japanese/Chinese here is very intensive, for instance if you search this forum you will find threads about both languages. I commented in one thread how the first night for Japanese you need to learn both kata and hiragana. Since so much more time needs to be spent on kanji this is how they determine who is really devoted. Comparatively, in both Hebrew and Yiddish you learn a print and cursive alphabet and have about a month to memorize all of the letters (comparable amount to our alphabet…30 some at most, the exact number depends on whether you include letters that make different sounds with a dot in them or not as separate). So that is why I say it is intense. Like I said, search the forums for more info!</p>
<p>Thanks for the response! I’ll go search around more. And what does mesalc/ealc mean?</p>
<p>“east asian languages and cultures” (ealc) is the name of the department… mesalc is the counterpart for middle east/south asian. they all used to be 1 department but split a few years ago. they have similar policies.</p>