Ok so now that I’ve attended classes for a good chunk of my semester, I’m thinkin i’ma write a detailed post about my classes and how Kansai Gaidai structures them.

Japanese classes are held in the morning, 4 x 50 minute periods between 9am and 1pm (9:00-9:50, 10:00-10:50 etc.).  English classes are held in the afternoon, 3 x 80 minute classes between 1pm and 5:20pm (some exceptions such as the Sumi-e class which I think is 2 hours long).  Also if we miss 30% of our classes for either subject – FAIL!

Spoken Japanese Class (Level 2):

Spoken Japanese class began as my scariest subject because, quite simply, i had to speak Japanese.  A lot.  My teacher is Naito-sensei, she’s a lovely lady who really assists the learning environment by never making you feel like a douche but always egging you on till you get the right answer, no matter how long it takes.  Which at first is daunting and even annoying because it might feel like she’s continually badgering you even when you don’t know the answer, but in the end it DOES help you learn, and she does it in a nice enough way.  Oh and yes, i’ll re-iterate – you WILL be speaking Japanese, no hiding, no flying under the radar.

The class size is only about 13 people or so (in my class) and she always asks you question using new & old grammar structures and vocab to then coax you into understanding and replying using similar new and old grammar structures whilst telling her about your weekend, your plans, or if you are busy this afternoon.

I might also add that she is extremely professional, not in the uptight-strict-arsey professional type, but she is professional in the sense that she is exactly what you need her to be to learn a foreign language.  She DOES use a good amount of english to explain concepts that we would not have understood had she explained in Japanese, and will only revert to english within her exercises if you really don’t understand what she is saying – even after she restructures the sentence a few times.  Her english is EXTREMELY good – like i don’t know the official definition of “fluent”, but i’m pretty sure she is.

A typical class will start off with a “Ohayou Gozaimasu” (good morning) followed perhaps by 5 minutes or so of conversation with one (or more) people she decides to talk to.  It could be about anything, like I said before it might be about your weekend.  Or even today, she asked me if I owned a pet (No); if I wanted a pet (Yes); would I prefer a dog or a cat (a cat).  She also often tries to set you up so that your reply will require a grammar structure that you don’t know, but will learn that day.  Which is a nice way to introduce the lesson I think.  From there she begins teaching us grammar or whatever else she is teaching for the day, with aid from the textbook (“Genki”), or little exercises that we would have to perform with the partner next to us.  And so it continues till the end of the lesson.

Genki 1 Textbook

A lesson runs for 50 minutes.  5 classes a week.

As for homework, there is a lot.  Every 3 days you’ve got homework, a quiz, a test, “Language Lab” or some other piece of assessment due.  Homework usually consists of 2-4 pages from our “workbook” (which is just the “Genki” activity book).  Some of the homework are questions based on listening material, so that’s where the Language Lab comes in.  At the Language Lab (or LL or “eru eru”), which is essentially a computer lab, there is a program called P-Call (or P-C@LL if you’re as trendy as the Japanese), where you can find listening material straight out of your workbook and textbook.  There you can also find SPEAKING material, which is another form of homework you need to submit, where you are asked questions (written in the textbook) and you must record the answer.  You then submit it through P-Call.

Now everytime you reach about half way of a new chapter in your Genki textbook with the class, there is generally an in class quiz scheduled – which is essentially strictly a Vocabulary quiz.  You are introduced to around 30-50 new words, every chapter, where you might complete 1 chapter every 1.5 weeks.  So… quizz every 1.5 weeks.  Meaning you gotta cram that vocab!  Vocab quizzes are generally 10 questions worth 1 point each, plus 2 bonus questions worth 1 point each that can sometimes save your perfect 10/10 score if you mess up slightly in the original 10.  Quizzes are performed at the beginning of the lesson, go for about 10 minutes, then the lesson continues.

Genki 2 Textbook

Lesson tests come around every 2 chapters or so, where you get tested on vocab and grammar points learned in the last 2 chapters – both in written and listening format.  They’re a bit tough.  After a lesson test, you are free from your class.

The mid-term exam felt exactly like the lesson test, just bigger/covering a broader range of material.

Reading & Writing Japanese Class (Level 2):

R&W class is probably my strength out of the two classes.  It started out brushing over the 2 Japanese phonetic writing systems: hiragana and katakana.  But as these were meant to be assumed knowledge for my level we didn’t really hang around there for too long.  Now the class has literally just become a Kanji (chinese characters) class.  Kanji is not phonetic.

