Japanese

Introductory Japanese A is an introduction to Japanese language and culture and is designed for students who have had little or no experience learning Japanese. The goal of this course is to develop four basic skills in modern Japanese with an emphasis on grammatical accuracy and socially appropriate language use. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to engage in basic daily conversations and to develop the ability to read and write hiragana as well as katakana.

The sequence includes JPNS UN1001 Introductory Japanese A and JPNS UN1002 Introductory Japanese B. These courses combined (JPNS UN1001 and JPNS UN1002) are the equivalent to JPNS UN1101 First Year Japanese I and fulfills the requirement for admission to JPNS UN1102 First Year Japanese II.

Introductory Japanese A is an introduction to Japanese language and culture and is designed for students who have had little or no experience learning Japanese. The goal of this course is to develop four basic skills in modern Japanese with an emphasis on grammatical accuracy and socially appropriate language use. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to engage in basic daily conversations and to develop the ability to read and write hiragana as well as katakana.

The sequence includes JPNS UN1001 Introductory Japanese A and JPNS UN1002 Introductory Japanese B. These courses combined (JPNS UN1001 and JPNS UN1002) are the equivalent to JPNS UN1101 First Year Japanese I and fulfills the requirement for admission to JPNS UN1102 First Year Japanese II.

Introductory Japanese A is an introduction to Japanese language and culture and is designed for students who have had little or no experience learning Japanese. The goal of this course is to develop four basic skills in modern Japanese with an emphasis on grammatical accuracy and socially appropriate language use. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to engage in basic daily conversations and to develop the ability to read and write hiragana as well as katakana.

The sequence includes JPNS UN1001 Introductory Japanese A and JPNS UN1002 Introductory Japanese B. These courses combined (JPNS UN1001 and JPNS UN1002) are the equivalent to JPNS UN1101 First Year Japanese I and fulfills the requirement for admission to JPNS UN1102 First Year Japanese II.

Introductory Japanese A is an introduction to Japanese language and culture and is designed for students who have had little or no experience learning Japanese. The goal of this course is to develop four basic skills in modern Japanese with an emphasis on grammatical accuracy and socially appropriate language use. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to engage in basic daily conversations and to develop the ability to read and write hiragana as well as katakana.

The sequence includes JPNS UN1001 Introductory Japanese A and JPNS UN1002 Introductory Japanese B. These courses combined (JPNS UN1001 and JPNS UN1002) are the equivalent to JPNS UN1101 First Year Japanese I and fulfills the requirement for admission to JPNS UN1102 First Year Japanese II.

In this course, we will examine a series of key writings on cinema and visual culture in Japan from the 1910s to the late 1960s.  Major topics will include:

1. Cinema and its technology/technics (sound, color, and film form)

2. Cinema and its intersection with politics and aesthetics (Marxism and the Proletarian Film Movement, cinematic realism, colonialism, Third Worldism, and Japanese New Wave)

3. The articulations of cinema in broader intellectual, technological, socio-cultural, and institutional discourse (film education, documentary, and bunka eiga)

In an attempt to explore the transitional position of cinema and media culture in Japanese cultural history, the course also critically approaches contact points between cinema, theatre (especially shingeki), literature, photography, and television.  All mandatory readings each week will be primary sources in Japanese, and additional scholarly and/or theoretical writings in English will also be assigned or provided for reference.