I wanted to start studying Japanese my freshman year of college. Unfortunately with all the required classes that I had to fit in my schedule this was not an option for me. Last spring I wanted to sign up for the Japanese 1 class, but to my disappointment only the 2nd level was being offered in the spring. This past August, 5 months before I would be leaving for Tokyo, I finally began taking Japanese Elements 1.
Temple University has an excellent Japanese Language program. I have not taken any other language classes in college, but I have learned more in 1 semester of Japanese than I did in 2 years of French during high school
The course is very intense and requires much work. For someone who needs to take a language and is looking for the easy way out-I do not recommend Japanese to them. Within the first month, about 4 students dropped out of my class. Unless you actually want to learn Japanese and our willing to put a lot of time and effort into it, don't bother.
The class is worth 4 credits and there are 4 hours a week spent in class. 2 hours are spent with the professor and the entire class of about 25 students. The other 2 hours are spent in drill class. Drill class is an intense session with only about 6 students. A native Japanese teaching assistant teaches the drill. They have strict rules from the professor to only speak in Japanese. This is called drill for a reason-it is designed to drill the information into your head...if you study that is!
Omoto Sensee is my professor. She is a very smart and intelligent woman. She moved to America from Japan in 1996 and teaches beginner and advanced Japanese. All 4 of the teaching assistamts are Japanese graduate students. We switch up the teaching assistants to get an ear for different Japanese accents.
I have learned so much this semester because Omoto Sensee has pushed me very hard. Although the class has been very time consuming, I am glad I took it and am excited to continue my Japanese studies in the future.
日本語 のクラスがだいすきです
マリㇱサ
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