JAPANESE

Linguistics 19 Syllabus

 

 

PURPOSE:  Speaking conversational Japanese and reading (Hiragana and Kanji) ability with minimal

emphasis on grammar; long term study of Japanese. To be used only if student especially wants to be

tested on recognition of Kanji; otherwise use JAP 12 (mostly Kana) or JAP 01 (no reading).

 

MATERIAL ASSIGNED:

Japanese Language Promotion Center, Intensive Course in Japanese: Elementary Dialogues and Drills,

                        Part 1 (J1; Lessons 1-20) and Part 2 (J2; Lessons 21-50).   Notes (JN).

                        Watanabe, Character Text and accompanying videotape (CT)

LL Call No.: PL/539/J27/v.1-2

 

RESTRICTION: None

 

MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF CREDIT AVAILABLE: 10 units

 

METHOD OF STUDY:

A. At the start of the course

1.        In JN (Notes) study pages 7-22, with the expectation that you will be asked simple, specific questions designed to test

        whether you have read them.

2.        In J1 (Dialogues and Drills) study the Pronunciation and Syllabaries, pp. 19-63, playing the accompanying tape and doing

        all the exercises in the Pronunciation and Syllabaries section. The purpose is to familiarize yourself with the Hiragana

        syllabary used to transcribe Japanese so that you can use it to help you in listening accurately to the recordings in late

       lessons at points when the tapes themselves are not clear. You will NOT be tested on your ability to write Hiragana, but

       only on your ability to read it; therefore, you should not spend much time perfecting your writing skills. Spend approximately

       8-10 hours on these pages in J1. Do not expect to learn the syllabary perfectly in this time; you will have plenty of practice

       later in the lessons. If after 10 hours of work you have major problems recognizing the Hiragana, see our supervisor immediately.

3.        Learn the classroom expressions on pp. 69-73 of J1, using the tapes and following the method outlined below for learning

        the dialogues.

B. After this beginning, each Lesson consists of work in J1 (or J2), CT, and JN.

     

Dialogues:

At the beginning of the course, listen twice through the Dialogues to familiarize yourself with the pronunciation of Japanese. 

For each lesson,

1.  Listen to the entire dialogue while following the English translation in the book to tell you what the foreign sentences mean.

2.  Listen again while following the foreign transcription to help you with details in the pronunciation.

3.  Listen again with the book half-closed—look inside only when you need reminders about the meaning or pronunciation.

4.  Replay individual phrases and say them aloud without referring to the book if possible. Imitate the voice on tape as closely as you

     can. Replay and repeat each phrase, then add phrases together to build a full sentence. Continue to build phrases into sentences

     in this way, until you can say the complete sentence easily and in unison with the tape while understanding what you are saying.

     Use the book only for occasional reference.

5.  Say the sentences of the dialogue along with the speaker on the tape again and again until you can produce the foreign sentences

    easily and quickly given only the English ones as cues.

 

Character Text: For each dialogue in J1 & J2, there is a corresponding version in CT that shows how the dialogue would actually

be written in ordinary Japanese writing, using Kanji characters mixed in with the Hiragana ones. You will already have learned to

read the Hiragana characters in your study of J1, pp. 19-63. To learn to recognize the Kanji characters for each dialogue in CT,

first study the corresponding videotape section in the Language laboratory. Then read the dialogue in CT to give you practice

in reading Japanese as it is normally written. This total process (described in more detail in the instructions at the end of this

syllabus) is expected to take an average of approximately 30-60 minutes per Lesson.

 

Notes:  Use the Notes for individual Lessons, JN pp. 93-324, to help you with those Lessons as you study them.

* You may want to study other sections of the text, but they are not part of the course and will not be tested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXAMINATION:

Supervisor uses the special Examination Booklet prepared for the course by Yasutomo Arai, which provides English translations

and transliterations of the Hiragana transcriptions. 

      1.  Dialogues: Supervisor says the English equivalent of Japanese sentences chosen at random from the Dialogues in the

      assigned   Lessons; student says the Japanese version. If student has memory problem, supervisor may provide memory jog

      (without Penalty), by starting the answer for the student; examination is to determine whether the student has studied lessons

       ssigned for the proper amount of time, not to test rote memory.

2.  Character Text: Student reads aloud from randomly selected (by supervisor) dialogues in CT. Supervisor checks for

          accuracy by following the transcription in the Examination Booklet.

     3.  Notes: Student is tested on JN pp. 7-22 by random questions based directly on JN: e.g., from p. 20, supervisor might ask,

     “What are the wago words?” Examination questions for the Notes to individual Lessons are included in the Drills and

     Grammar sections of the Examination Booklets, indicated by the Roman numeral III and page reference in brackets. Again, a

     random selection of these will test whether the student has done the work assigned.

 

 

ASSIGNMENT:

 

INTENSIVE COURSE IN JAPANESE  (J1, J2, JN)

Block 1:  J1 pp. 19-63; JN pp. 7-22

               J1 pp. 69-73, Lessons 1-3             

Block 6:   J2 Lessons 27-31

Block 2:   J1 Lessons 4-9

Block 7:   J2 Lessons 32-36

Block 3:   J1 Lessons 10-15

Block 8:   J2 Lessons 37-41

Block 4:   J1 Lessons 16-20, J2 21

Block 9:   J2 Lessons 42-45

Block 5:   J2 Lessons 22-26

Block 10:  J2 Lessons 46-50

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Units

4 Units

STUDY TIME= 6 hours a week

STUDY TIME= 12 hours a week

MIDTERM= Block 1

MIDTERM= Block 1 & 2

FINAL= Block 2

FINAL= Block 3 & 4

 

 

How to use the Character Text (CT)

 

1.             Get a copy of CT and the video tape that accompanies it from the desk in the Language Lab. Be sure to have someone from

the Language Lab staff  show you how to operate the video tape machine.

 

2.             For each lesson on the tape the same procedure is followed:

                a) First you see a character by itself.

                b) A voice gives the name of the character and the English translation.

                c) Then you will see a pair of characters and hear the name of the one you have just learned. You are to decide which of

                     the two characters represents that word.

                d) At first the two characters to choose, go back and look at the single character on the tape.

                e) If you are in doubt at any point about which character to choose, go back and look at the single character on the tape.

 

3.             After you have learned the characters for each lesson, try to read the dialogues as they are written out  in CT.

 

4.             If you have any problem recognizing a character, go back to the video tape and practice that character again.

 

5.             Check yourself by listening to the audio tape of the dialogue while reading in CT. This will also help develop your fluency in reading Japanese.