JAPN 105-010/011/012
ELEMENTARY JAPANESE
 
Instructors:  Section Day  Time Room Office & Hours 
Mark Miller  010 MWF  10:10-11:00 PRN 325 MTH 209 MWF 3:30-4:30
  011 MWF 12:20-1:10 PRN 326
  012 MWF 2:30-3:20 PRN 326 Tel. 831-0653

E-mail: markm@udel.edu; Home Phone: (717) 529-1014
 
 
Machiko 010 TR 10:00-10:50 SHL 120 MTH 217 TR 1:00-2:00
Shimomura 011 TR 12:00-12:50 SHL 120 Tel. 831-3070
  012 TR 2:00-2:500 SHL 120  

E-mail: machiko@udel.edu

Website: http://www.udel.edu/fllt/faculty/markm/
Your syllabus, a free Japanese word processor download site, and other links are posted here.

REQUIRED MATERIALS
1. Textbook: Genki (I) An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese
2. Workbook: Genki (I) An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese
Recommended:
1. Random House Japanese-English/English Japanese Dictionary (This is a fairly good paperback dictionary at an excellent price that will be all you need to satisfy the language requirement in Japanese. If you plan to minor in Japanese, see Miller Sensei for others).
2. Genki CD: Though not required, we have uploaded Genki listening exercises for you to download free! Please check these out. You will be given extra credit if you do them. Go to www.fllt.udel.edu/lang/japanese and click on JAPN 105. You can also download JWP (a free Japanese word processing program) from this site.

POLICIES

1. Late Assignments and missed tests
Please follow the syllabus dates unless otherwise announced. We will accept late homework and correct it for you. However, you will lose 10 points off you grade for each week that your homework is late. Technically, the department policy is no make-ups for missed tests and quizzes without good reason. You must forewarn us if you are going to miss a test or quiz or contact us immediately if you miss anything.

2. Attendance
JAPN 105 is a Foreign Languages and Literatures Department course that is part of the fulfillment of the University of Delaware language requirement in Arts and Sciences. Attendance is absolutely required. You are allowed five free absences for whatever reason—illness, hangover, personal problems, laziness, etc. It does not matter whether you are legitimately sick or not. You get five free absences. After five absences, your final percentage grade will be lowered by 1% for each additional absence unless it is due to religious holiday, illness, accidents, or other exceptional circumstances. Such absences must be reported promptly with a letter from your physician or other appropriate person within one week of your absence.

3. Pass/fail
This course may not be taken pass/fail if you are taking it to satisfy the UD Language Requirement or as a prerequisite of a course to satisfy the Language Requirement.

Course Objectives for Honors Students

This course has been designed for absolute beginners and has been developed to help your listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Japanese. The topics we will focus on are simple greetings; numbers; times and dates; personal information like your age, major, family, and nationality; shopping; eating at restaurants and reading menus; classroom vocabulary; suggesting and inviting; your personal daily schedule and activities; describing the location and existence of things; and describing your likes and dislikes. Grammatically you will learn about Japanese word order, particles, basic tenses, negation, question making, frequency adverbs, and adjectives. Finally, you will be expected to learn read and write the two basic Japanese alphabets, hiragana for Japanese words, katakana for foreign names, words, and places, and to read all and write some of 43 basic Kanji or Chinese characters. The written tests in this course will be in Japanese, so be sure to devote significant time to learning the Japanese writing systems.

Grading:

Your grade will be determined according to the following percentages:
Hiragana quiz...............................................................10%
Kana Quiz (both hiragana and katakana)......................10%
Kanji quizzes and final.................................................10%
Oral performance and effort in class.............................10%
Homework assignments...............................................10%
Written midterm and final.................(10% X 2)............20%
Oral midterm and final......................(15% X 2)...........30%
Total...........................................................................100%
 
 

How we determine your letter grade:
A (100-93) A- (92-90)
B+ (89-87) B (86-83)
B- (82-80) C+ (79-77)
C (76-73) C- (72-70)
D+ (69-67) D (66-63)
D- (62-60) F (59-0)

Tentative Syllabus and Due Dates
 
2/11-2/14 Introduction to the course, the sounds of Japanese, writing your name in Japanese, meeting others and self introductions, begin learning hiragana, basic grammar. Check out the basic alphabet charts p. 18-24, 252, & 257 of textbook. 
Study: Learn hiragana lines A, KA, & SA. p.6-9 of textbook 
   
2/17-2/21 Begin Lesson 1, continue learning basic vocabulary, grammar, and hiragana. Study particles wa, no, and ka. Learn basic numbers, telephone numbers, and, time. 
Study: Textbook Lesson 1, hiragana lines TA, NA, HA, MA, & YA 
Homework: Workbook p. 11-12, 14, 105-108 due 2/24 
   
2/24-2/28  Continue Lesson 1, review numbers, learn how to say your age, major, nationality, academic year, basic family members and occupations, and asking basic questions. 
Study: Textbook Lesson 1, hiragana RA line & WA, O, N; GA, ZA, & DA lines. 
Homework: Workbook p. 15, 16, 109 due 3/3
   
