Language study for the Masters of Asian Studies
We strongly encourage you to study an Asian language as part of your Master’s program: being able to understand, converse and read in an Asian language (or in another Asian language if you already have one) is an essential prerequisite for any analysis of the region. Having said that, we are aware that the time commitment may not be suitable for those who are working as well as studying. Please note that language units are consecutive six-point units, so that a full-time Master in 18 months could feasibly only include 18 points of language.
Note that it is possible to overload (that is, do 30 points in a semester) in order to include language study: this means of course balancing out with ‘underloading’ in the following semester. You should only do this if you are confident that you can handle a higher load of work in any one semester.
We offer the following languages: Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean.
The suitable level for you will be determined by a ‘placement’ test.
The appropriate contact persons for each of the languages are as follows:
Chinese (Dr Robert Irving)
robert.irving@monash.edu
Hindi (Dr Peter G. Friedlander – La Trobe University)
p.friedlander@latrobe.edu.au
Indonesian (Mr. Paul Thomas)
paul.thomas@monash.edu
Japanese (Dr Masato Takimoto)
masato.takimoto@monash.edu
Korean (Dr Young-A Cho)
younga.cho@monash.edu
For a full range and description of the Asian languages available, see the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics website.