Japanese Language Courses
- Japanese Language
Japanese Language
JAPANESE 111-1,2,3 – Japanese I
Overview of class
Japanese I (JAPANESE 111-1, 2 and 3) is a yearlong course that covers the first half of college level elementary Japanese. In Japanese I, students will build a solid foundation while developing the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students will also learn various aspects of Japanese culture and society through in-class activities, written assignments, and video viewing. Careful and thorough review and preparation for each class session are required.
Registration Requirements
Except for JAPANESE 111-1, students must pass the preceding course with C- or above, or must be placed into the course by the departmental placement test.
Learning Objectives
The goal of Japanese I is to bring students’ overall Japanese proficiency to the Intermediate-Low level defined by the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines. Upon the satisfactory completion of the course, students will be able to greet, introduce themselves, describe their families and friends, discuss their daily routines and experiences, and write letters to friends.
Teaching Method
This course is conducted mostly in Japanese, and class hours are spent mainly on oral proficiency development. Written assignments are given for reading and writing proficiency development.
Evaluation Method
Class participation and performance; assignments; quizzes; oral and written examinations
Class Materials (Required)
Oka, M. et al. (2021). TOBIRA 1: Beginning Japanese. Tokyo: Kuroshio Publishers. ISBN 978-4-87424-870-6.
Class Materials (Suggested)
Endo-Hudson, M (1994). English Grammar for Students of Japanese. Ann Arbor: The Olivia and Hill Press. ISBN: 0-934034-16-8; Makino, S. & Tsutsui M. (1989). Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN 4-7890-0454-6; Kodansha (2002). Kodansha's Essential Kanji Dictionary. Tokyo: Kodansha. ISBN: 978-4-7700-2891-4 / 4-7700-2891-1.
JAPANESE 121-1,2,3 – Japanese II
Overview of class
Japanese II (JAPANESE 121-1, 2 and 3) is a yearlong course that covers the second half of college level elementary Japanese and prepares students for intermediate Japanese (JAPANESE 211). In this course, students continue developing the four skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) through readings, video viewing, written assignments, and in-class activities. The emphasis will be on developing the skills necessary to use auxiliary verbs and complex sentences to express subtle differences in meaning and accuracy appropriate to the given contexts. Students will also practice cohesively describing their experiences and summarizing a story that they heard, read, or watched. Careful and thorough review and preparation for each class session are required. With consistent oral and written feedback from the instructor, students will also enhance their language awareness, leading to increased understanding, appreciation, and utilization of the target language, to become autonomous learners.
Registration Requirements
Students must pass the preceding course with C- or above, or must be placed into the course by the departmental placement test.
Learning Objectives
The year-end proficiency goal of Japanese II is for the students to reach the Intermediate-Mid level defined by the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines. Upon the satisfactory completion of the course, students will be able to handle various types of more complex daily conversational situations and passages.
Teaching Method
This course is conducted mostly in Japanese. Class hours are spent mainly on oral proficiency development, and written assignments are given for reading and writing skills development. Useful expressions in daily life and social and cultural aspects in modern Japan are introduced through a series of videos.
Evaluation Method
Class participation and performance, assignments, quizzes, oral and written examinations, and essays
Class Materials (Required)
Hasegawa, Y. (2006) Elementary Japanese, Vol. 2. Vermont: Tuttle Language Library. ISBN 978-4805313695.Course Packet will be made available in the PDF format through Canvas.
Class Materials (Suggested)
Kodansha's Essential Kanji Dictionary. Tokyo: Kodansha. ISBN 978-1568363974; Endo-Hudson, M. (1994). English Grammar for Students of Japanese. Ann Arbor: The Olivia and Hill Press. ISBN 978-0934034166; Makino, S. & Tsutsui, M. (1989). Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN 978-4789004541.
JAPANESE 211-1,2,3 – Japanese III
Overview of class
Japanese III (JAPANESE 211-1, 2, 3) is a yearlong course, sequel to Japanese II (JAPANESE 121-1, 2, 3), that covers college-level intermediate Japanese. In Japanese III, students will continue developing the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and learning various aspects of Japanese culture and society through reading materials, class discussions and an interview project. The casual speech and formal writing styles are introduced, and students will become familiarized with different language styles for different settings. With consistent oral and written feedback from the instructor, the students will also continue learning to identify and self-correct errors in their language use to become independent learners. This course aims to bring students proficiency towards the Intermediate-High level defined by the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines as close as possible.
Registration Requirements
Students must pass the preceding course with C- or above, or must be placed into the course by the departmental placement test.
