Hitotsubashi University

This course provides basic skills for conversation, reading and writing that are necessary for everyday life in Japan. Teaching is done in Japanese whenever possible, starting from the first day. Class are conducted based on various activities. Learning outcomes: 1. Listening: Able to understand simple everyday conversation. 2. Speaking: Able to communicate everyday situations in Japanese (e.g. introduce yourself, exchange personal information, shop, order at a restaurant, seek directions, talk about your daily life and impressions of life in Japan and the places you visited). Able to make a short presentation in Japanese. 3. Reading: Able to read short reading materials in hiragana, katakana, and about 145 kanji. 4. Writing: Able to write short sentences and essays using the appropriate hiragana and katakana scripts and 145 kanji. Assessment: final exam, midterm test, quiz, homework, attendance and preparation.

This course involves involves learning pre-advanced level kanji and vocabulary that pertains to specific fields. The kanji studied in this course are all commonly used in texts related to economics, law, and sociology. Students are instructed to study lists that pertain to their given major in order to acquire a specialized vocabulary that is relevant to their chosen field of study.

This course examines Japanese writing as it is used in real life situations. Students are required to write in Japanese about various topics and learn to compose in sophisticated and more effective format. Emphasis is placed on correct language use and formality appropriate for each situation. It consists of weekly 1000-word assignments in Japanese. Skills needed to write on various themes in appropriate styles are taught. This class is discussion-intensive, with quizzes throughout the semester as well. Assessment: class attendance, participation, and homework assignments.

In modern medical technology, engineering technology for diagnosis, treatment, care, and devices have been developed and introduced by various cutting-edge technologies in recent years. Advanced medical care in the medical field greatly contributes to the importance of realization and understanding of its mechanisms and principles of the latest medical technology, equipment and devices not only among health care providers who actually use them, but also the person in charge of the operation, management and finance of medical institutions. In this course, by explaining the mechanisms and principles of medical equipment and equipment such as robots, CT equipment, and rapid diagnosis equipment one by one in an easy-to-understand manner, students acquire basic knowledge of expertise and introduce and operate such equipment.

This intermediate level course enables reading short sentences and understanding its meaning swiftly; reading longer sentences with occasional use of dictionary; and reading an entire book and explaining its contents. Textbooks and handouts are the primary learning resources sand tools.

We often hear that we live in an “information society” or are preparing to work in a “knowledge economy”. Drawing on classic and cutting-edge research on the system of information creation and provision, this course provides conceptual foundations for historical, political-economic, and policy analysis of information institutions, technologies, and infrastructures. This course examines the historical and contemporary transformation of information as a social and political economic process, by focusing on how and why social development came to be centered around information. What role has been played in this transition by the historical role of information in times of revolution, imperial domination, utopian movements, and innovations in information and communications technologies (ICTs)? What challenges does this informationally dominated society pose to contemporary life and social stability? Assessment: class participation, class presentation and leading discussion, 4 one-page mini-papers.

Intermediate Japanese 1C is a course for those who have accomplished a primary course and are aiming for higher writing and reading skills. Students will learn kanji of middle level, and read more sentences as well. After review the basic kanji and vocabulary, kanji vocabulary and reading skills of intermediate low level are taught. Text: NIHONGO KANJI TRAINING, The Japan Times, 2011. Assessment: Quiz (20%), midterm exam (20%), final exam (40%), other (e.g. participation/homework) (20%).

Students will make a group, read newspaper, summarize, and present every week about current affairs in world economy. Students are expected to read newspapers and prepare for presentation. Evaluation criteria include, ability to concisely explain contents of articles, ability to communicate in English, and ability to comment/discuss what is written in news articles.

This course is for students to learn intermediate-level Chinese (grade 2-3 of the HSK proficiency test or 3-4 class level). The main aim is to improve listening skills by hearing a lot of basic examples. Through HSK-style exercises, students familiarize themselves with the HSK test format. The first and last lessons include a simulated HSK grade-3 test as an indicator of each student's progress. Each lesson also includes a vocabulary quiz. Text: "CHUGOKUO LISTENING DOJO" by Masahiro Endo et al. published from Asahi Shuppan. Assessment: class attendance, participation, and a final exam.

The unit of analysis of the seminar is the world's population, which has grown to seven billion today. It is projected to reach nine to ten billion by 2050. From this global perspective, this interdisciplinary and inter-professional seminar debates two contested propositions. First, there now exists a global society, defined by the increasing scope, depth, and accumulation of interdependencies of the world's diverse peoples. Although people are divided by religion, culture, language, national, ethnic, and tribal loyalties as well as by race, gender, class, and status, they confront shared socio-economic, political, environmental, and moral challenges. Problems of central human concern, such as war, sustainable economic development, environmental degradation, human rights, popular rule, etc. must now be navigated at local, state, regional, and transnational levels. This seminar discusses and debates the properties of the global society, aspects of globalization, and the ability of humans to collectively govern and resolve shared problems on a worldwide scale. Assessment: class participation, class presentation and leading discussion; 4 one-page mini-papers.