Japanese

This advanced Japanese course is designed for students to acquire the necessary skills to express one's thoughts and opinions. Students are split into groups to engage in activities, discussion, and group work concerning a 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 is an intermediate Japanese language course. It continues Japanese II at ICU and is equivalent to quarter six to seven (third year) at UC. Upon completion of this course students will have mastered basic contemporary Japanese grammar, vocabulary, and a total of 94 kanji including new readings. With this foundation students should be able to express themselves in both spoken and written forms at a level necessary for simple daily university student life.

Through practical assignments, students will comprehensively develop various writing skills necessary for university studies, research, and student life.

Eligibility: B2 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education (N1 in the JLPT).

The objectives of this course are as follows:
1. Students deepen their knowledge and thinking by reading a variety of texts and developing the ability to construct logic by practicing writing repeatedly.
2. Students will be able to select and utilize appropriate expression styles and grammar.
3. Students will be able to choose appropriate expressions according to the reader and the situation and convey messages via e-mail and SMS message.

This course covers the CEFR A1 level of spoken and written Japanese. It focuses on interactive communication activities relevant to the learners themselves and their immediate surroundings. Students will develop overall language proficiency through listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities on various topics.

The course utilizes Hiragana and Katakana in class materials (slides, homework, class announcements, etc.) from the first week. Also, there will be Hiragana and Katakana quizzes within the first two weeks. Please check Hiragana and Katakana (read & write) before class starts.

By the end of this course, students will be able to get an idea of the content provided by very basic words and phrases on the most common everyday situations, speak and write simple phrases and sentences in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics, and interact in a simple way if delivered directly to him/her.

Students will develop critical reading skills necessary to study at the undergraduate level through reading news articles, official documents, and commentaries on the web.

Eligibility: B2 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education (N1 in the JLPT).

The objectives of this course are as follows:
1. Students will be able to understand the contents of texts on various topics and analyze the characteristics of their writing style.
2.Students will be able to paraphrase the main points of texts on various topics using concise expressions and figures.
3.Students will be able to select source materials by examining the reliability of the information.

<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.

<Oral Expression A>
Goal: To understand coherent speech and be able to express one’s own opinions in a clear and understandable manner.
Contents: Listening exercises of various materials. Learning expressions used for explaining and giving opinions and making a speech.

This advanced Japanese course choses a different theme concerning Japanese culture and society to discuss each week. 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. 

<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.

This course is designed for students who have had some experience learning Japanese. It focuses on the acquisition of grammar and sentence patterns based on the textbook, Elementary Japanese for Academic Purposes, Tomodachi Vol.1 (Lesson 7 to 12), and provides comprehensive practice in the four skills. 

<Level VI>
Target Students: Those who have completed intermediate level studies but are advised to review the contents at the same time with studying the advanced level.
Course Goals: To master the 200 important intermediate sentence patterns and develop understanding and command of the 50 most important advanced sentence patterns for further improvement of the four skills of reading, listening, speaking. To master the 8,000 basic words and 1,500 basic Chinese characters.

<Oral Expression B>
Goal: To develop oral expression skills for dialogues such as conversations or discussions.
Contents: Having conversations, discussions, and debates on various topics.