John Graham

Minor in Japanese

Current Occupation: Nuclear Non-Proliferation Officer
Current Location: Montréal, Canada
Program: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) major in Political Science (specialization in international affairs)/10

Why learn a language?

Proficiency in a foreign language is a window into a different cultural worldview. Especially in the social sciences, being able to take into consideration source material from other countries is a value multiplier.

Notable Quotable:

Your Learning Experience

I took Sowka-sensei’s intensive 8hrs/week seminar to begin and it was very challenging but rewarding.

Did you travel to another country as part of your university experience?

Yes.  It was a great experience. After the intensive program and a year of intensive study through immersion I was at a level where I could mostly read and understand policy literature in Japanese and after two subsequent years I was capable of writing basic academic papers in Japanese.

Using language after graduating

After finishing my studies at Carleton I was accepted into the MEXT scholarship program for one year of research and for the full duration of a masters degree program at Kobe University. For a year after graduation I worked in a 100% Japanese language environment at an energy company in Japan. After moving back to Canada, I’ve held three jobs in international regulatory and trade compliance, where two of these three jobs required occasional to frequent use of Japanese.

Your personal experience of studying a language at university

It was a fun experience where you develop an esprit de corps with your classmates engaged in a common challenge.

Why did you choose this particular language?

I discovered Japanese by accident. My program had mandatory language credits and I’d started with Italian. There wasnt much space in second year classes so i was forced to explore other options. I fell in love with Japanese after starting the classes and it totally changed my career (and life) trajectory.