This class was taken at Okayama University in Okayama, Japan.
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Description:
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Based on the grammar and content that were learned in previous classes, students will increase vocabulary (mainly kanji-compounds) in this class in order to deal with more abstract topics. They will learn vocabulary, grammar, expressions that are necessary for understanding Japanese society as well as systems, culture, and customs in Japan, and further, to express their own opinions on these topics.
The ultimate goal of this course is to teach students how to critically evaluate the acquired information regarding Japanese society, systems, culture, and customs. Prior to each lesson, students will be assigned to read the text and write answers to questions based on the content of the text by listening to previously-recorded questions. After completing each assignment, they will be expected to be able to discuss issues addressed in class through such oral activities as roleplaying, debates, etc. In this way, the class is designed to foster the four skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing. |
Course Narrative
This was a discussion oriented class, presenting students with vocabulary about social issues and situations to discuss these social issues in Japanese. The class teamed up with an upper division English as a Second Language class, and during these meetings, I applied what I had learned about social issues and vocabulary to discuss these with native Japanese. This class satisfied MLO 1 through its practice based teaching style of Japanese. In this way, practice taught me enunciation and syntax. This class satisfied MLO 2 by presenting various beliefs, attitudes, values, philosophies, patterns of social interactions as well as products of the culture. In this class I discussed these things as part of the social issue discussions and developed a vocabulary surrounding this diversity. This class also satisfied the MLO by guiding me through an analytical and critical thinking pattern about Japanese culture as relative to other cultures. This class provided a diverse analysis of religion, ethnicity and other social issues, both with its structure around discussion and the diversity of the students. Such critical thinking was done through papers such as the one about the "meaning of education" (click to view paper 教育の意味) in which I wrote an analysis of education and its concept. I went further to analyze one's contributions to society in the form of a paper (click to view paper 社会に貢献する) in which I analyze the concept and dynamic of a person's contributions. One of the research projects in this course led me to interview college level Japanese students about their opinions of various dialects such as Hiroshima dialect, Okayama dialect, Tokyo dialect, and Osaka dialect. After interviews and a survey (click to view blank survey) on the dialect, I compiled a video presentation (click here to watch the presentation) in which I explain my findings (click to view survey results) and analyze it. In this course I had various aha moments surrounding the differences in culture and the structure of its associated language. For example, in Japanese language there is no direct translation for the word "no," though there are some words that have a similar feel to them, they do not have a direct and stern "no" meaning. This is because the Japanese culture is not direct and stern meaning for "no" which reflects in the collective idea that one should try to please others.
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