College Course Question

[shinnraiu]

ようみんな
来月俺は大学に入学し質問あります。

As I have noticed that some people on this forum attended college and took the Japanese course there and I want to know how they work in college. As I said, I'm starting college soon and I was placed in a third year (I think) Japanese course. I was too lazy to do a proper evaluation and the people were too lazy to do it as well. Exactly what difficulty is the third year Japanese curriculum?

If you know, thanks in advance!

[Ertai87]

First off, 俺? Aren't you a girl irl? XD

In Canada, at least (don't know where you're going to school, but this is how it is at my school), this is how the curriculum is (although my school's curriculum is custom-written by the prof so it's probably different than other schools)

There are 6 courses: 101, 102, 201, 202, 301, and 302. Each course is 4 months long (12 weeks actually). The first digit of the course number is the year it's intended to be taken in (101/102 are 1st year, 201/202 are 2nd year, 301/302 are 3rd year). Here's the basic curriculum:

101: 〜は〜です form over and over and over again. Lesson 1 starts from あいうえお (no jokes, we spent about an hour just repeating あいうえお over and over again), then nouns (私は学生です), with adjectives in weeks 3 and 4 (私はひまです) and ある/いる in week 5. Week 6 is basic verbs and 〜ます form, week 7 〜ました form, and then I don't remember the rest. By about halfway through the course we're expected to write ひらがな near-fluently, and by about 2/3 the way we're expected to read comprehensibly.

102: 〜ている form for 3 weeks, then plain style for a week, with various other forms in the following 2-3 weeks (〜てもいいです、〜なければなりません、〜ほうがいいです、and others). After that I don't remember, although I think 〜ことある is somewhere in there. Also we do skill description (上手、下手、得意、苦手) somewhere as well. We're expected to read and write カタカナ near-fluently by about Week 2.

201: Week 1 is 〜たい form. Week 2 is 好き and きらい (don't ask me why they require an entire week to teach that; my 202 prof agrees that it's probably unnecessary, although she doesn't make the curriculum). Week 3 was...something. Somewhere in the middle is 〜たら and 〜ば／なら form (yeah, we don't actually learn "if" until the 3rd course...that was annoying as heck). We also do potential form (〜える and 〜ことできる, although in reverse order) somewhere in the middle, and finish up the course with use of plain style clauses as adjectives (去年読んだ本), another thing both me and my 202 prof agree should be changed. Also, 201 marks the beginning of the introduction to Kanji.

202: I completely forget the order of this course, and I no longer have the book (I have the books for the other 3 but am too lazy to go and get them), but here's some of the stuff we learned: Passive (〜られる) form, causative (〜させる) form, 〜てくる, 〜ていく, 〜てあげる, 〜てくれる, 〜てもらう (those last 3 are review from 201 actually), introduction to 敬語 with さしあげる, くださる, and いただく (also review from 201), and other things. Unfortunately they'll be using the 3rd edition of JBP3 for this course as of next term, so the course is going to change drastically, but this is how it was when I took it last term.

301: Finishing up JBP3. I read JBP3 cover to cover out of interest, but I forgot pretty much all of it, except that there's more 敬語, including the honourific 〜られる form. I'm going to be taking this course in the Winter term (January-April) of 2010. My school schedule is kinda weird.

302: The course is literally called "Advanced Japanese" or something like that. From what I know from talking to people who have taken it, it's basically an advanced conversation and comprehension course. We're expected to be able to read and write all 3 alphabets near-fluently (I don't know how many Kanji we're expected to know, but it's well into the 3-400's) and the homework is (I've heard) mostly native Japanese scripts (mostly newspapers and the like).

If you've ever heard of the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), people who have passed 201 should be able to pass Level 3, passing 202 should be able to do decently well on (if not pass) Level 2, and people who have passed 301 should be able to pass Level 2 for sure. People who have taken 301 are encouraged to try Level 1, but may or may not pass.

[Rizuchan]

Thanks for the info, Ertai! I'm starting college next semester too. Though I have to admit I'm a bit embarrassed now starting in Japanese 101 when shinnraiu here is starting from 3rd year. Granted the college I'm attending only offers through 202, and I need two years of foreign language anyway. I think I had the opportunity to test out and take year two if I would have liked, but then I'd have to find something else to take for my second year anyway... Haha, sorry for rambling.

So, Ertai, do you remember how many kanji you were expected to learn by year one? I'm pretty confident with my verb tenses and overall vocabulary, but I'm so bad with kanji.

[Ertai87]

By the end of 102, we had to learn absolutely 0 Kanji. The first week of 201 introduced the really beginner ones like 木, 金, 水, 車, etc. Numbers were week 3, and introduction to compound kanji like 畑 and 男 was week 5. Compound words with Kanji like 勉強 and 練習 weren't taught until the end of 202. That book is really a beginner-level book. In total, we learned about 12 Kanji per week for 11 weeks/term (no Kanji in Week 1) for 2 terms (201 and 202). You can grab whatever number you like out of that.

[Rizuchan]

Thanks, looks like I don't have anything to worry about then. Granted, I suppose my teacher could always do things differently... I wish I could get my textbook early so I could see for myself.

[shinnraiu]

Wow, I hope the curriculum is the same here, because then it'll be easy for me lol. (Unless they put me in year 4 or something...) Thanks for the info.

And Rizuchan, don't worry. XD I'm a native.

If anyone else took it in college and it works differently at said college, please inform me too.

[Ertai87]

Well, of course, my school has a very small Japanese language department (only 8 courses in total...there's also 111 and 112 I didn't mention cause they're pretty much the same as 101 and 102). For other languages the courses are more difficult. A friend of mine took a 3rd year Russian Lit course where they had to read Russian literature in the original language. Of course, she's native so she had no problem, but that's another example of something you might have to take. Depends on the school, of course.

Also, my 202 prof thinks that Kanji really should be taught before 201 and that spending an entire course on each of Hiragana and Katakana is a waste of time, so chances are your school will do that differently, especially if you're not coming to North America.

[shinnraiu]

...But I live in NYC lol
So I am in North America

[Ertai87]

Ah lol I didn't know XD

If it's a big university (I'm presuming probably NYU if you're in New York), you'll probably have a bigger Japanese faculty than I do, so you might be in for some lit courses or something like that. My University is literally a square city block in size (less than 1km from corner to corner) and most of it is Science and Engineering, so we don't have the space or staff to run more courses than what I told you about...

[shinnraiu]

....... .______.;;;
I'm gonna fail. A lot.

It's not NYU (don't like NYU) but still...


....gahhh.... lit courses. I hope not. *opt out opt out* lmao...