Japanese

This course is aimed at students who have completed the beginner level. It provides a comprehensive study of the first half of the intermediate level of Japanese language: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Through in-depth reading of textbooks, the course increases one's knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and kanji, while improving their reading comprehension, writing, and expression abilities. Similarly, the course improves one's oral expression skills to explain and discuss what they have understood.  
 

Textbook: "Minna no Nihongo Intermediate I." 

This course develops a well-balanced, intermediate level proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It introduces 100 important intermediate level sentence patterns through close reading of texts. Students master approximately 4000 basic words and 500 intermediate kanji. Students expand their vocabulary and their understanding of grammar and sentence patterns through the reading of texts and short composition practices. Note: Intermediate Japanese language levels at the host university are comparable to UC upper-division language courses.

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.