Japanese

This class is for beginners. The course includes practicing daily expressions used while shopping and at the train station, while utilizing proper grammar and memorization of conversation patterns through role play. The goal of this course is to be able to conduct daily conversation. 

This basic Japanese course chooses a different theme concerning Japanese culture and society to discuss each week. Students are split into groups to engage in activities, discussion, and group work concerning the selected topic. The goal of the class is for students to widen their perspectives and deepen their knowledge regarding various issues related to Japan and Japanese society. The program offers various theme courses and students may take multiple sections. 

This course introduces the sociology of work. It is designed to provide an overview while also focusing on selected topics in greater depth. Topics covered include: the nature of work as a social construct; the historical dimension of work in different societies and times; classical theories of Marx, Weber and Durkheim; competing viewpoints of modern organization of work; social stratification of class, gender, race, and ethnicity; unpaid domestic labor; the technical aspects of work; the changing nature of work in the post-industrial knowledge economy, and the meaning of work in contemporary postmodern consumer societies. Please note that this course is reading, writing, and speaking intensive. The instructor also assigns frequent group work, with the expectation of fostering group members to engage in frequent conversation and grasp abstract concepts together.

This course reviews and masters elementary Japanese grammar and sentence patterns and develops a well-balanced lower intermediate level proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students learn the 50 most important sentence patterns of the intermediate level, master 3000 basic words and 600 to 750 kanji. They read short written passages on various topics that consist of sentence patterns, grammar and new vocabulary, make speeches on topics familiar to them, and write well-organized passages.