Japanese

This course is aimed at those who know the meaning, writing, and reading of basic kanji idioms.  It focuses on what has been learned so far to increase one’s knowledge of kanji – for example, students will learn how to convert simple words they already know into Kanji and how to use Kanji vocabulary that has similar meanings.  Furthermore, the course provides activities to write essays using kanji and to read and understand the content. 

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

This course provides an overview of the history of Japanese literature from ancient (上代) to pre-modern times. The goal of this class is to understand traditional Japanese literature deeply by examining certain representative works from each period, genre by genre. Students will learn about the background and analyze the content of each work, i.e. Heian Court literature, medieval military literature, pre-modern Chonin (町人) literature, to gain a broad understanding of traditional Japanese society. 

This course prepares students to participate in university lectures taught in Japanese. By studying various topics, students will acquire the Japanese language proficiency (listening, reading, discussion, and writing) required for university lectures and autonomous learning skills to improve these skills further. The target level is CEFR B2.2. Prerequisite: “J6: Japanese” or equivalent. Three class hours/week. 

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Listen and comprehend long conversations, lectures, discussions, and media messages if an argument's structure and point are clear.
• Understand lengthy and abstract text in their familiar field, provided they can use a dictionary occasionally.
• Conduct discussion, presentation, etc., neither making mistakes that lead to misunderstanding nor causing strain or inconvenience to the listener.

This course is designed for students learning Japanese for the first time. The course aims to enhance basic listening and speaking skills as well as communicate with basic vocabulary and sentence structure. The course design is based on sentence structures and grammatical patterns learned in the class “Essential Japanese 1M-1 & 1M-2." It is recommended to take “Essential Japanese 1M-1 & 1M-2” together with this course.

Designed for upper beginners to improve oral communication skills, the course enables students to converse about familiar topics using upper basic Japanese grammar and vocabulary. 

The course covers: introducing oneself and family; sharing hobbies and favorite things; introducing favorite shops and restaurants; discussing travel preparations; explaining one’s current university life; discussing childhood experiences; expressing worries; giving advice based one experiences, and conveying one’s hopes and intentions.  

An exploratory culture course for foreign students, Japanese Culture C offers insights into various aspects of the living culture of Japan. The course comprises of three basic approaches: Discussing certain cultural characteristics of the nation; reading some representative literature and conducting fieldwork at venues of cultural significance. Students can also enroll in Japanese Culture C; the course contents of both classes alternate between fall and spring semesters. Fall-only students can enroll in one class but may join fieldwork activities of the other class if there are openings available. 

This course examines the interconnection between the history and culture of the Tohoku Region, including the rebuilding efforts from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It also addresses the variety of ways people have expressed themselves at different periods of history. 

This advanced Japanese course is designed to further develop oral communication skills placing a special focus on honorific expressions. A theme concerning Japanese culture and society is chosen for each course and students are split into groups to engage in activities, discussion, and group work concerning the selected topic. The goal of the class is to widen perspectives and deepen knowledge regarding various issues related to Japan and Japanese society. The program offers various theme courses and students may take multiple sections.  

This basic Japanese course is designed to improve reading skills. A different theme concerning Japanese culture and society is chosen for each course and students are split into groups to engage in activities, discussion, and group work concerning the selected topic. The overall 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 intermediate A2 level Japanese course focuses on the four skills of listening comprehension, spoken expression, reading comprehension, and written expression to enable students to use documentation in Japanese and to practice the language in a non-specialized context. The listening comprehension section focuses on understanding common greetings common greetings and work instructions; more elaborate questions on non-specialized topics; an everyday discussion on topics from ordinary life; the overall meaning of an authentic text (listening); and differences in levels of language (polite or familiar style). The spoken expression section practices greetings, thanks, and apologies with more nuance; making requests and offering responses with a richer vocabulary and level of expression, depending on the degree of politeness; using different conversational techniques to conduct a natural conversation (incomplete sentences, attenuation); producing a structured narrative of an event and be able to describe an unfamiliar visual document (on a theme explored in class); expressing your opinion in a simple way; expressing obligation and interdiction; expressing ability; describing a past experience; using two levels of language according to a given situation; using ageru, kureru, and morau with another verb in -te form. The reading comprehension section builds an understanding of around 300 kanji in context; a text on a topic discussed in class; and an overall understanding of a document using a bilingual dictionary and a kanji dictionary. Finally, the written expression section practices writing 110 new kanji; produces a homogeneous text in terms of style (neutral or polite) according to the type of text; writes a more detailed text on a simple theme, based upon a visual (graph, image); and writes a non-specialized letter.

The goal of this course is to develop the ability to use advanced Japanese constructions and expressions through reading articles helpful in understanding Japan and Japanese people. Students will extensively learn sentences and vocabulary used in academic material, and thus develop the ability to read scholarly Japanese writing accurately and at sufficient speed. Furthermore, students will deepen their understanding of Japan and the Japanese people as a part of their liberal arts education.