Scott Stanfel

Minor in Japanese

Current Occupation: Web Developer
Current Location: Miyazaki, Japan
Program: Applied Linguistics & Discourse Studies/20

Notable Quotable:

Why study a second or additional language?

It can completely change your life. 

Through learning a language I…

• Met my wife
• Fell in love with a small rural town, which I now call home 
• Discovered my favourite sport (surfing)
• Made countless friendships
• Been granted many opportunities professionally 
• Expanded my worldview greatly

and the list goes on and on.

Without learning a second language, I wouldn’t be living my dream life now.

Why did you choose this particular language?

Towards the end of my last year in high school, I felt compelled to try learning a new language. I had studied French all throughout elementary school, but nothing stuck. When I went to my local bookstore, I played a game of “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe” with the Japanese and Mandarin textbooks in front of me.  10 years later, I now live in southern rural Japan, where 95% of my social interactions happen in Japanese.

Your learning experience

All the Japanese professors at Carleton are fantastic educators. I found the courses to be challenging but rewarding as each week felt like the class had “leveled up” with tangible progress. They were a great help when I studied for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test ), and when I expressed interest in becoming a translator, they even tailored some of my coursework to include translation practice.

While studying at Carleton, it was also so fun getting to become friends with Japanese students who had come on exchange. They appreciated being able to take a little break from an English-only context when we chatted and even showed me around when I went to visit them in Japan.

Your exchange experience

I can’t recommend going on an exchange enough. It’s a transformative experience that can boost your second language proficiency like nothing else. 

I had the opportunity to do an exchange at Konan University in Kobe, Japan. During this year, I was able to make a few lifelong friendships and stay with a lovely host family. I still keep in touch with this host family and stay at their house whenever I visit Kobe. I was also able to work at a cafe on campus during this time and practice practical Japanese while serving customers and talking to coworkers. 

I felt my Japanese proficiency skyrocket during this year as every day came with new opportunities to put into practice what I was learning in class. 

During my exchange, I was also able to network with a local translation company, which I ended up working for as my first job after graduating from Carleton.

How have you used the language since graduating?

After graduating from Carleton, knowing Japanese has benefited my life in so many ways, both professionally and privately. 

Professionally, I was able to work as a translator before moving on to doing web design and development.
I now consult for multiple companies in Japan, working with their engineering and design teams on multiple exciting projects while communicating solely in Japanese. 

Knowing Japanese in my small rural town has also helped me feel connected to my community, where very few people can speak English.  Although the Japanese countryside has an image of being socially isolating, my experience has been the complete opposite. I’ve been able to create friendships with local residents of all ages. 

But the most memorable experience of using Japanese after graduating was meeting my wife in Japan. 
Although her English is great, being able to speak in her native language certainly makes communicating as a couple easier. At this point, it’s like we have our own language, switching between Japanese and English multiple times in a single sentence.

Your personal experience of studying a language at university

Studying Japanese at Carleton up to the 4th year level gave me a solid base to start a new chapter of my life in Japan. With the support of a Japanese professor and my exchange experience, I was able to achieve fluency faster than I could have imagined.