Fall 96 GSIA 45-968 Intensive Technical Japanese II Section A

TIME: MTWRF 8:30-10:20
UNITS: 12 units (not 3*5=15 or 4*5=20 units)
PLACE: IA 145 (Graduate School of Industrial Administration)
TEXTS: 1 is required. 2 and 3 are recommended (they may become required, though)
1. The Japanese for Busy People II, 1994. Association for Japanese-Language Teaching. Kodansha.
2. Basic Kanji Book 3rd ed. vol.1, 1989. Kano, Shimizu, Takenaka, and Ishii. Bonjinsha.
3. Basic Kanji Book 3rd ed. vol.2, 1989. Kano, Shimizu, Takenaka, and Ishii. Bonjinsha.
INSTRUCTORS:
Tomoko Traphagan
Office: PH110b (Porter Hall) 268-1895
Mitsuhiro Tagata (tagata@andrew.cmu.edu)
Office: SC117 (Old Student Center) 268-5738
PREREQUISITE: GSIA45-987 Intensive Technical Japanese (Spring96) or consent of instructors
(NOTE: For those who have not been enough exposed to the Japanese language, we will provide on-line self-learning materials. In addition, they may need to work in the Language Learning Resource Center (Porter Hall PH225c) to catch up with other students.)
WHO CAN TAKE IT?: Anybody. Although this course is residing in the Graduate School of Industrial Administration and it is a graduate course, we are not going to restrict it only to GSIA students and graduate students. Anybody is welcome if they are willing to learn the Business and Technical Japanese language.

General Description

This is the second part of an intensive program in Japanese for Technology and Management which was added in the Fall of 1992 to the GSIA business course offerings. The two semester, 10 hours/week course is part of a Department of Defense-funded initiative to develop Japanese language skills for U.S. engineers and technical managers. The program provides students from various campus units with a foundation for the development of Japanese language skills needed to function effectively in Japanese engineering and technical management activities. At the completion of the two-course sequence, the students have basic communicative skills in spoken Japanese, as well as the cultural knowledge needed to function productively in Japanese technology, business, and management activities.

Topics Covered (tentative)

Spoken Japanese
Written Japanese
Engineering materials in Japanese (mostly written)
Business materials in Japanese (mostly written)
Japanese processing on the computer and the Web (including Japanese coding systems, HTML grammar, and the use of some shareware, all at introductory level)

Grading Policies

At least 70% of attendance is required. If attendance is less than that, the grade will be automatically F, regardless of the results of exams and quizzes.

There will be some exams and quizzes. The course will be first graded on a 90-80-70 scale based on attendance and the results of exams and quizzes. But as a final grade, either P(pass) or F(fail) is given. Constant attendance will probably result in P(pass).

100-90=A 89-80=B 79-70=C 0-69=F (as an in-class grade)

A, B, or C = P F = F (as a final grade)
It is possible to get a letter grade upon request.

Course Materials

The materials listed below are mainly for the review of the topics covered in the class. However, some of them are advanced topics which will not be covered in the class. These materials can be also used for self-learning of Japanese.
(If your computer does not support Japanese, try (shodouka) after each underlined name.
CAUTION: Recently, shodouka is often down.)

Japanese Computing
Review of Hiragana and Katakana
Grammatical Points of the Text (Japanese-capable machines necessary )
Introduction to Japanese Garmmar (Japanese-capable machines necessary )
Today's Short Conversations (Japanese-capable machines necessary )
Chemistry (Japanese-capable machines necessary )
Physics (Japanese-capable machines necessary )
Economics (Japanese-capable machines necessary )
Journalistic Japanese (Japanese-capable machines necessary )
Computer Assisted Language Learning Programs (Simple Java programs. Just try them!)