Advanced Reading |
Fall 2015-Spring 2016
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Course Information
日本語購読
MLO 1: Language & Communication MLO 2: Culture MLO 5: Cultural Internalization & Language Immersion Course Description
This advanced reading course, is only available to students in J4-6 (Fall) and J10-12 (Spring) levels. It is a discussion-based course that uses authentic reading materials.
Course Work
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Reflective Narrative
I took this course both semesters because I qualified, but the content was completely different each time. The first semester, we read many different articles of text, from love stories to explanations of cultural oddities. The most educational part of this class was the more ambiguous nature of our discussions and responses. Rather than literal and direct responses—like reading comprehension questions—our discussion topics were more about what cultural elements we could identify and how it related to our countries. This was very enjoyable for me because I was the only American student in the class, so I was able to learn a lot about other countries that I’ve never studied before.
This class also reminded me of similar to difficulties I experienced discussing my personal views and opinions in Japanese History (JAPN 302), which I find difficult to express in a foreign language. This “reflective” theme of the semester can be seen in the midterm essay, where we compared our own culture to a type of food; this was based off a reading we did in class that explained Japanese culture as an onion. Once again, this is where the fact that all of the students came from different countries was an advantage. The second semester had a similar format to the first semester: mostly group discussions with short written reflections. However, instead of focusing on different articles as the content of our discussions, we read a chapter about cultural customs and watched relevant scenes from the movie series “It’s Tough Being a Man” (Otoko wa tsurai yo). I felt this semester also had more of a language focus in addition to the cultural; each week’s chapter would include cultural expressions that we would then be tested on using the appropriate context covered in the text. In addition, I gained a lot of experience through watching Japanese films with Japanese subtitles (which isn’t as commonly available in America); it was different from watching with English subtitles because I could see the direct difference between the character’s spoken words in dialect versus the regular subtitles that didn’t always have the exact phrase. Overall, the second semester was more enjoyable in my opinion because the topics and assignments were more consistently scheduled and I felt I learned a lot about both culture and language through these native materials. However, I didn't enjoy the final project quite as much because it was a play (and I don't enjoy acting), but I did enjoy working together with the other exchange students to brainstorm the story and make the script. |