DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

Japanese Language Courses

• Japanese Language
  • JAPANESE 111-1,2,3 – Japanese I
  • JAPANESE 121-1,2,3 – Japanese II
  • JAPANESE 211-1,2,3 – Japanese III
  • JAPANESE 310-0* – Japanese IV: Writing Tokyo
  • JAPANESE 312-1 – Japanese IV: Contemporary Japanese Literary Works for Reading and Discussion
  • JAPANESE 313 – Japanese IV: Japanese Newspaper Reading and News Listening

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 for Japanese language learning 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 and written assignments.  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 year-end 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 completing the course, students can greet, introduce themselves, describe their families and friends, and discuss their daily routines, experiences, and opinions. 

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, listening, and written examinations.

Class Materials (Required) 
Oka, M. et al.  (2021).  TOBIRA 1: Beginning Japanese.  Tokyo: Kuroshio Publishers.  ISBN 978-4-87424-870-6.

Oka, M. et al.  (2022).  TOBIRA 1: Beginning Japanese Workbook 1 – Hiragana/Katakana, Kanji, Reading, Writing.  Tokyo: Kuroshio Publishers.  ISBN: 978-4-87424-910-9.

Oka, M. et al.  (2023).  TOBIRA 1: Beginning Japanese Workbook 2 – Vocabulary, Grammar, Listening.  Tokyo: Kuroshio Publishers.  ISBN: 978-4-87424-950-5

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. (2012). Kodansha's Essential Kanji Dictionary. Tokyo: Kodansha. ISBN: 978-1568363974.

JAPANESE 121-1,2,3 – Japanese II

The emphasis will be on developing the skills necessary to describe not only their own experiences and daily lives, but also their community, general trend, and what is happening in society, while increasing vocabulary and sentence structures that they can use more precisely. Students will also practice summarizing a story that they heard, read, or watched. Careful and thorough review and preparation for each class session are expected. With consistent oral and written feedback from the instructor, students will enhance their language and cultural 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, and A2 - B1.1 defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR), as closely as possible. Upon the satisfactory completion of the course, students will be able to handle various types of more complex daily conversational situations and passages with some fluency.  

Teaching Method
This course is conducted mostly in Japanese. Class hours are spent mainly on development of oral interpersonal communication skills, and written assignments are given for reading, listening, and writing proficiency development.

Evaluation Method
Class participation and performance, assignments, quizzes, oral and written examinations, and essays

Class Materials (Required)
Oka, M. et al. (2022). TOBIRA II: Beginning Japanese. Tokyo: Kuroshio Publishers. ISBN 978-4-87424-900-0.

Oka, M. et al. (2023).  TOBIRA II: Beginning Japanese Workbook 1: Kanji | Reading | Writing. Tokyo: Kuroshio Publishers. ISBN 978-4-87424-960-4

If released in time:

Oka, M. et al. (expected in 2024).  TOBIRA II: Beginning Japanese Workbook 2
-Vocabulary, Grammar, Listening. Tokyo: Kuroshio Publishers. 

Class Materials (Suggested)
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

Registration Requirements
Students must pass the preceding course with C- or above or 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 a short presentation or a story, 4) use casual/formal speech and written styles, 5) attain a working knowledge of kanji that are frequently used in media, 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 strategies to become autonomous learners.

Teaching Method
Discussion.  This course is conducted in Japanese.

Evaluation Method
Class participation and performance, assignments, quizzes, oral and written examinations, 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 and 211-3
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 310-0* – Japanese IV: 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.

Learning Objectives:
Students who complete this course are expected to be able to do the following: • Accurately parse and interpret authentic prose writing from the early to mid-20th century; read prewar Japanese orthography, including historical kanji and historical kana usage. • Analyze and compare different literary styles, linguistic registers, and expressive choices as a basis for literary translation. • Use reference sources for self-learning and independent reading, both for linguistic understanding (grammar references and dictionaries) and historical context (encyclopedias and other research tools). • 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 choices made in the course of a given translation address those problems. • Describe the social and cultural associations surrounding different neighborhoods of modern Tokyo.

Teaching Method
Lecture/Discussion/Workshop

Evaluation Method
Attendance, participation, weekly translations, final presentation, final translation

Class Materials (Required)
None

JAPANESE 312-1 – Japanese IV: Contemporary Japanese Literary Works for Reading and Discussion

Course Overview
In this course, students will enhance their language skills by exploring literary materials in Japanese and discussing them.  While literature courses in Japanese studies emphasize historical contexts and specific analytical frameworks for the texts, this course focuses on students’ own engagement with and language analysis of written works.  The course materials include poems, essays, manga, short stories, and novels.  Supplementary movies may be provided depending on their availability.

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
1) Enhancing language proficiency in reading and speaking to Advanced-Low in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, 2) Explore various literary genres and identifying their stylistic elements and themes, 3) Developing critical thinking skills by analyzing texts from multiple perspectives, and 4) Becoming an autonomous learner through examining strategies to achieve proficiency independently.

Teaching Method:
Discussion.  This course is conducted in Japanese.

Evaluation Method:
Participation, assignments, projects, oral and written exams.

Class Materials (Required):
All materials will be provided via Canvas.

JAPANESE 313 – Japanese IV: Japanese Newspaper Reading and News Listening

Overview of class 
Course summary coming soon!