A Review of the Semester’s Classes
Next week is the last week of classes here at Hirosaki University until next semester. The time has just flown by, it seems. I’m studying for the final tests and making plans for the summer break. But now that everything has been said and done, I’m going to go through all my classes that I took here during my inaugural semester here and give you an idea of what they were like and how they went. There is a surprising lack posting about school despite the fact that I am a foreign exchange student, so I’ll take a moment to rectify that now.
Elementary Japanese IA and IIA
Here’s the meat and potatoes of my academic experience – my Japanese language classes. At the beginning of the semester, all the foreign students must take a test to determine their placement for Japanese classes. Despite having studied a bit of Japanese in the past, I was placed at the lowest level class, Elementary Japanese, or as it’s known in the Japanese language, kiso. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Since I’d never taken Japanese classes in a proper academic format, I’ve still managed to learn way, way more in the first month or so than I did in my whole time at the University of Maine. This may also be partially due to the fact that we also took classes six one-and-one-half-hour periods a week, but I digress. The reason I was able to learn so much Japanese was a combination of all these things.
The main text we used for class was Minna No Nihongo, consisting of three volumes: the primary textbook, a translation and grammar guide and a practice workbook. I must say that this textbook is far and away better at presenting Japanese to a new/beginner-level student than the textbook I used at UMaine, Yookoso!. Use of kana is encouraged right away because of the total lack of romaji anywhere. Verbs are presented conjugated in their -masu form, and for the first portion of the book the text presents every major grammar point that can be learned without the need to conjugate verbs into their other forms. When we finally did reach the plain, -ta and -te forms I found it much easier to go from the masu form instead of trying to go from the plain form. This way students can take better advantage of what they know instead of trying to pull the rug out from under them and treat different conjugations as totally separate entities. The text systematizes the application grammar well. At the very least I know that I learned heaps more using this textbook than I did back at UMaine, so props to Minna No Nihongo.
The format for the class basically went something like this: we would reach a new chapter in the book and there would be new grammar and vocabulary to learn. We would learn the new vocabulary by having the teacher hold up these cue cards with drawings on them of an action and we would drill them all two or three times. We would then move on to the grammar by having an explaination from the teacher and then practicing using examples from the textbook and the workbook. Finally, on Fridays, we would spend one period of class time learning kanji. By the end of the semester, we had gone over about 50 kanji and I’m sure that I passed last week’s test with flying colors, which I attribute greatly to Remembering the Kanji.
Japanese Human Resource Management
This class was a kind of business class I took just to get the Japanese perspective on this topic, since they seem to be so successful at it. However, the class ended up being a bit different from what I expected. The class was more a class about recognizing differences in people’s personalities and cultural backgrounds and then looking at real-life examples of how different companies have excelled at leading people or failed to meet their needs in regard to these factors. Mainly, we studied different theories on personality and different factors that contribute to a person’s cultural identity.
Traditional Japanese Sports
Now this class was just straight up fun. For about one month at a time, we would spend class doing a Japanese martial art hands on at the dojo on campus. In the end, we got a taste of judo, kendo, and aikido. We would spend about three class periods learning techniques and such and then on the fourth week, we would take test that was basically a demonstration of what wh had learned. Judo was grappling sport with lots of throwing, kendo is a kind of fencing where you wear full gear and use a wooden sword to score points against your opponent, and aikido is a defensive martial art that uses an opponent’s own weight and momentum against him. On the whole, I enjoyed all three greatly and the class was more of an interesting introduction to a facet of Japanese culture than a serious academic class.
Traditional Japanese Music
Here is the last class I took this semester. The primary focus of this class was as a brief survey of Japan’s music from primative times to modern J-pop. Every week, we focused on a particular region of Japan or an instrument, had a lecture on its history and then spent some time listening to CDs brought in by the professor. We received a grade based on the presentations that we had to make at the end of the semester: one about a Japanese artist (I chose Fantastic Plastic Machine) and one on either our country’s music or a particular band we like (I chose the Pixies).
Wrap-up
Well, I hope you got a taste for what the classes are like here at Hirosaki University. I have to say that except for my Japanese class, the classes I’ve taken here are a bit easier than those I’ve taken back home, but considering how just being abroad in a different country makes everything harder, I think that this was a good balance. Next semester will be much more challenging for sure, if not purely for the fact that I will be taking a higher-level Japanese language class.
Hello there!
I’ve finished all Minna no nihongo books in high school. Have you ever heard of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test that is held annually each year? I’m going to try level 2 this year, but not quite sure if I’ll be able to pass it cuz it’s really difficult. Too many Kanjis to remember and the reading part is way too hard!!!
Hey Nnatta,
Yeah, I’ve heard of the JLPT. After next semester I should be ready to take level 3. I’ve heard that the level 2 is much, much more difficult, so it will be a while until I can take that one. Cheers!
If you spent 6-12 months at a Japanese language school in Japan, starting from scratch you could be at JLPT 2 level. 12-18 months and you’d be at JLPT 1 level. It really is the best and fastest way to learn Japanese.
[...] gave all you guys the low-down on last semester’s classes, so I figured it would be a good idea to tell how you how things went this time around. Overall, [...]