FALL 2018
JAPN 300: Introduction to Advanced Communication
This is a bridge course from intermediate to advanced Japanese language. Students expand their cultural knowledge and language by investigating and comparing a broader range of topics in Japanese. Taught in Japanese.
MLO 1 Japanese Language and Communication& MLO 2 Japanese Culture
This is a bridge course from intermediate to advanced Japanese language. Students expand their cultural knowledge and language by investigating and comparing a broader range of topics in Japanese. Taught in Japanese.
MLO 1 Japanese Language and Communication& MLO 2 Japanese Culture
Work Example
JAPN 300 was the first ever Japanese language class I took when I joined as a Japanese major at CSUMB. The class aimed to help students improve in their Japanese conversational skills, while also broadening their knowledge of Japanese culture. In this respect, the class accomplished both goals for MLO 1 and MLO 2. We as students were tasked with learning new grammar, vocabulary, and cultural knowledge through the use of presentations, worksheets, texts, tests, and quizzes. We were also assigned to give presentations in Japanese on various topics, as a way to get us more comfortable with our speaking abilities. The aforementioned presentation can be seen through the link provided above, as it is my presentation from the class on shrines. In class, we were also encouraged to only speak to each other in Japanese so that we would continuously practice and use our critical thinking skills. In addition, we would also learn songs in Japanese and analyze their lyrics so that we could also hear Japanese in another context outside of textbooks. This then allowed us to learn more slang and the casual form of Japanese which we could then connect with the formal version we were learning, thus we could see all forms of the words we were learning. I had learned some of the things we were presented in the class, already in my high school class, but Ogaki 先生 went much more in-depth about it resulting in me gaining a better understanding of the topics.
JAPN 213: Manga, Anime & Modern Japan
This course uses Japanese Manga cartoons and Anime, animated movies, as modern mirrors that reflect the Japanese experience of rapid economic and social transformation over the past 150 years. Starting with the examination of ancient Japanese style of visual expression, we will trace how Manga and Anime sketch out a parallel world that is linked both historically and culturally to the imagined community of the Japanese nation-state. Taught in English.
MLO 2 Japanese Culture
Work Example
In JAPN 213 we discussed the evolution and importance of manga and anime through the use of presentations, worksheets, texts, tests, and quizzes. We discussed how manga and anime has drawn more people from Japan's surrounding countries amnd the western world in to discovering Japanese culture and language, as well as how the western world has influenced Japanese manga and anime in the past few decades. The class was encouraged to see below the surface level of anime and manga, in order to find common themes and genres which may help tell us something about modern day Japanese society. Students were also encouraged to become more aware of the problematic side of anime and manga, so that the common idea amongst westerners of Japan being a utopian society can be banished. The teachers also helped inform us of how manga and anime originated from traditional Japanese performances and how some themes are still used today, as they were then. For example, samurai fighting, finding love, and morality. We also discussed how manga and anime has branched off into creating two distinct styles which most anime and manga now follow, which can be seen on my groups presentation at the link provided above. The class allowed us students to have many meaningful and in depth conversations with each other on how we view the world and how or if manga and anime has lent a hand in shaping those views. Many of my fellow peers also said that their love of Japanese culture stemmed from their reading and watching of manga and anime at a young age.