2007–2008 Japanese Courses
Beginning Japanese
Level: Open
Semester: Year
This course is for students with no previous knowledge of Japanese. In this course, students will develop basic communicative skills in listening comprehension and speaking, as well as skills in reading and writing (katakana, hiragana, and basic kanji) in Japanese. While class time and weekly conference meetings will be devoted primarily to language practice, an understanding of Japanese grammar will also be emphasized as an important basis for continued language learning. Class work will be supplemented with weekly group conferences with the instructor. Students will also meet once a week in small groups with a language assistant, a mandatory component of the course.
Beginning. Open to any interested student.
Intermediate Japanese
Level: Intermediate
Semester: Year
This course is designed for students who have completed Beginning Japanese or its equivalent. In this course, students will continue to develop their skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing while expanding their vocabulary and knowledge of grammar. At the end of the course, students should be able to handle simple communicative tasks and situations effectively, understand simple daily conversations, write short essays, read simple essays, and discuss their content. Class work will be supplemented with weekly group conferences with the instructor. Students will also meet once a week in small groups with a language assistant, a mandatory component of the course.
Readings in the Japanese Language
Level: Advanced
Semester: Fall
This course is not for native readers of Japanese but for third-year Japanese language students. It will use both a standard language textbook and also a selection of actual texts (mostly literary) written in Japanese for native Japanese readers. We will adopt a three-pronged strategy: first, guided readings from a textbook, with memorization of grammar patterns, vocabulary, and kanji; second, selected shorter texts to be closely read and precisely translated into English; and third, one or more longer texts to be swiftly read through for general comprehension and summarized rather than translated. Students will need both a good electronic dictionary and a copy of Andrew N. Nelson’s Japanese-English Character Dictionary. After a rapid introduction to kanji lookup skills and a review of the more important radicals, we will dive right into our short readings, starting also on a longer text to be read for general comprehension only.