Japanese

This course is designed for students at the advanced level. Based on reading assignments related to Japanese society and culture, students learn various ways to discuss and present their opinions. The course is offered in Spring and Fall semesters with different course content. 

This course aims to help students learn Japanese for academic purposes through various familiar topics about society and culture. The target level is CEFR B1.1.

The course provides opportunities to complete various tasks using Japanese, enabling students to acquire the language skills necessary to perform the tasks and also increase their knowledge of Japanese vocabulary, grammar patterns, expressions and kanji. The final requirement of the course is a project presentation, where students present the results of their research on a particular topic. This course aims to enhance students’ Japanese proficiency and their ability to comprehend and engage deeply with the content. 

This course includes an elective component "Expand your World in Japanese." 

This course covers the minimum, basic abilities in conversation and reading/writing necessary for everyday life in Japan. 

Eligibility: Students who have studied no Japanese. Students who will be eligible for C250b/c after taking C150.  

Learning Objectives: A1 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education. 

By the end of this course, students are expected to: 

 ・ Understand and correctly use basic greetings and set phrases.

 ・ Speak about things around you and interact with others using combinations of simple phrases.

 ・ Understand simple informative texts and brief passages about familiar topics.

In the Heian period, stories such as "The Tale of Genji" are often set in the harem, deep within the Heian-kyo Imperial Palace, and often feature the empresses and the crown prince who lived there. Knowing the life of the women who lived in the harem is very useful for interpreting Heian period stories. 

This course aims to deepen one's understanding of works depicting the harem of the Heian period, such as "The Tale of Utsubo" and "The Tale of Genji," after learning basic knowledge about the harem of the Heian period. This course focuses the life of the princess after entering the palace and compares historical examples found in "The Tale of Eiga" and "Okagami" as well as descriptions of stories mainly in "The Tale of Genji."  Furthermore, the course focuses not only on the women but also on the parental affections and political intentions of the aristocratic male fathers who acted as their guardians.

"I want to make people laugh, but it's too difficult." "Everyone else is laughing, but I don't find it funny."... Are these difficulties related to "humor" due to personal preference, language ability, or socio-cultural background? This course explores thinking about the Japanese language and culture using funny stories, learning about the differences and commonalities between Japan's and other countries' senses of humor through comparing with other cultures and translation activities. (This course is conducted in Japanese.) 

Eligibility A2.1 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education (N3 in the JLPT). 

Learning Objectives 

-Deepen understanding of the Japanese language, culture, and values. 

-Deepen understanding of the language, culture, and values of the students' home countries and regions. 

-Cooperate with Japanese and international students in group work and group presentations. 

-Improve communication skills in Japanese. 

This course provides training to acquire skills necessary for writing academic reports and papers. In class, each student chooses a theme, writes a report, and conducts peer review of these reports. 

This course is designed for students who have mastered intermediate kanji to expand knowledge of kanji compound words and idiomatic expressions. While examining the structure of kanji compounds, students study kanji systematically by learning opposite and similar meanings of kanji as well as by applying suffixes and prefixes. By expanding their kanji vocabulary, students will be able to select the most appropriate kanji based on the context.

This course provides training in reading modern Japanese literature works, thereby increasing knowledge of Japanese literature and reading comprehension skills. The course discusses an overview of Japanese literature by genre, following the history of Japanese literature. 

This course aims to help students learn Japanese for academic purposes through various familiar topics about society and culture. The target level is CEFR B1.2.

The course provides opportunities to complete various tasks using Japanese, enabling students to acquire the language skills necessary to perform the tasks and also increase their knowledge of Japanese vocabulary, grammar patterns, expressions and kanji. The final requirement of the course is a project presentation, where students present the results of their research on a particular topic. This course aims to enhance students’ Japanese proficiency and their ability to comprehend and engage deeply with the content. 

This course includes an elective component "Expand your World in Japanese." 

This course covers basic grammar and vocabulary needed for everyday life and attending university classes in Japan, learning reading and writing skills.

Eligibility: A2.1 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education (N4 in the JLPT). 

Learning Objectives: A2.2 level in the CEFR/JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education Review. The expressions/sentence structures learned at the basic level (A1-A2.1); learn new expressions/sentence structures, and when, where, and how to use them, to achieve the below goals:  

・ Comprehend texts on every day, specific, familiar topics (reading). 

・ Writing concise texts about events, past activities, and personal experiences using simple conjunctions to connect ideas (soshite, shikashi, nazenara, etc.) (writing).