JAPN300: Intro to Advance Communication
Course Description:
This course is a bridge course from intermediate to advanced Japanese language. It continues development of proficiency in interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes of communication in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students develop communication strategies and cultural knowledge to prepare for advanced courses. Taught in Japanese. (Credit/No Credit Available) [Prereq: (Junior or Senior Standing) and (JAPN 201)]
1.1
This course was interesting to say the least. By the time I finished it, I had been living in Japan for three months. I credit much of my increase in proficiency during that time period to the extra homework I did remotely for my 300 class. Many of the grammatical subjects were reiterated through this course, so the information stuck far more than it had in the past. Some of the grammars specifically related to cultural norms in Japan. For instance, take the passive tense in Japanese. In English, the passive tense merely rearranges the sentence to turn what would normally be the direct object or predicate nominative into a subject: i.e., 'A fire was set...'. While this meaning translates into Japanese, there is also an understood negative air to any sentence using that tense. You would only use that tense when relating how somebody else's actions made life difficult for the speaker. For instance, "My lunch was eaten by my sempai." The English language hardly uses passive voice except in the case of newspapers or articles, so to see this voice used in such a specific case was incredibly interesting to learn.
1.2
With this course, it is a bit harder to tell exactly where I picked up the various phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc. as I was in Japan for a decent part of it and learning by immersion. However, before I left, I sat in on one lesson where we listened to a dialogue between two people, and had to recreate it. Our teacher would not let us stop until we had the tone, pitch, and accents correct, so that there was no room for miscommunication. Although the exercise was tedious at the time, looking back, it was incredibly helpful.
This course is a bridge course from intermediate to advanced Japanese language. It continues development of proficiency in interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes of communication in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students develop communication strategies and cultural knowledge to prepare for advanced courses. Taught in Japanese. (Credit/No Credit Available) [Prereq: (Junior or Senior Standing) and (JAPN 201)]
1.1
This course was interesting to say the least. By the time I finished it, I had been living in Japan for three months. I credit much of my increase in proficiency during that time period to the extra homework I did remotely for my 300 class. Many of the grammatical subjects were reiterated through this course, so the information stuck far more than it had in the past. Some of the grammars specifically related to cultural norms in Japan. For instance, take the passive tense in Japanese. In English, the passive tense merely rearranges the sentence to turn what would normally be the direct object or predicate nominative into a subject: i.e., 'A fire was set...'. While this meaning translates into Japanese, there is also an understood negative air to any sentence using that tense. You would only use that tense when relating how somebody else's actions made life difficult for the speaker. For instance, "My lunch was eaten by my sempai." The English language hardly uses passive voice except in the case of newspapers or articles, so to see this voice used in such a specific case was incredibly interesting to learn.
1.2
With this course, it is a bit harder to tell exactly where I picked up the various phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc. as I was in Japan for a decent part of it and learning by immersion. However, before I left, I sat in on one lesson where we listened to a dialogue between two people, and had to recreate it. Our teacher would not let us stop until we had the tone, pitch, and accents correct, so that there was no room for miscommunication. Although the exercise was tedious at the time, looking back, it was incredibly helpful.