Japanese

<Level V>
Target Students: Those who have partially completed intermediate level studies.
Course Goals: To develop understanding and command of the 200 important intermediate sentence patterns for further improvement of the four skills of reading, listening, speaking, and writing. To master the 6,000 basic words and 1,000 to 1,200 basic Chinese characters.

<General 1-5>
Goal: To develop balanced, intermediate-level proficiency in reading, listening, speaking, and writing.
Contents: Learning the 100 important intermediate sentence patterns and vocabulary and improving reading comprehension with an upper intermediate level textbook. Developing command of intermediate Japanese through short sentence composition exercises. Mastering the points learnt at the intermediate level to proceed to the advanced level smoothly. Increasing vocabulary by learning both the words introduced in the textbook as well as additional related words.
Improving the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing by understanding the textbook and exchanging opinions on it.

Modern Japanese literature is filled with ghosts and goblins—if you know where to look. This introductory course surveys some of the strangest, scariest, and wildest fiction in modern Japan. The course begins at the “beginning” of modern Japanese literature in the late nineteenth century up through more contemporary works, with the stories ranging from ghost stories and fairy tales to the literary equivalent of the splatter film.

The course addresses the following questions: How did the broad genre of what is today known in Japanese as gensō bungaku (roughly corresponding to supernatural, horror, and fantasy genres), emerge and develop as a set of assumptions about the nature of modern life in Japan? How do these assumptions challenge our way of interacting with the world, with other people, and ultimately with our own sense of self? What kind of new understandings of various boundaries—between the real and the unreal, the present and the past, the foreign and the native, the living and the dead—might these stories suggest? And how are these texts part of a larger global network of weird fiction—what, in other words, does it mean to call a Japanese text “Gothic”?

This class requires a significant amount of reading outside of class.

<Level VII>

Target Students: Those who have completed and mastered intermediate-level studies.

Course Goals: To master the 200 important intermediate sentence patterns and develop understanding and command of the 100 important advanced sentence patterns for further improvement of the four skills of reading, listening, speaking, and writing. To master the 10,000 basic words and 2,000 basic Chinese characters.

<General 1-5>

Goal: To develop a balanced, advanced level of proficiency in reading, listening, speaking, and writing.

Contents: Mastery of intermediate sentence patterns and introduction of 100 important advanced sentence patterns, using Doshisha University’s original textbook and support materials. For students to be able to use all the expressions in an appropriate manner, exercises will be of typical situations where each expression is used, without categorizing them into grammar or vocabulary issues. Vocabulary building with an emphasis on collocation. Improving the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing through summarizing, reading, and listening comprehension of the materials; role-play using expressions learned in class, and composition exercises.

<Level IV>
Target Students: Those who have completed and mastered elementary level studies.
Course Goals: To develop understanding and command of the 100 important intermediate sentence patterns for further improvement of the four skills of reading, listening, speaking, and writing. To master the 4,000 basic words and 800 basic Chinese characters.
<Written Expression>
Goal: To be able to write well-formed passages of approximately 600 words in length.
Contents: Writing letters or simple essays on topics familiar to students.

A continuation of Japanese language beginner. Teaching is aimed at enabling students to speak, read, and write Modern Japanese at a pre-intermediate level, equivalent to Japanese Language Proficiency Test N5 or Common European Framework of Reference for Languages level A1/A2.
The course provides essential grounding for the pre-intermediate level course "Japanese Language Pre-Intermediate" and subsequent study to the lower intermediate-level continuation course. A good deal of private study is necessary to meet the requirements of the course. This course is not available to native or near-native speakers of Japanese. A placement test and questionnaire on students' background in Japanese language studies is conducted in the induction session.

This course is designed for students learning Japanese for the first time. The course focuses on the acquisition of grammar and sentence patterns based on the textbook Elementary Japanese for Academic Purposes Vol.1 (Lesson 1 to 6). Students must understand hiragana before taking this course.

This course comprehensively reviews the points studied at the elementary level;  enhances expressions skills, and improves command of such skills. The course covers various conversational situations frequently encountered in daily lives in Japan such as shopping, visiting doctors, expressing feelings and traveling; practice using newly learned phrases and sentence patterns in various role-play activities with peers and Japanese native speakers; and designing written scripts and presenting them in class. The course emphasizes understanding Japanese customs and Japanese way of thinking, which aids in understanding the dynamics of Japanese conversation. 

This advanced Japanese course is designed to improve speaking 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 course summarizes the learning contents for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1 level. From the categories of "characters/vocabulary," "grammar," "reading comprehension," and "listening comprehension," exercises will focus on questions that have been newly introduced in the new exam or questions that have been changed in contents and format. The course also provides practice problems aimed at overcoming weaknesses. Also, for students to get used to the question format, a mock test will be conducted just before the proficiency test.

This course is designed for upper beginners to teach basic Japanese grammar and vocabulary. Japanese language is practiced by listening, reading, speaking and writing with new grammar patterns and vocabulary learned in class. The goal of the course is to further develop Japanese literacy and communication skills needed in daily life by expanding basic knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Texts: MINNANO NIHONGO II; MINNANO NIHONGO II:TRANSLATION AND GRAMMAR NOTES; MINNANO NIHONGO II: WORKBOOK. Assessment: exams (55%), class attendance (25%), writing performance (10%), and oral test (10%).