1. Objectives
Introductory Lectures are content courses. Issues in each specialization are discussed in Japanese mostly in the lecture format. The classes aim at developing Japanese proficiency in addition to learning about Japan, its culture and language. These classes prepare students for their future studies in regular graduate and undergraduate courses at Nagoya University that are conducted in Japanese.
2. Prerequisites, Semesters
These courses are conducted in Japanese. Students need to have the proficiency comparable to Level Two certificate (Nihongo Noryoku Shiken). "I"-suffixed courses are offered in Fall, and "II"-suffixed courses in Spring.
3. Classes offered
Classes in International Relations, Japanese Culture, Linguistics, and Japanese Linguistics and Teaching Japanese are offered.
(1)IR100/IR200 International Relations I/II
IR100 International Relations I (Fall Semester)
Things that happen in a remote land, and things that we do not know anything about affect our lives, health, and so forth. National borders seem to be disappearing, not only in the areas of trade, capital flow and information exchanges, but also in ideas, norms and values. Are we headed for a global village, without borders and less space and time that separate us? That possibility depends on who you really are. Nations, economies, ages of easy transportation... Will "globalization" unify the world, or will it break us up? Let us examine both the positive and negative sides of globalization.
IR200 International Relations II (Spring Semester)
Globalization promotes open society and economy. Merchandise, philosophy and knowledge crisscross the world. Furthermore, networked society has come to enhance human rights and people's identities. There are voices, however, that cautions us as to where globalization will take us. Few will benefit from it, while the risk is shared equally. Its fragileness threatens not only the poor but the rich as well. You see multi-billionaires but also problems remaining unresolved, such as poverty, exclusion and inequality. Corruption is everywhere, and the future is not necessarily all bright for open economy. Yes, we are in a crisis. We will examine both the light and the shadow of globalization, and discuss what the global community should be like in the future.
(2)JC100/JC200 Japanese Culture I/II
JC100 Japanese Culture I (Fall Semester)
The main topic of this course is current issues in Japanese families and schools. Japanese cases are compared with those in the countries where the students come from, and through such discussions, we will try to understand the features of Japanese society and culture. We aim at an in-depth understanding of Japan, through comparisons and contrasts made with the situations in other countries.
We will discuss: (1) the movie "Everyday is a summer vacation" and the new imagery of family, (2) separate surnames for married couples, and international marriage, (3) hazing and school dropouts, (4) long-term part-time employments and "slackers", and (5) life in the countryside.
JC200 Japanese Culture II (Spring Semester)
Korea is "similar" to, but in a strange way "different" from Japan, and it is a country of casual mystery for a normal Japanese person. We will discuss what aspects of Korean society and culture Japanese people find similarities/differences in, and discuss how Japanese people look at themselves, through the looking mirror that is Korea. We will try to develop a wider view, placing Japan squarely in the East Asian/Sino-centered civilization, through comparison between Japan and Korea.
(3)GL100/GL200 Linguistics I/II
GL100 Linguistics I (Fall Semester)
The class aims at learning basic concepts and methodology of linguistics, through analyses of modern Japanese. Linguistic viewpoints are compared with ordinary ways to talk about language. Basic ideas in semantics (study of the meaning of language), sociolinguistics (study of language and society) and typology (study of world languages and their types) are introduced.
GL200 Linguistics II (Spring Semester)
We will learn the basic concepts of semantics, with special focus on cognitive semantics. The course aims at learning the methodology for analyzing synonymy and polysemy in modern Japanese.
(4)JL100/200 Japanese Linguistics and Teaching Japanese I/II
We will discuss the grammatical issues in teaching of Japanese language to speakers of other languages. The class aims at an in-depth understanding of grammar items through surveys and discussions. Each session is built around a class discussion on a simple task. Active participation is required. Another goal of this course is to learn the basics of teaching of Japanese. We will survey the state of the art of teaching Japanese, and discuss course designs, materials development, teaching methods in the four skill areas, and error analysis.
Topics to be covered are:
Fall Semester
1. Japanese linguistics
(1) parts of speech, (2) case particles, (3) inflection (4) person (5) voice
2. teaching Japanese
(1) teaching methods (2) course designs and materials
Spring semester
1. Japanese linguistics
(1) tense and aspect (2) modality (3) honorifics
2. teaching Japanese
(1) teaching the four skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing), (2) error analysis
