Japan

This is an introduction to German language course for students with no previous knowledge of the language. Focusing on all four skills - speaking, listening, writing, and reading - it teaches the basics for everyday interaction in German. The course aims to prepare students for level "Start Deutsch A1" (corresponding to the first level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or CEFR). 

This course is a ASEAN fieldwork course jointly organized by ASEAN partner universities and Keio University. Students who participate in the fieldwork in Japan and aim to obtain an "EBA Perspectives" certificate will take this course in the semester following their participation in the fieldwork. SFC offers four fieldwork courses, two in ASEAN and two in Japan, so that up to four fieldwork courses in total can be included as credit-bearing courses.

Vietnam Fieldwork is a Field-based Project. The primary purpose of the project is to investigate how families live with their disabled children against the backdrop of poverty and limited medical infrastructure. Note that the fieldwork is conducted in Phu Cat District, Binh Dinh Province in central Vietnam, where the US heavily sprayed the toxic defoliant known as Agent Orange during the Vietnam War (1963-1971). That background explains the high number of disabled people in this District alone, 4298 (as of 2018), accounting for 2% of the District population (not including mild cases of disabilities). 

The issue that the fieldwork aims to address lies in a complex context of risk and risk management: Environmental risk, Public Health risk, and risks that these two have generated. An equally important concern of our examination includes the basic infrastructure and policies designed to cope with these risks. 

For that purpose, our examinations incorporate the Vietnam War, Vietnam’s recent Socioeconomic Development, and Vietnam’s welfare policies (public health policies and safety net, among others). 

Participants are asked to explore the following questions: 1) How do these families (primarily farmers) perceive the environmental problem (as signified by the disabled child), the source of the problem, and the risks? 2) How do they live with the problem in the absence/presence of external support, such as health clinics and other facilities? Moreover, 3) how their narratives reveal a larger picture of which their living is part. The students are asked to call attention to people’s narratives through intimate interaction while observing their facial expressions, bodily expressions, and languages. 

The fieldwork also takes us to the “weekend class” for the disabled children, their families, the volunteer teachers of the class, and the local residents. The classes are valuable sites for us to observe how the disabled children, their families, and the teachers interact with each other openly. Over the past 10 years, we have established four such classes, which they call “Dream Class.”

This course provides training in reading modern Japanese literature works, thereby increasing knowledge of Japanese literature and reading comprehension skills. The course discusses an overview of Japanese literature by genre, following the history of Japanese literature. 

This course covers the basics in geophysics, particularly the following three specific sub-areas: solid earth physics, fluid earth physics, and space physics. 

(1) Solid Earth Physics: Selected topics from seismology, volcanology, and plate tectonics for the purpose of learning basic knowledge on the structure and dynamics of the solid Earth. 

(2) Fluid Earth (atmosphere and ocean) Physics: Selected topics from meteorology, global warming, and physical climatology for the purpose of learning basic knowledge on climate change and related global environment problems. 

(3) Space Physics: Selected topics from solar physics, interplanetary physics, magnetospheric physics, and upper atmospheric physics for the purpose of learning basic knowledge on the electromagnetic environment of the Sun, the Earth, and planets.

This course examines how changes in early 20th century American domestic politics shaped the way American colonialism was imposed and practiced in the Philippines. The objective is to explore this topic from a comparative perspective (comparing the American and British empires) and looking at colonial state formation from the lens of the Gilded and Progressive Eras. The course also focuses on two powerful institutions – the police and the law. Finally, the course looks out the relationship between the Americans and Filipino elites and the larger society in terms of the former’s quest to gain the support of Filipinos.

This course covers Chinese pronunciation, greetings, and simple daily conversation through blended learning, which combines on-demand and face-to-face classes.

By the end of this course, students are expected to: 

• Acquire Chinese pronunciation, introductory-level vocabulary and grammar.
• Participate in simple daily conversations such as greetings and self-introduction.
• Foster interest in Chinese society and culture.

This course introduces the subjects of religion, ritual, and their secular critiques from an anthropological perspective. It studies the history of theory and concepts along a range of ethnographic topics (magic, science, religion and witchcraft; religion and politics, etc). Japan-related subjects will figure occasionally as discussion topics and in possible field trips to sites of religious significance in the Tokyo area. 

This course introduces the theoretical concepts in corporate finance and their practical applications. Topics covered include capital structure, payout policy, corporate governance, corporate bonds, financial derivatives, and leasing.

This course aims to help students learn Japanese for academic purposes through various familiar topics about society and culture. The target level is CEFR B1.2.

The course provides opportunities to complete various tasks using Japanese, enabling students to acquire the language skills necessary to perform the tasks and also increase their knowledge of Japanese vocabulary, grammar patterns, expressions and kanji. The final requirement of the course is a project presentation, where students present the results of their research on a particular topic. This course aims to enhance students’ Japanese proficiency and their ability to comprehend and engage deeply with the content. 

This course includes an elective component "Expand your World in Japanese." 

This class focuses on helping one understand PHONETICS and PHONOLOGY as they apply to language learning and teaching. Phonetics and phonology, or the study of human speech sounds and sound systems, are the foundation of all study of language. Because this class is taught in English, it starts with English pronunciation then it will contrast this with Japanese and other languages. Students will have the opportunity to explore the common pronunciation difficulties that speakers of particular languages (such as Chinese, French, German, Korean, Thai, and any language of interest) can have when speaking English or Japanese.