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Tomorrow at 10 am sharp, I start my first college Japanese course. I am a mixture of excited/anxious/concerned/interested/etc.
I’ve heard a lot of stories about how.. unnecessary these courses can be — as there are far better/cheaper resources (textfugu) out there. As I’m about to start season 3 on Fugu, it looks like i’ll be able to breeze through the first semester – and all the following semesters as long as i keep ahead like I’ve been doing. Here’s there course description/outline“Introduction to the Japanese language. Includes an overview of the Japanese language, speaking and listening, writing and reading, grammar, personal transactions, and the cultural context within which Japanese conversation takes place. Also includes writing and reading of Hiragana, Katakana, and 23 Kanji characters.”
Outline:
I. Overview of the Japanese Language
A. Japanese communication styles
B. Japanese grammar
II. Speaking and Listening
A. Oral exercises
B. Tapes and listening exercises
III. Writing and Reading
A. Romaji (Romanization)
B. Hiragana
C. Katakana
D. Kanji (approximately 23 new Kanji)
E. Writing and reading exercises
IV. Grammar
A. Numerals and counters
B. Months, dates, days, and times
C. Possessions
D. Demonstratives
E. Particles
F. Daily activities (future and past)
G. Expressing likes and dislikes
H. Invitations
I. Locations
J. Existence
K. Suggestions
L. Adjectival and adverbial expressions
M. Polite and plain forms
V. Personal Transactions
A. Introducing yourself and friends
B. Everyday greetings
C. Asking locations and showing locations on a map
D. Describing one’s town
E. Making a phone call
F. Invitations
G. Asking how much things cost
H. Polite requests
I. Explaining schedules and daily life
VI. Cultural Context Within Japanese ConversationFor some reason, they put me in the next level up from complete beginner. I’m curious as to why they did that, because if i hadn’t been studying all summer, of course, i would probably fall flat on my face.
I’m feeling good about the stuff on this list. Am I wrong to scoff at 25 Kanji characters for an entire semester? Especially since i’ve already learned up to stroke 6 on here.. though i expect them to throw all the stuff at me that Koichi deems not-as-important haha.
Any of you guys have experiences good/bad with Japanese courses?
Anyways, I’ll let you all know how it goes!
Consider yourself lucky in my opinion. Colleges here only offer Spanish, French, and German (This is the city that has the first Volkswagen plant, haha I see more Germans now than I do hispanic people.)
Wish I could have been as lucky as these kids growing up.
http://youtu.be/Fpy-IQOLFlEmind blown.
wow that is pretty awesome. I bet everyone on this site wishes their education had started out like this..
Ironically, I live in Arizona, and there little to no Japanese influence anywhere to be seen (outside of the generic sushi house that most if not every city in the country has). SO, when I discovered they had an entire major set up with a study abroad program.. I was first in line haha.
heh, yeah, you’ll do okay – you’ll also learn some new stuff too considering it’s in regular order. And… I bet you 30-40% of the kanji you learn will be brand new, once again the ordering, but I think it’s okay if you scoff a little bit :P
You should do updates on how your class is going, too – would be interested to hear!
@Multany, trust me man, I know exactly how you feel, I live in Tennessee and there are lots of Hibachi and Buffet restaurants but they are all run by the Chinese. There is one authentic Japanese sushi restaurant in the downtown city though, family run by a man named Yasushi Watanabe and his wife (immigrated from Japan after becoming a chef in Tokyo). Other than that, it’s all Chinese and Thai here.
Like Koichi said though, keep us updated. Sounds like a great opportunity, that I am too old (22) to take part in, or even afford.
Even if everything if it teaches you nothing new (which by the looks of it is unlikely) you can’t underestimate how helpful it is to actually be able to speak out loud to other people, even learners (i assume this isn’t 1 on 1).
What is the difference between what you posted and the complete beginner stage exactly, or are you just skipping the first few bits?
