Prospective Japanese Students
Are you interested in taking a Japanese elective at the University of Limerick? Below is an outline of the topics covered for each of the four years.
First Year
Japanese for Business 1
Elementary daily conversation through role play exercises and pronunciation practice in the language laboratory; simple conversation and answer exercises; the Japanese syllabary alphabets (Hiragana and Katakana) ; elementary descriptive writing, such as introducing oneself; introduction of the first 50 kanji; elementary grammatical structures.
Japanese for Business 2
Vocabularly expansion through role-playing and language laboratory exercises; simple telephone conversation skills: invitations, appointments, messages; introduction of a further 100 kanji; basic descriptive writing, such as describing a city; basic grammatical structures including verbal plain forms.
Second Year
Japanese for Business 3
Vocabulary expansion and consolidation through the audio-visual materials; introduction of a further 80 kanji; kanji consolidation through selected Japanese texts; basic personal correspondence, i.e. letter of greeting; basic conversation skills through sketch presentation, e.g. visiting, receiving visitors, etc.; further basic grammatical structures.
Japanese for Business 4
Expansion of verb following phrases through functional exercises; written exercises focusing on explanations of native customs and society; comprehension of the Japanese cultural context through audio-visual materials; further basic grammatical structures; introduction of a further 100 kanji (Total 350)
Third Year
Japanese for Business 5
Business presentation in Japanese, i.e., describing a company and explaining its products; basic business communication, e.g., discussing trade terms and patents and reporting in business talks on what has been discussed; consolidation of basic grammatical structures; introduction to a further 70 kanji (Total 360).
Fourth Year
Japanese for Business 7
Business Project in Japanese: advertisements in both written and oral forms; further business communication: discussing price and quantity; introduction and intermediate grammatical structures; introduction of a further 70 kanji (Total 430)
Japanese for Business 8
Preparation for applying for a job in Japan, e.g., interview exercise through role playing; business correspondence and communication, e.g., CV and letter of application; introduction of intermediate grammatical structures including basic polite language, i.e., judging when to be used and how to be adjusted according to whom is being addressed; introduction of a further 100 kanji.