MLO 2: Japanese Culture
2.1 Students develop a comprehensive understanding, appreciation, and knowledge of Japanese culture: perspectives (ideas, beliefs, attitudes, values, philosophies), practices (patterns of social interactions) and products (both tangible and intangible, for example, art, history, literature, music).
2.2 Students develop analytical and critical thinking in areas such as how Japan’s cultural background influences modern Japanese life, how to compare their own culture with the Japanese culture, or how Japanese culture relates to other world cultures in an age of global inter-relatedness.
Courses taken to meet his MLO:
- JAPN 215: Cool Japan Today
- JAPN 305: Introduction to Japanese Culture and Civilization
- JAPN 311: Social Issues In Japan
- JAPN 407: Japan in the Globalized Community
To fulfill this part of the MLO, I took several Japanese culture courses, including Cool Japan Today (JAPN 215), Social Issues in Japan (JAPN 311), and Japan in Asia (JAPN 407). JAPN 215 focused primarily on popular culture, but also included things such as tourism and economic issues. We viewed and read a number of things in order to gain an understanding, and then had discussions as a class. In JAPN 311, we discussed, read about, and viewed media about a large variety of social issues in Japan. This included things such as compensated dating, homelessness, gay rights, and feminism. We often had interesting and illuminating discussions as a class, and some were documented (as in the paper linked below). We also chose our own social issues to write about extensively in a final research paper, which I will also link below. This allowed us to delve into social issues we were interested in while being guided by our professor to make the right connections and develop certain understandings.
To fulfill this part of the MLO, I completed the same courses as mentioned above. However, to explain how this was fulfilled, I will discuss my coursework in Social Issues in Japan. This course is the only course of the three that I still have work from, so I will use the same links below to describe my experience. My paper about adolescent suicide, in particular, combines a great deal of information about Japan to try to delve into why adolescent suicide is such a major issue in Japan. I found that Japanese mental health policies have been and continue to be inadequate to face the issues of patients. This is due to a long course of historical factors, which is also something I incorporated when discussing the role of religion in this issue. In Japan, the major religions do not condemn suicide, which means there is no tacit disapproval of this action coming from that source (unlike in Christian and Catholic countries). These are the kinds of connections we were required to make about every issue we were presented and discussed. We had reading quizzes in every class session because to prove our understanding of Japanese culture, the professor required more than simple proof that we had read, but also an analytical, written piece that demonstrated our knowledge. This was also a major component of the Japan in Asia course (which now has a different name). We discussed Japan's interrelations with other Asian countries, but we also always wove in countries around the world (which is why the course title now reflects the global part of the classwork). We especially focused on Japan and America's relationship, of course, since this course was taught to Americans and we always find a way to focus on ourselves.
2.2 Students develop analytical and critical thinking in areas such as how Japan’s cultural background influences modern Japanese life, how to compare their own culture with the Japanese culture, or how Japanese culture relates to other world cultures in an age of global inter-relatedness.
Courses taken to meet his MLO:
- JAPN 215: Cool Japan Today
- JAPN 305: Introduction to Japanese Culture and Civilization
- JAPN 311: Social Issues In Japan
- JAPN 407: Japan in the Globalized Community
To fulfill this part of the MLO, I took several Japanese culture courses, including Cool Japan Today (JAPN 215), Social Issues in Japan (JAPN 311), and Japan in Asia (JAPN 407). JAPN 215 focused primarily on popular culture, but also included things such as tourism and economic issues. We viewed and read a number of things in order to gain an understanding, and then had discussions as a class. In JAPN 311, we discussed, read about, and viewed media about a large variety of social issues in Japan. This included things such as compensated dating, homelessness, gay rights, and feminism. We often had interesting and illuminating discussions as a class, and some were documented (as in the paper linked below). We also chose our own social issues to write about extensively in a final research paper, which I will also link below. This allowed us to delve into social issues we were interested in while being guided by our professor to make the right connections and develop certain understandings.
To fulfill this part of the MLO, I completed the same courses as mentioned above. However, to explain how this was fulfilled, I will discuss my coursework in Social Issues in Japan. This course is the only course of the three that I still have work from, so I will use the same links below to describe my experience. My paper about adolescent suicide, in particular, combines a great deal of information about Japan to try to delve into why adolescent suicide is such a major issue in Japan. I found that Japanese mental health policies have been and continue to be inadequate to face the issues of patients. This is due to a long course of historical factors, which is also something I incorporated when discussing the role of religion in this issue. In Japan, the major religions do not condemn suicide, which means there is no tacit disapproval of this action coming from that source (unlike in Christian and Catholic countries). These are the kinds of connections we were required to make about every issue we were presented and discussed. We had reading quizzes in every class session because to prove our understanding of Japanese culture, the professor required more than simple proof that we had read, but also an analytical, written piece that demonstrated our knowledge. This was also a major component of the Japan in Asia course (which now has a different name). We discussed Japan's interrelations with other Asian countries, but we also always wove in countries around the world (which is why the course title now reflects the global part of the classwork). We especially focused on Japan and America's relationship, of course, since this course was taught to Americans and we always find a way to focus on ourselves.