Learning Objectives
Upon the successful completion of the year-long course, the students will be able to 1) comfortably and appropriately handle daily situations, 2) describe and narrate daily events and personal experiences in an organized manner, 3) summarize the main points of what is read, seen, or heard, 4) use casual/formal speech and written styles, 5) use approximately 500 basic kanji characters in context, and 6) communicate with native speakers on familiar topics in informal settings. The students are also expected to 7) deepen their understanding of customs, culture, and social phenomena of contemporary Japan, and 8) learn to study independently.
Teaching Method
In-class discussion. Review and preparation for each class session are expected. This course is conducted in Japanese.
Evaluation Method
Class participation and performance, assignments, quizzes, oral and written examinations and projects.
Class Materials (Required)
JAPANESE 211-1
Yasui et al. (2019). QUARTET: Intermediate Japanese Across the Four Language Skills, Vol.1 (English Edition). Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN: 978-4789016957
Yasui et al. (2019). QUARTET: Intermediate Japanese Across the Four Language Skills, Vol.1, Workbook (English Edition). Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN: 978-4789016964
JAPANESE 211-2, 3
Yasui et al. (2020). QUARTET: Intermediate Japanese Across the Four Language Skills, Vol.2 (English Edition). Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN: 978-4789017459
Yasui et al. (2020). QUARTET: Intermediate Japanese Across the Four Language Skills, Vol.2, Workbook (English Edition). Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN: 978-4789017466
JAPANESE 310* – Writing Tokyo
Overview of class
This is an advanced course in reading and translation of modern Japanese. Its goals are twofold: first, to cultivate advanced reading skills necessary to read authentic literary materials in Japanese, and second, to develop the technical skills and metalinguistic awareness necessary to produce effective English translations. Course readings focus on representations of the city of Tokyo from the early to mid-20th century in a range of prose genres; emphasis is on gaining facility in different literary styles and linguistic registers, and on developing techniques for parsing and translating texts that demand rich contextual knowledge. Primary readings are in Japanese with discussion and theoretical readings in English.
Registration Requirements
Students must have completed JAPANESE 211-3 with C- or above, or must be placed into the class by the departmental placement test.
Learning Objectives:
- Accurately parse and interpret authentic prose writing from the early to mid-20th century.
- Use reference sources for self-learning and independent reading, both for linguistic understanding (grammar references and dictionaries) and historical context (encyclopedias, scholarly works, other research tools).
- Analyze and compare different literary styles, linguistic registers, and expressive choices as a basis for literary translation.
- Produce translations that reflect not only a literal understanding of linguistic meaning but an awareness of style, register, tone, theme, and other literary or stylistic concerns.
- Describe conceptual problems surrounding the translation of cultural texts, and explain how specific translation strategies may address those problems.
- Describe the social and cultural associations surrounding different neighborhoods of modern Tokyo.
Teaching Method
Lecture, discussion, workshopping of translations
Evaluation Method
Attendance and participation, weekly writing assignments, final project
Class Materials (Required)
All materials will be made available in PDF form.
JAPANESE 313 – Japanese IV: Japanese Newspaper Reading and News Listening
Overview of class
JAPANESE 313-1 is an upper-intermediate fourth-year Japanese language course. All of the fourth-year Japanese courses have the common goal of bringing students’ overall proficiency towards the Advanced-Low defined by the proficiency guidelines of American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) as close as possible. JAPANESE 313-1 centers on the reading and analysis of news articles curated by the instructor. The focus will be on enhancing students’ news reading-comprehension abilities through systematic vocabulary building that includes collocations, idioms and kanji compounds. Students will have the opportunity to practice their newly acquired vocabulary in dialogues and discussions that develop ideas from the articles read in class. Students will also hone their listening-comprehension skills by watching and listening to news. This course does NOT provide training for writing skills development (All students taking this course are expected to have at least the intermediate-level writing skills, equivalent to the end of JAPANESE 211-3, and should be able to write an opinion paper in the plain style). The students who need writing skills development should take JAPANESE 314-1.
Registration Requirements:
Students must have completed JAPANESE 211-3 with C- or above, or must be placed into the class by the departmental placement test.
Learning Objectives
Upon the successful completion of the course, the students will be able to 1) read a variety of news articles without heavily relying on a dictionary; 2) understand news on topics in finance, economics, social problems, etc.; 3) summarize the main point of news articles concisely; and 4) look at social issues reported in news and news articles in cultural and social contexts.
Teaching Method:
Classes are conducted only in Japanese. Class time will be used for vocabulary building practices (e.g., paraphrasing, providing definitions in Japanese) and for discussions.
Evaluation Method:
Kanji/vocabulary quizzes, assignments; oral and written examinations; active and productive class participation and class performance.
Class Materials (Required):
Matsumoto, S. (2016). News Nihongo. Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN 978-4789015967
Back to top