SU Second Specialty Program Increases Students’ Multiple Potentials

On April 26^th, 2023, two students from the Department of Japanese Language and Culture shared their experience of taking the Second Specialty Program, addressing to an audience of nearly 80 students, as well as Vice President (and Dean of Office of Academic Affairs) Chyan-Long Jan, and Head of Registration and Curriculum Division Hsing-Ling Wu.

The Japanese-majoring speaker Yi-Xin Lin chose “Business and General Administrative Skills” offered by the School of Law as her second specialty because Soochow was nationally known for its education and training in law. With her enthusiasm in legal matters, she overcame the difficulties and attained the second specialty certificate in her senior year successfully.

Out of her strong interest in Korean language and culture since high school, the other speaker Yu-Xiu Huang applied for “Practical Korean” as her second specialty as soon as the module was launched. As a Japanese major, she appreciated that SU provides valuable resources to enhance her multiple languages skills that increase her competitiveness in the future job market. With the aim of achieving JLPT N1 and TOPIK level 6 before graduation, she hopes to create a broader career path for herself.

Launched in the Academic Year 2019-20, the Second Specialty Program provided 51 different modules by the end of the Academic Year 2022-23 for students to choose according to their personal study plan.

Aside from the disciplines students originally major in, interdisciplinary expertise, creativity, and foreign language skills were also crucial to students’ future and development, said Vice President Jan

Taking the Second Specialty Program will not prolong the years of study or increase required course credits, which means it will not add any burden for students to complete their study for graduation. What’s more, there is no need to pay extra tuition.