The course starts in week 46 and ends in week 3.  Once a week, there are real-time classes online. Headset and web camera are needed for these classes.

Course Contents

In this course, you will read four original manga books in Japanese. You will study the structure and contents of these books, and thereby learn various aspects of Japanese language and culture.

You will train a technique of reading called skimming, that is, to read texts without understanding all details. This is a technique that is useful when you want to read large volumes of text in a short time. Manga is an ideal material for acquiring this skill, as the presence of pictures makes it much easier to follow what is going on even if you do not understand all the vocabulary.

Using manga, you will learn about various characteristics of spoken and informal Japanese. Conversational Japanese is quite different from the written style, and manga, which is constructed mostly by dialogue, makes very good material to learn about different styles of Japanese conversational language, slang and dialects.

You will also encounter numerous onomatopoeia and mimetic words in manga; expressions that are very commonly used in almost all registers of Japanese language. In addition, various idioms and words-play is often used in manga, and studying these will help you to enrich your ability to understand Japanese beyond what you find in ordinary course books.

Examination

The course is examined through your performance in the seminars and a number of written assignments.

You are expected to read several chapters prior to the class every week. The preparatory assignments will prepare you for the coming lesson and will help you to understand the story better. At least 80% attendance is required to pass the course.

Schedule

You find the schedule and an overview of the course's contents in the course outline: GJP23L Course Outline