MLO 2: Culture
2.1 Students develop a comprehensive understanding, appreciation and knowledge of Japanese culture: perspectives (ideas, beliefs, attitudes, values, philosophies), practices (patterns of social interactions) and products (both tangible and intangible, for example, art, history, literature, music).
2.2 Students develop analytical and critical thinking in areas such as how Japan’s cultural background influences modern Japanese life, how to compare their own culture with the Japanese culture, or how Japanese culture relates to other world cultures in an age of global inter-relatedness.
Much of MLO2 came from my culture classes at CSUMB. We have the particular luck of hosting many Japanese Exchange Students, a good number of whom regularly attend the Japanese Culture courses in order to provide greater perspective. As such, a good deal of our classes are discussion based. The two classes that provided the greatest amount of cultural knowledge were JAPN306: Japanese Mind, and JAPN310: Japanese Cinema. Japanese Mind looked into the cultural philosophies and habits of Japan, from the connection of various idioms to Samurai, all the way to the habit of cultural vagueness, or aimai. Japanese Cinema, on the other hand, showed a more visual version of the discussions we had in Japanese Mind. I could see, firsthand, the morality of a Samurai, to the unique comedic voice found in movies such as Swing Girls or Kamikaze Girls. This course taught me to look at culture from a different perspective, and to apply the learnings to my own culture as well. They both helped my transition into living in Japan.
I also fulfilled a great deal of my MLO content while abroad. My International Peace Studies class explored the various issues of the world preventing humans as a whole from living in world peace. We explored the mindsets of the world that had given us the first and second World Wars, then dove into current issues such as poverty, hunger, race relations, refugee/asylum seekers, dictatorships, biological and chemical warfare, and the use of nuclear energy and the habit by many nations of weaponizing that potential. The class presented me with the view of such issues outside of the American lens. I spoke with classmates from countries around the world as we discussed exactly why these problems came to be, and possible solutions to fixing them. The discussion in the class that most deeply affected me was the testimonial of a woman who had survived the Nagasaki atomic bomb. She spoke through a translator, but even without the translations, you could feel the terror and emotion that haunted her still 70 years later. By the time her story was over, I was completely speechless. The next week in class, when it came time to decide exactly what we would be giving our final group projects on, I joined the Nuclear Weapon group. so that I could explore exactly what the world's governments were doing to prevent such a nightmare from happening again. This class, much like much culture class, was interesting in that it gave me a global perspective rather than an American perspective. By the time the semester was over, I can say without a doubt that I was happy I chose it.
Classes that fulfill this MLO:
JAPN300: Intro. to Adv. Communication
Study Abroad Classes
JAPN215: Cool Japan Today
JAPN306: The Japanese Mind
JAPN308: Japanese Pop-Culture
JAPN310: Japanese Cinema
JAPN407: Japan in Asia
2.2 Students develop analytical and critical thinking in areas such as how Japan’s cultural background influences modern Japanese life, how to compare their own culture with the Japanese culture, or how Japanese culture relates to other world cultures in an age of global inter-relatedness.
Much of MLO2 came from my culture classes at CSUMB. We have the particular luck of hosting many Japanese Exchange Students, a good number of whom regularly attend the Japanese Culture courses in order to provide greater perspective. As such, a good deal of our classes are discussion based. The two classes that provided the greatest amount of cultural knowledge were JAPN306: Japanese Mind, and JAPN310: Japanese Cinema. Japanese Mind looked into the cultural philosophies and habits of Japan, from the connection of various idioms to Samurai, all the way to the habit of cultural vagueness, or aimai. Japanese Cinema, on the other hand, showed a more visual version of the discussions we had in Japanese Mind. I could see, firsthand, the morality of a Samurai, to the unique comedic voice found in movies such as Swing Girls or Kamikaze Girls. This course taught me to look at culture from a different perspective, and to apply the learnings to my own culture as well. They both helped my transition into living in Japan.
I also fulfilled a great deal of my MLO content while abroad. My International Peace Studies class explored the various issues of the world preventing humans as a whole from living in world peace. We explored the mindsets of the world that had given us the first and second World Wars, then dove into current issues such as poverty, hunger, race relations, refugee/asylum seekers, dictatorships, biological and chemical warfare, and the use of nuclear energy and the habit by many nations of weaponizing that potential. The class presented me with the view of such issues outside of the American lens. I spoke with classmates from countries around the world as we discussed exactly why these problems came to be, and possible solutions to fixing them. The discussion in the class that most deeply affected me was the testimonial of a woman who had survived the Nagasaki atomic bomb. She spoke through a translator, but even without the translations, you could feel the terror and emotion that haunted her still 70 years later. By the time her story was over, I was completely speechless. The next week in class, when it came time to decide exactly what we would be giving our final group projects on, I joined the Nuclear Weapon group. so that I could explore exactly what the world's governments were doing to prevent such a nightmare from happening again. This class, much like much culture class, was interesting in that it gave me a global perspective rather than an American perspective. By the time the semester was over, I can say without a doubt that I was happy I chose it.
Classes that fulfill this MLO:
JAPN300: Intro. to Adv. Communication
Study Abroad Classes
JAPN215: Cool Japan Today
JAPN306: The Japanese Mind
JAPN308: Japanese Pop-Culture
JAPN310: Japanese Cinema
JAPN407: Japan in Asia