25 kanji taught in one semester? *SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFF!!!!!*
If I manage to get into a Japanese class at University in a few weeks, it’ll be cool to see how our teaching differs – definitely keep us updated :) I will too if/when the time comes.
Is that for the semester? It actually seems to be quite a good course compared to others I’ve heard about. Although to be fair, you probably know 95% already.
@Koichi Yeah I’m interested to see their approach to it, and learning to supplement everything with.. everything else lol.
@RavenTwoFive I actually got pretty lucky.. I’m 21, and though I’ve had a few semesters of college already, I just recently decided to focus my education in this direction.. and the payment and whatnot just kind of.. fell into place. (nothing I won’t have to pay back eventually, though x__x)
@Ryuuguu Azuma that’s exactly what I think. It’ll be really good to find other people with the same interests that I can get together with and talk about/study/practice with. It’s been just me up until now. And, In the first class, it’s just called “Intro to Japanese”, It looks a lot like the class i’m taking, but, i don;t think they touch kanji.. and most of the class is getting you used to the kana. And it’s most likely largely in romaji (yuck). Again, I didn’t even look at the course material until like a week ago.. and I don’t know how I’d be able to pass the class they placed me in, had I not been studying.
@Michael Yeah that would be pretty awesome. I’m interested how they teach the class at other Universities, not to mention in other countries.
@Mark Yeah that’s for one semester. I think they try to pack a lot into the course, so that does make me happy. And even if I (hopefully) know and breeze through most of it, it’ll be nice to have extra practice, and I can focus more on my online studies (textfugu, RTK)
I’ll post to this thread after I get done with my class!
I guess it’ll be good for you to do the lessons with an actual topic rather than just the main grammar parts. Something a bit different.
Plus you have the added bonus of being the guy who studied BEFORE taking the course and studied during it. Always suprised me from the Japanese and Chinese lessons I USED to do that I was the only person who seemed to have done any work at home. It’s nice to be top of the class xD
If i had the time or the money I’d start doing evening classes again…
Yeah, especially since I’m pretty bad at self study. I mean, I still manage just fine, but to be graded adds that extra “light under my ass” haha. I’m curious about that, actually – the kids who just study in class. I mean, this isn’t necessarily a mandatory language class, ya know. I imagine everyone taking it, has a genuine interest, since you sort of have to go out of your way to get into it – but, that’s probably more likely wishful thinking lol
Thankfully for those who can’t get into a class, the online resources are pretty good. I wouldn’t even have taken this class if it wasn’t required for the course.
OK SO, I had my class a few hours ago, and, it was more or less what I expected. The class is filled with.. well.. “weeaboos”! DUN DDUN DUNNNNNNNNNN
Now, while we do have a lot in common, it’s hard to take someone seriously who shows up to a college course, one pair of fake dog ears short of an inuyasha costume.. (that actually happened today) And of course, there are some people there who really want to learn and excel at the language, but the ones in the back snickering about funny sounding characters “pi, pu”, (sorry, don’t have jp keyboard installed) and talking about JPop the entire class.. well.. I hope I see less of them as the classes advance.
Anyhoo, it was of course very boring for a first class, and I’m just getting the jump by drilling some “suggested phrases” in Anki. BUT, she said no romaji (thank GOD), and actually seems like she knows what she’s doing, so this’ll be a good experience, I hope!
I’m glad you had a good experience. I’m sure many students will be weeded out soon esp with no romaji. That is also great for you too. Even the most experienced of us can benefit from such an experience.
Good luck!
Haha, well I would have expected as much, treating class like a cosplay exhibition. They’ll drop at some point. As for ぴ＆ぷ you don’t need to have a jp keyboard, you can actually use an en keyboard as I did. Same simple setup for when I need crazy español characters.
Uses Microsoft IME software (should already be preinstalled if you have Vista/Windows 7. If you want a brief rundown I can give it to you in 3 steps. Easier than Google’s beatbox translator.
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