Japan

This course improves lower advanced level listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. It introduces the 50 most important sentence patterns for advanced level students and reviews the important sentence patterns from the intermediate level. Students acquire a command of practical Japanese necessary for daily communication and for study and research in a Japanese university. They master 8000 basic words and 1500 basic kanji. 

This course examines Japanese short fiction in the modern period, by focusing on texts containing encounters between representatives of Japan and what lies beyond its shores. These encounters are not confined to meetings between individuals but also includes a "meeting of minds" when the protagonist or the text itself can be seen to have engaged with something from beyond Japan. 

All texts are discussed on the basis of their English-language translations and the language of discussion is English. However, the original Japanese texts are available and native speakers of Japanese are particularly encouraged to use their knowledge of the original language to contribute to the discussion.

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.