Japan

This course instructs on understanding and utilizing grammar and vocabulary needed to read articles and essays on familiar topics of interest. Course assignments involve attendance, writing reports, and expression of one's own opinions, toward mastering the Japanese “listening” and  “speaking” skills that lead from intermediate to upper-intermediate level. 

Eligibility A2.2 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education (N3 in the JLPT). 

Learning Objectives B1 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education. Understand the necessary sentence structures/expressions, and when, where, and how to use them, to achieve the following goals: 

1.  In daily communication and studying at a university, understanding of a spontaneous conversation and a monologue about one's concerns (listening).

2. Describing concerns so that the other party is interested, and responding appropriately by asking questions of the other party's interests. Also, adding simple prefixes and fixed form expressions etc. in formal scenes (spoken production).

3. Responding by looking at the reaction of the opponent, by adding appropriate fillers, response, and necessary information (spoken Interaction).

This course explores what makes Japanese film directors not mere metteur-en-scene (director) but auteurs (authors) by surveying the visual forms and styles of their films as well as analyzing their preferred narrative concerns, contents and themes. It is not difficult to find auteurs in the Japanese cinema world: Mizoguchi Kenji, Ozu Yasujiro, Kurosawa Akira, and Oshima Nagisa are a few of the representative Japanese auteurs who, commanding absolute control over most stages of film-making, managed to create films with superlative characteristics in narrative, theme and visual style. Auteurs are film directors who have imprinted their own signature on their work. By the end of this course, the class is expected to recognize the signature of each auteur.

This is a beginning elementary Japanese course intended to cover the first year of Japanese language study at UC. The purpose of this course is to provide a basic understanding of Japanese sentence structures, grammar and vocabulary necessary for daily communication in both spoken and written Japanese. Students master hiragana and katakana, learn approximately 125 kanji, and develop an ability to read and write simple texts constructed with learned sentence patterns and vocabulary. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to orally deliver personal information, experiences, and factual information, as well as express simple opinions. Through communication with native Japanese speakers, students develop strategic skills for obtaining information about the Japanese language.

Through weekly readings and class discussions, this course considers how individual bodies are gendered and how gender is constructed in individual bodies. The course explores how social norms strongly construct gendered bodies, thus generating problems, and delves into possibilities to change the norms related to bodies.  Lecture topics vary, but may include problem's created by women's beauty work; radical feminist perspectives from the 1960s through today; why do many women wear makeup; and how to resist gendered norms of body. 

This course presents styles of speech appropriate in various situations in Japanese society and develops oral communication skills mainly through role playing. It teaches the differences between formal and informal oral expression, proper words and phrases to use in a formal setting, polite body language, and nonverbal signals. Through pair and group work, students become able to express their thoughts clearly and efficiently as well as to listen to and comprehend others' opinions and expectations. They also practice pronunciation including Japanese sounds, rhythm, accent, and intonation. 

Note: Intermediate Japanese language levels at the host university are comparable to UC upper-division language courses.