Japanese

This course reviews and masters elementary Japanese grammar and sentence patterns and develops a well-balanced lower intermediate level proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students learn the 50 most important sentence patterns of the intermediate level, master 3000 basic words and 600 to 750 kanji. They read short written passages on various topics that consist of sentence patterns, grammar and new vocabulary, make speeches on topics familiar to them, and write well-organized passages.

This is an intensive course that develops students' basic skills in conversation, reading, and writing necessary for daily student life in Japan. Upon completing this course, students are expected to have acquired the second half of basic grammar and vocabulary; be able to read simple texts in Japanese, which include the second half of basic grammar, vocabulary, and 172 kanji (in addition to 145 kanji at the level of the first half of basic Japanese), as well as to read and write about 170 kanji.

This Japanese course focuses on text book Basic Japanese (from Lesson 9). Students will learn the use of verb and auxiliary word mostly with practice. 

This course provides essential skills to write college-level reports approximately 1,500 words in length in Japanese. It provides techniques for the efficient organization of Japanese compositions as well as the presentation and citation of different types of illustrative and descriptive information. The course examines the style, tone, and diction expected of Japanese academic papers and emphasizes developing self-sufficiency in the writing process to be able to outline, edit, and revise writings. 

This course studies short stories depicting different aspects of the postwar period (roughly from 1945 until 1968) to provide an insight into the postwar period as a whole: how it shaped Japanese society at the time and how that process of shaping still bears upon the present. One short story at a time is studied. The texts will be made available to the class a week in advance on the Keio website, and all students will be expected to have read the relevant story before each class and to come prepared with comments and questions. All texts will be discussed on the basis of their English-language translations and the language of discussion will be English. However, the original Japanese texts will also be made available and native speakers of Japanese are particularly encouraged to use their knowledge of the original language to contribute to the discussion.