3/3-3/7  Begin Lesson 2: Larger numbers, asking prices, the KO SO A DO words. 
Study: Textbook lesson 2, hiragana BA and PA lines, hiragana spelling rules (long vowels, small YA YU YO, double consonants). You will receive practice worksheets. 
Homework: Workbook p. 20, 21, & hiragana practice worksheets due 3/10
   
3/10-3/14  Continue Lesson 2: Review KO SO A DO, particles MO, NE, YO, and negation. We will try some shopping role plays and look at some real Japanese menus.
Study: Textbook Lesson 2, begin katakana A, KA, SA, TA, NA lines. 
Homework: Workbook p. 22, 23, 112, 113 due 3/17
Quiz: Hiragana quiz Wednesday 3/12
   
3/17-3/21 Begin Lesson 3: Action verbs and particles O, DE, NI, E; present tense/habitual, time reference, negation, making suggestions, and frequency adverbs. 
Study: Learn how to describe your basic daily schedule in Japanese. By the midterm you should be able to say what you do, where you do it, when you do it, and how often you do it. Learn katakana HA, MA, YA, RA lines and WA, N & katakana spelling rules. Receive katakana worksheet.
Homework: Workbook p. 25-27, 114-116 due 3/24 
   
3/24-3/28  Continue Lesson 3; same as previous week; receive oral interview questions.
Study: Same as previous week; review katakana.
Homework: Katakana worksheets due 3/26 (Wednesday) Workbook p. 28-30 due 3/28 (Friday, before the break!)
Quiz: Kana quiz Friday 3/28 (kana is both hiragana and katakana, and the quiz will be to transcribe a paragraph in romaji about someone’s daily schedule and personal info into kana).
   
SPRING BREAK!  
   
4/7 Review for midterms and sign up for the oral interview
4/8 Written midterm in kana
4/9-4/11 Oral midterm interview The oral midterm interview will take about 5-10 minutes and will be based on the handout you received before spring break. There are no regular classes on these days. The interview will be in our offices: W/F Mitchell 209; R Mitchell 217.
   
4/14-4/18 Begin Lesson 4: describing the existence and location of people and things; place names 
Study: Imasu/arimasu and location words, the particles that go with them (WA/GA, NI), and the names of places in Lesson 4; Begin kanji! Learn the numbers 1-10000 (p. 266-7) 
Homework: Workbook p. 33, 34, 117, 118 due 4/16 Kanji Quiz Kanji quiz on Lesson 3 Friday 4/18. Be able to read and write all the workbook kanji except for JI (reading only).
   
4/21-4/25 Continue Lesson 4: Past tense and negation of verbs, quantities, durations, TO & MO The days of the week, days of the month, and months. 
Study: Verb forms in Lesson 4; Kanji for some location words and the days of the week (see p.266-7 of text); learn new time and date vocabulary on p. 94-5 of text.
Homework: Study: Homework: Workbook p. 37-39, 119-120 due 4/28
Kanji Quiz: Kanji quiz on Lessons 3 & 4 Friday 4/25. (JI and YOO reading only) 
   
4/28-5/2 Begin Lesson 5: -I and -NA adjectives in Japanese
Study: Learn about the two types of adjectives and how to conjugate them. Study the new kanji in chapter five (text p. 270-1). 
Homework: Workbook p. 42-44, due 5/2
   
5/5-5/9 Continue Lesson 5: Review adjectives; expressing likes and dislikes, degree adverbs, making suggestions with let’s and shall.
Study:  Review -I and -NA adjective conjugation and be sure you know how to use them when they are in front of nouns versus in the predicate, likes and dislikes, ~mashoo; Review all kanji in Lessons 3-5.
Homework: Workbook p. 45-47, 121, 122, due 5/12
   
5/12-5/14 Review & prepare for your final written test and final oral presentation. We will do lots of activities that will be similar to the final exams 
   
5/15 Kanji Final: Be able to read and write all the workbook kanji in Lessons 3 & 4, except JI and YOO, and be able to read all the workbook kanji in Lesson 5. 
5/16  Written Final in Kanji and Kana Part One
Sign up for the Oral Prentation
5/19
5/20, 5/21, 5/23
Written Final Part Two
Final Oral Presentation in our offices in Mitchell Hall 209 or 218 

 

You must prepare a five minute oral presentation in Japanese. You may use note cards with notes written in English to help you remember what you want to say, but you MAY NOT write any Japanese words or vocabulary on the note cards. You may write down your speech in English, but you have to memorize how to say it in Japanese.

Recommended topics are you and your family, personal information such as name, age, academic year, major, likes and dislikes, etc., for you and your family members or friends. You should also tell us about your daily schedule, from the time you get up until when you go to bed. If you still cannot speak for five minutes after talking about personal information and your schedule, tell us about your schedule on a different day. For example, your weekday and weekend schedules are probably quite different. Finally, you may want to describe your dorm room or home/apartment (or friends/enemies) using the location words and adjectives we learned in Lessons 4 & 5.

You will be evaluated on the following criteria: presentation style, length, pronunciation, fluency, grammar, and content/level of difficulty.