MONDAY- I have a class entitled "Studies of multi-cultural co-existence" during the first period. This class consists of lectures in Japanese describing how different cultures live together in different countries of the world, and students write responses to lectures every week, which I have been consistent with. There are also occasional larger essays, and I have competed one essay so far. These essays are in Japanese, of course, and therefore reinforce essay-writing in Japanese.The other class I have Monday during third period is "Technical/Specialized Japanese," and is a class designated for exchange students (the entirety of the class is Chinese, except for me). The instructor for this class gives me supplemental studies that more match my Japanese level, and I have completed all the assignments in this class. This class teaches Japanese for economics, business and historical specialties among teaching everyday grammar and so forth.
TUESDAY- I have a class during second period called "Intercultural Communication". While this class does not directly teach Japanese, it is a regular college class that other Japanese students take, and I am able to understand the subject material when it's all in Japanese. The class teaches about how different cultures communicate with each other. There are no real official assignments but sometimes there are writing exercises which I regularly complete.
THURSDAY- I have a Japanese class during first period, which again is for exchange students. This class focuses on essay-writing and learning how to write prose in Japanese. This is the class I have performed the least well in, as I have not completed some of the essays that were assigned. There was however an exam which required writing an essay in response to a question and some corresponding data in which you had to use in-text citations. I haven't received the results to this exam yet but I did complete it and managed to express my thoughts.Second period on Thursday I have Chinese language class, which teaches it all in Japanese. It teaches the Chinese language on an intermediate level, and it also manages to teach me some Japanese as well. Since this class doesn't directly teach Japanese, it would be the class I would potentially exclude from the 9 hours of classes I have in Japanese every week (bringing the count to 7.5 hours). Fourth period on Thursday is my seminar class, which requires the creation of presentations on certain subjects related to globalization, culture, society, nationalism etc. The subject I have chosen is how American music changed Japanese music and culture after the end of World War II. I am to present next Thursday. I don't suggest that you wait until I give my presentation to include it for work done in Spring quarter, but I will post something on the blog in regards to how I did the presentation. The class doesn't really have any assignments other than that, but it has provided valuable learning in terms of listening to other students present their work in Japanese.
Throughout the language learning process of this quarter, I have made improvements in both my writing skills and listening skills on a weekly basis. While I have not performed well in some of the classes I have noticed growth in my language skills as a result of these classes. Even more so than formal education, as well, speaking Japanese on a regular basis with people at Hyogo University, particularly in the Folk Song Club, as well as outside the university, has improved my language fluency to the highest its ever been. Learning Japanese kanji independently as well gives me a better grasp on written Japanese. I have learned 250 kanji thus far and will continue to learn new ones. Because of the time I have spent thus far in Japan my Japanese ability has increased dramatically, and with further diligence in formal studies in the future, I am sure I can reach full fluency in spoken language and near-full fluency in written language by the end of my exchange in Hyogo. Overall I rate my language-learning success as personally rewarding, albeit largely informal in terms of academics. Certainly, this progress would not have been possible without living in Hyogo on this academic exchange.
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