When discussing the challenges of studying Japanese, more than a few people bring up kanji. It is common for people studying the language to feel some uncertainty about just how many kanji they should learn, or how useful any particular kanji will turn out to be.

There are many kanji characters, and it takes time to learn them. However, once you have made them your own, knowing kanji can be very useful, and will contribute to your understanding of Japanese and will help accelerate the speed with which the language can be learned. Learning kanji will also enhance your ability to reason and help you be both more expressive and creative. The use of one kanji will often lead to the use of another kanji and so help with building vocabulary.

There are people who lament that they ‘forget the kanji right away. ‘We like to tell these folks that’ Forgetting is a good thing. Only people who have forgotten a character can recall it. People who never knew a character cannot bring it back to mind.’ Escaping from the sense of helplessness in thoughts like ‘I’ll be forgetting it at any rate’ may in fact be a hidden key to success when it comes to learning kanji. It is our sincere hope that this class will prove useful as part of a process in which students transition from learning frequently used kanji to a level where the feeling is that one ‘couldn’t possibly forget’ a particular character that has been encountered many times.

JPN2301

Language of Instruction: Japanese and English   

Participants should already know about 800 kanji.

This course aims to help students build an advanced knowledge of kanji so they can understand and use 2,200 kanji and kanji vocabulary. 

Participants learn about 2,200 kanji and kanji words listed by frequency. To increase vocabulary, every class students take a reading test and, optionally, a writing test (240-640 words with 80 kanji). It is followed by the instructor lecturing on topics related to kanji, including the rules of Japanese kanji pronunciation, the rules of kanji transitive/intransitive verbs and passive/causative forms.

Textbook: Yasuyo TOKUHIRO, KANJI 2200 Listed according to Frequency and Familiarity, Sanseido Co., Ltd.  ISBN978-4-385-14074-2

Goals of the Course:
In this course, students will acquire listening comprehension skills for longer audio segments and learn how to make simple academic presentations.

Course Content or Plan:
- Prepare and perform four or five short speeches
- Talking about yourself
- Expressing your opinion
- Introducing your favorite place

Other topics will be informed in the class.
- Listening comprehension practice  

Course information of Spring Semester will be updated on this website.

Please refer to the syllabus for the details of Academic Japanese 2B.

Class materials are designed for lower-intermediate Japanese learner.

Students are required to have basic knowlege of Japanese.

Language of Instruction: English and Japanese

Objectives of the Course
At the end of the lecture, students are to
(i) understand the way of basic presentations.
(ii) be able to give a presentation in pertinent vocabulary and expressions in the academic situation

Textbook: "留学生のためのアカデミック・ジャパニーズ聴解［中級］" スリーエーネットワークISBN978-4-88319-641-8

Functional analysis is a useful tool for many physical theories, and has been partially developed concomitantly with quantum mechanics. The aim of this course is to provide the necessary background for a good understanding of the mathematics behind several physics or engineering courses. During this one semester course, the notions of Lebesgue integrals, distributions, and the foundation of spectral theory, will be introduced. Depending on the interest of the audience, different tools of spectral theory will be further developed.

MAT2301

Basic knowledge on Calculus and Linear Algebra, as usually provided by 2 semesters of Calculus and 2 semesters of Linear Algebra.

Lectures available on Zoom and recording will be available.

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