Japanese Society
Description:
This course will introduce students to research in English on contemporary Japanese society through a "Japanese Studies" interdisciplinary approach. Most reading are from the fields of anthropology and sociology, but we also will use work from other academic disciplines. The topics include standard aspects of society such as class, gender, family, education, work, and minorities. Taught in English
Units: 2
Course Reflective Narrative:
During fall of 2015 at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan I took the course Japanese Society. This course meets the MLO 2 Culture requirement as the class discussed the ideas, beliefs, attitudes, values and philosophies of Japan while also comparing it those of other countries. The Japanese Society course was lecture and discussion based. The class was divided into two groups (A and B), where one half of the class was assigned an article to read and the other half of the class was assigned a different one. Both article would be on the same topic or theme, but would be written by different authors For the homework assignment we would answer a set of questions based on our article for that day (see Reading Assignment 1). The next class, the teacher would put everyone into groups, where there was an equal number of people from A or B. In our class group we would then discuss articles, we would see how they were similar or different, and see how different people felt about the same issue or topic. After that, the class would end on a short lecture from the teacher to summarize the authors' articles and the topic in general. The final paper for this class was similar to the daily reading assignment, only this time everyone read the same article. The topic was chosen by the class and for this semester the topic was on Returnees. We were then analyze the what we thought were the important aspects of the article and how the author viewed the situation (see Final Paper)
Work Completed:
~Reading Assignment 1
PDF
~Final Paper
PDF
This course will introduce students to research in English on contemporary Japanese society through a "Japanese Studies" interdisciplinary approach. Most reading are from the fields of anthropology and sociology, but we also will use work from other academic disciplines. The topics include standard aspects of society such as class, gender, family, education, work, and minorities. Taught in English
Units: 2
Course Reflective Narrative:
During fall of 2015 at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan I took the course Japanese Society. This course meets the MLO 2 Culture requirement as the class discussed the ideas, beliefs, attitudes, values and philosophies of Japan while also comparing it those of other countries. The Japanese Society course was lecture and discussion based. The class was divided into two groups (A and B), where one half of the class was assigned an article to read and the other half of the class was assigned a different one. Both article would be on the same topic or theme, but would be written by different authors For the homework assignment we would answer a set of questions based on our article for that day (see Reading Assignment 1). The next class, the teacher would put everyone into groups, where there was an equal number of people from A or B. In our class group we would then discuss articles, we would see how they were similar or different, and see how different people felt about the same issue or topic. After that, the class would end on a short lecture from the teacher to summarize the authors' articles and the topic in general. The final paper for this class was similar to the daily reading assignment, only this time everyone read the same article. The topic was chosen by the class and for this semester the topic was on Returnees. We were then analyze the what we thought were the important aspects of the article and how the author viewed the situation (see Final Paper)
Work Completed:
~Reading Assignment 1
~Final Paper