For those who haven’t studied Japanese and don’t know the difference, allow me to show you the difference with the word for “job”, which is “shigoto”:

Hiragana: しごと
Katakana: シゴト
Kanji: 仕事

Please note, “shigoto” would never be written in katakana.  Katakana is pretty much reserved for borrowed words, such as “Coca Cola” which in katakana would be コカコーラ　(kokako-ra). But you can see the differences between the 3 writing systems.

My teacher for this class is Yuki-sensei.  She pretty much ONLY speaks Japanese so I have no idea wtf she’s on about half the time, but she always smiles and waves her hands about in a cute-ish fashion making me want to just lob a Pokéball at her.

We only have 3 x 50 minute classes a week, which, are pretty routine depending on where we are in the new chapter.  She goes through the 15-20 new kanji we have to learn, one by one, offering ways to memorize its meaning and reading as well as offering the “stroke order” in which we have to write (or draw – we all know they’re just pictures) the new kanji.  Usually really boring stuff.

We also do a bit of comprehension (reading and answering questions), activities, as well as everyone’s favourite game: Kanji Bingo.  We also have lesson tests, generally based on 2 chapters that we had just completed.  These are structured much like the quizzes, however there is usually a comprehension section added to it.  Much like the Spoken Japanese lesson tests, you are free from the class once you finish the test.

One piece of homework due per chapter, usually consists of an entire page of our workbook dedicated to repetitively scrawling out the new kanji in “practice” then a page of translations and filling in blanks (using the new kanji).  We have 1 quiz per chapter based on a few new vocab and expressions, as well as a fill in the blanks of kanji (both writing the kanji from the reading, as well as the reading from the kanji).

The mid-term was pretty much the same as a lesson test, just 213810293 x harder and bigger – but still manageable (woo 94%!).

There is no language lab for R&W.

Dynamics of Modern Japan/Pacific Rivalry:

These classes are both 80 minutes long and are held in the afternoon.  For both classes I have the same professor: Prof. Paul Scott.

Prof. Scott is pretty laid back, interesting to listen to, very lenient and wants everyone to do well.  For example: he gave me an A for my essay.  And i’m a retard. … … Basically write SOMETHING down for your essay and you’ll pass.  I’ve read, before I came to Kansai Gaidai, that the english classes were super easy, and this could be because they want you to focus on Japanese.  Maybe… Anyway…

The two classes are similar.  Pacific Rivalry is very political and historical but is based around all sorts of competition and war between the most influential nations on the pacific.  So countries like Japan, Korea, China, USA… Even the events in Vietnam.  Dynamics of Modern Japan strictly looks at Japan and how it has developed to become the Japan we know today, and only looks at other countries when there is a direct influence on Japan.

Both of these classes are very political, and the entire lecture is generally just Prof. Scott talking, but also prompting a LOT of discussion with peoples thought’s, opinions, and the differences each culture has to offer. He does this by asking various people from different countries the same questions (I generally represent Australia – sorry guys).  So its all very interesting. Prof. Scott does not take attendance or give out homework.  He does prescribe books to read if “You’ve got absolutely nothing better to do” – which in my case, “sleep” is better than reading, and I can’t get enough of sleep.

However I do read to study for his mid-terms, which were really cool.  For Pacific Rivalry our mid-term was an in class essay – eek! Except… he gave us a choice of 2 out of 7 questions 2 WEEKS PRIOR! Yay!  So I got to study at home for exactly what I wanted to write and even wrote out a mock essay just to make sure I got all my facts straight. That won me an A.  His theory is that he doesn’t want us to “study all the wrong things for all the right reasons”.  That is to say that if you study 90% of the material covered, but the test ONLY contains the 10% you didn’t study, then your result won’t accurately reflect how good you are on the topic.  So he eliminates that by telling us what we need to write about, so we can do it well.

For Dynamics of Modern Japan, we had the same format, with one exception: Not an in-class essay, instead we did it at home but submitted the answers to 3 questions.  Still awaiting my results for that.

So those are my classes, finals are coming up and i’m feeling pretty confident actually.  They’re all great classes and I love my Professors, they’re pretty awe-sumo.  Sorry this post is huuuuuge, i imagined it to be a LOT smaller than this.  But, it’s detailed, and I know that when I was looking to come to Japan, I would have loved a post like this.  So hope you enjoyed it.

Ciao for Now!