My Time at CSUMB: An Integrative Narrative
I had two reasons for choosing this particular major at this particular school. The first was that I wanted to learn a language that would otherwise be completely unavailable to me. The town I come from is only notable language-wise in that it is home to the last community college in California that teaches four semesters of Latin (I took three); other than that, the only languages I can find taught at a college level continuously is Spanish and American Sign Language. I wanted to learn a language that was different. So when it came time to choose the school and language, CSUMB caught my eye: the major offered was Japanese Language and Culture. That became my second, and I believe most important reason: at CSUMB, I could more than just the language. Just looking at the Major Learning Outcomes, you can see that 3 of the 5 have a focus on making sure the students have an understanding of the culture they are learning. MLO 3 even allows students to learn a secondary culture, to ensure a sort of worldliness in all students who pass through the major. When I first entered this school, my goal was simply to learn Japanese and more of the culture than what I had gleaned from mainstream media and pop culture. I've met that goal, and pushed farther.
This major has done exactly what it promised: in my time here, I have learned the Japanese language and culture. At first, I thought the classes would be like my high school German classes, where I learn all about how to build the language, and learn bits and pieces of the culture while in my language classes. Seeing as my goal was to learn the language, I accepted this scenario without much concern. After attending Orientation and realizing that the language classes, miraculously, were only one small part of the program, my goal shifted. I realized that I would have the chance to learn about Japanese culture from many different angles, and I decided to take this opportunity as far as I could.
I am immensely proud of my knowledge of the Japanese language. In order to meet MLO1, I had to reach an intermediate-high level of understanding by the time I graduated. Which meant that I had two years to become as basically fluent as I could, and one year to demonstrate that understanding. My prior language classes made identifying the similarities and differences in Japanese and English particularly easy, but putting it into practice was another story. I often joke that being in this major made me excellent at presentations, but it's true: each of my classes required at least three oral presentations. My first few presentations were shaky, but by the time my second year rolled around, I had the formula down, and the hard part was figuring out how to say what I wanted to say. My semester spent in Japan really helped with that: the combination of the language classes at Ritsumeikan and the 300 level Japanese course at CSUMB helped cement the grammars and vocabulary.
I am also incredibly happy with my cultural understanding after being at CSUMB: MLO2 and MLO 3 both require a thorough comprehension of cultures, in my case, Japanese for the former, and Spanish for the latter. I deeply enjoyed all of my culture classes while at CSUMB, and classes such as Japanese Cinema (JAPN310) and Japanese Mind (JAPN306) helped me before I went to Japan by giving me a clear idea of the accepted cultural behaviors of the country, as well as differences between cultures.
Finally, I'm incredibly proud of my knowledge of technology. Because of MLO4, several of my classes (WLC300, WLC400, etc.) taught me methods of research technology, with each session adding more and more recent technology to the mix. I was able to directly use this knowledge when I was hired by the World Language and Culture department as a student assistant in the school language labs. My combination of linguistic and technological knowledge made it easy for me to help whoever came into the lab with problems.
I would love to continue learning Japanese. Even though I achieved the necessary level of fluency to fulfill MLO1, I know I can learn more and I would enjoy becoming fully fluent. I didn't have enough time at CSUMB to complete that goal, but I am happy with the level of fluency I have right now. I'm sure that no matter where I go in the future, I'll be using my knowledge of Japanese language and culture.
This major has done exactly what it promised: in my time here, I have learned the Japanese language and culture. At first, I thought the classes would be like my high school German classes, where I learn all about how to build the language, and learn bits and pieces of the culture while in my language classes. Seeing as my goal was to learn the language, I accepted this scenario without much concern. After attending Orientation and realizing that the language classes, miraculously, were only one small part of the program, my goal shifted. I realized that I would have the chance to learn about Japanese culture from many different angles, and I decided to take this opportunity as far as I could.
I am immensely proud of my knowledge of the Japanese language. In order to meet MLO1, I had to reach an intermediate-high level of understanding by the time I graduated. Which meant that I had two years to become as basically fluent as I could, and one year to demonstrate that understanding. My prior language classes made identifying the similarities and differences in Japanese and English particularly easy, but putting it into practice was another story. I often joke that being in this major made me excellent at presentations, but it's true: each of my classes required at least three oral presentations. My first few presentations were shaky, but by the time my second year rolled around, I had the formula down, and the hard part was figuring out how to say what I wanted to say. My semester spent in Japan really helped with that: the combination of the language classes at Ritsumeikan and the 300 level Japanese course at CSUMB helped cement the grammars and vocabulary.
I am also incredibly happy with my cultural understanding after being at CSUMB: MLO2 and MLO 3 both require a thorough comprehension of cultures, in my case, Japanese for the former, and Spanish for the latter. I deeply enjoyed all of my culture classes while at CSUMB, and classes such as Japanese Cinema (JAPN310) and Japanese Mind (JAPN306) helped me before I went to Japan by giving me a clear idea of the accepted cultural behaviors of the country, as well as differences between cultures.
Finally, I'm incredibly proud of my knowledge of technology. Because of MLO4, several of my classes (WLC300, WLC400, etc.) taught me methods of research technology, with each session adding more and more recent technology to the mix. I was able to directly use this knowledge when I was hired by the World Language and Culture department as a student assistant in the school language labs. My combination of linguistic and technological knowledge made it easy for me to help whoever came into the lab with problems.
I would love to continue learning Japanese. Even though I achieved the necessary level of fluency to fulfill MLO1, I know I can learn more and I would enjoy becoming fully fluent. I didn't have enough time at CSUMB to complete that goal, but I am happy with the level of fluency I have right now. I'm sure that no matter where I go in the future, I'll be using my knowledge of Japanese language and culture.