Japanese

This advanced Japanese course is designed to improve reading skills. 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 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 class focuses on the grammar, vocabulary and expressions that are commonly used in Japan, practicing both comprehension and production skills. Students become familiar with the language and cultural background of everyday life situations likely to be encountered in contemporary Japanese society. This course also helps students to read sentences mixed with Kanji, compose simple sentences, and write short essays.

This course builds upon the basis of Japanese 1 and aims to develop basic linguistic and socio-cultural skills and expand the repertoire of the daily topics and situations with simple structures. While more emphasis is placed on the development of oral communication skills, students also learn how to read short passages and write short compositions. Approximately 100 new kanji characters are introduced.

This course deals with the new trend of Japanese modern literature after the Great Kanto Earthquake (September 1920), which had a major impact on Japanese modern culture.  The devastating blow to the Tokyo metropolitan area and its subsequent rapid recovery was influential on Japanese literature and arts. 

Modernization occurred after the Meiji era (1868-1912) and achieved a certain degree of success during the Taisho era (1912-1926); however, after the earthquake these achievements were destroyed, and new experimentation developed. It is a common practice in literary history to distinguish the period of “modern times” based on the year of the earthquake. 

This course develops Japanese language skills and characters.

This is a Japanese language course for non-JLP students. It is designed for students who have completed elementary-level courses and aims to facilitate a mastery of the oral communication and listening skills that are necessary in daily conversation. Students learn expressions used in various daily situations and practice speaking and listening skills to communicate smoothly in Japanese. 

Building upon the basis of Japanese 2, this course develops ability to communicate and expands the repertoire of daily topics and situations. Complex structures such as noun modification, transitive/intransitive verb sentences and conditional forms are introduced. Approximately 140 kanji are introduced. With this knowledge of characters, students will be able to understand and write simple and short essays.

This course examines basic communication skills in understanding and speaking Japanese. Students will also learn to write the two Japanese syllabaries and approximately 60 kanji characters and to recognize at least 100 kanji characters in context. Relevant socio-cultural information is integrated with the language learning.

This is a Japanese language course for non-JLP students focused on advanced grammar corresponding to Level N1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. It is offered in the Spring and Fall Semesters with different course content. The course aims to understand the basic meaning and usage of N1 level sentence patterns and grammar to create example sentences. 

This is a Japanese language course for non-JLP students. It is designed for students who have some experience learning Japanese, focusing on grammar and comprehensive practice of the four skills.  Instruction of grammar acquisition and sentence patterns is based on the textbook Elementary Japanese for Academic Purposes Vol.1 (Lesson 7 to 12).