This is an advanced Japanese course focusing on further developing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and communication skills by using authentic newspaper/magazine materials and TV/radio news. The students will watch and read on a regular basis the most current news of the events that are taking place in Japan. The students become familiar with aural/textual features of Japanese media (TV/radio news and newspaper/magazine) as well as terms and idiomatic expressions frequently used. Skills of understanding the TV/radio news, reading of newspaper/magazine articles are developed. Emphasis will also be put on enlarging kanji compound (熟語) knowledge and developing communication skills of summarizing and presenting the news content in one’s own words. By the end of the course, students will become accustomed to listening to the natural speed news (NHK broadcast and others) and get the gist of the news as well as some key details/points, and to pick up Japanese newspaper, skims through articles of interest, and read them without relying too much on dictionary.

This course is designed for students with knowledge of basic grammatical structures and about 500 kanji and their combinations. It aims to deepen understanding of Japanese society and culture while enhancing Japanese communication skills. The overall theme of the course is Japan’s Soft Power. We will look into some of the current soft power Japan utilizes and how Japan could exercise it more effectively as a means to increase its international presence. Particularly, we will examine some of Japan’s cultural products that are popular among young generation, such as anime, manga, computer games, and pop music to discuss their characteristics, uniqueness, and reasons of popularity. Students will read articles from various sources and discuss the current trend of those cultural products and their influence on youth, domestic and beyond, analyzing the role of Japanese soft power in the international society. Study of intermediate and advanced grammar and expressions will be integrated into the course work.

This course aims to develop advanced Japanese communication skills while examining a number of current changes that are taking place in the Japanese society. Topics will include, but not limited to, the decrease of population, poverty, the recent change of the security policy with its related protests, and educational reform. Students will examine a wide variety of resources such as newspaper articles, online news, magazines, and news broadcasts, through which to learn and analyze these social phenomena. At the same time, we will examine and discuss what sorts of measures the Japanese government is taking or could take to cope with these changes. Advanced grammar, reading and writing strategies, and professional presentation skills will be integrated into the course work.

This is an intermediate/advanced Japanese language course that is designed to further develop oral and written communication skills through the study of various topics of current Japanese society. The students will read authentic news articles, magazines, websites, etc., of their choice, and/or watch/listen to authentic TV/radio programs, engage in group and class discussions, use the language in the actual research in interview, questionnaire, and/or email survey, and present the findings of their research formally. Through these activities, the students will enlarge their vocabulary, including the knowledge on the kanji compound words as well while deepening the understanding of current-day Japan. All four skills will be developed to increase overall proficiency and grammatical accuracy, which will be accomplished through language exercises in class and as homework assignments, frequent reading and writing exercises, and writing up a research report with multiple drafts. Students are assumed to know at least 500 kanji and their combinations and to have good foundation on basic grammar structures.

This course aims to develop professional/academic Japanese communication skills while studying topical issues of Japan. The overarching theme of the course is “the year 2015, how Japan is changing.” The controversial issues and changes in Japanese government’s defense policy and diplomatic stance with its neighboring countries will be discussed in the first half of the course. The second half will focus on the social and technological changes that are and will be occurring towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Students regularly read/listen to relevant editorials and articles written by experts, analyze and discuss the issues, and write their opinions. Students are also given opportunities to engage in research on the topic of their interests and deepen their understanding.

This is an intermediate (3rd-year college level) Japanese course designed to further develop oral and written communication skills through discussion on the current news in Japan. Students will watch the natural speed news, summarize and present the content in their own words, write their opinions/views on the issues, etc. The authentic NHK news will be utilized for materials as well as web-based news program, along with some newspaper/magazine articles for supplementary reading.

This is an intermediate (3rd-year college level) Japanese course designed to further develop oral and written communication skills through discussion on the current news in Japan. Students will watch the natural speed news, summarize and present the content in their own words, write their opinions/views on the issues, etc. The authentic NHK news will be utilized for materials as well as web-based news program, along with some newspaper/magazine articles for supplementary reading.

This course is a full Monterey Model course, which is a signature pedagogy class format, with collaborative efforts with the Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, French, Japanese and Interpretation programs. The United States is the largest recipient of international migrants, followed by the Russian Federation, Germany, Ukraine, India, France, and Saudi Arabia. California also stands at the forefront of these changes. With this in mind, this course aims to explore the Chinese migration issues in Monterey, communities in California, then move to United States, Asia, Southeast Asia, etc. from the regional perspective to a historical and global perspective. It takes a multi-disciplinary approach to examine the humanistic, social, cultural, moral, security and economic aspects as to why people migrate across international borders. Discussion topics will include but not limited to language and cultural assimilation, socio-economic integration, societal membership and belonging, international migration policy issues, etc.

East Asian languages are linguistically irrelevant and culturally distant languages for learners in US. How to gauge interests for learners in US to turn the irrelevance to relevance? How to cultivate intercultural understanding? The course aims to synergize the pedagogical insights from teaching and learning Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages from major research results, such as performance-based pedagogy, grammar instruction, metaphors of characters, writing system, pragmatic awareness, etc. It adopts a community-based approach to incorporate East Asian history in the local and Northern California communities, further develops learners and teachers’ awareness to draw the cultural distance closer. This course is a weekly three-hour seminar, with additional special topics workshops.