A major in Japanese comprises a sequence of 80 credit points with 60 credit points at Level 2 and 3 (with no less than 30 credit points of these at Level 3), however students commencing at beginner''s level, that is units 101 and 102, and who follow the recommended course structure, are only required to complete 20 credit points at Level 3.

Students should take units that reflect their level of competence in the language and they should not backtrack, i.e. they must not:

- take a Level 1 unit after passing a Level 2 unit in the same language; or

- take a Level 2 unit after passing a Level 3 unit in the same language.

Level 1 unit pool

Japanese 101

NOTE: The unit offerings for the 1H Teaching Period at Bankstown and Penrith campuses listed above are available ONLY for students enrolled in course 1670 - Bachelor of Education (Birth - 5 years). Please note that enrolments will be monitored and students who are NOT enrolled in course 1670 will be required to withdraw from 1H and enrol in one of the alternative Teaching Periods listed above. This unit introduces students to the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in basic Japanese. Students acquire the skill to carry out basic communicative transactions in speech, with the necessary grammatical structures and vocabulary. Students learn to read and write hiragana and katakana (the syllable characters used to spell words) characters.

Japanese 102

This unit builds on the skills developed in Japanese 101. It aims to have students increase the range of communicative transactions in the four skills and to acquire more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary. A further 110 kanji characters are taught in this subject.

Level 2 unit pool

Language and Communication Skills 2A: Japanese

This is post-beginner unit for intermediate level study of modern Japanese language and its culture suitable for Post HSC entry. It aims to develop all four core skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, towards more sophisticated communicative transactions ranging from casual to formal styles of speech. However, the special focus of this unit is on developing, in particular, listening and speaking skills in the Japanese language in relation to oral aspects of contemporary culture and society of Japan. Cultural and social understanding is also fostered through research projects on specific cultural or social aspects that are of interest to students. A range of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) activities are utilised for this unit. The knowledge of kanji is increased to 260 characters.

Language and Communication Skills 2B: Japanese

This is a Level 2 unit in the Japanese major within the Languages Key Program of the Bachelor of Arts. This unit is suitable for Post HSC entry. It aims to further develop all four core skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, towards more sophisticated communicative transactions ranging from casual to formal styles of speech. However, the special focus of this unit is on developing, in particular, reading comprehension, and writing skills over a range of written registers. This unit also fosters cultural and social understanding by presenting aspects of contemporary cultures and societies that use the language as well as through research work on specific socio-cultural aspects that are of interest to the student. The content for reading and writing activities is selected from contemporary materials e.g., daily exchanges in writing, book/film reviews, mini dramas, magazines as well as websites in relation to textual aspects of contemporary culture and society of Japan. A range of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) activities are utilised for this unit. By the end of this unit, students can read and write approximately 380 kanji.

Level 3 unit pool

Japanese 302

This unit is designed to continue to extend students' competence in Japanese, to a higher level than in Japanese 301. It enhances students' knowledge and comprehension of Japanese grammar, and develops their ability to apply this knowledge and comprehension in written and spoken Japanese. In addition to the language skills, this unit covers further aspects of Japanese culture through the texts and class discussions.

Japanese 303: Contemporary Culture and Society

This unit aims at providing students with a valuable insight into modern Japanese society and culture through print and audiovisual media. In addition, the unit aims to enhance students' skills in the language at an advanced level, especially speaking and listening.

Japanese 304: Discourse in Japanese

This unit is designed to enable post-intermediate students of Japanese to learn and practice advanced level discourse in Japanese in a range of situations, registers and levels of formality.

Japanese 306: Japanese for Business

This unit prepares students to function effectively in business and commercial contacts with Japanese people. It will encompass the study of various types of business documents and spoken language appropriate to a range of business-related situations. It will also cover aspects of business culture and conventions.

Japanese 308: Japanese Textual Studies

Nihonjinron (the theory of uniqueness of the Japanese) has been discussed for many decades. Some scholars advocate the need for re-examining the concept, while others still hold the view that the Japanese have different sensitivities and values from people with other ethnic backgrounds. This unit aims to develop students' awareness of some of the arguments on this topic by reading relevant texts written by sociologists, anthropologists and novelists. Students will have opportunities to examine, analyse, discuss and evaluate texts from a range of authors. Texts are all written in contemporary Japanese.

Languages and Grammatical Concepts 3A: Japanese

This is an advanced Level 3 language and linguistics unit for students of modern Japanese. Lectures for the grammatical concepts component are held in English for students of all languages while other activities are language-specific. The aim of the unit is twofold. On the one hand it aims, to develop a practical and theoretical understanding of the ways in which major concepts used in everyday speech and writing are mapped and organized in the lexicon and the grammar of human languages, and how these forms develop in learners and users. On the other hand, it aims to develop advanced comprehension and production skills in Japanese language, including higher stages optional structures, through critical examination of contemporary and historical text and discourse samples from a variety of registers. An understanding of contemporary Japanese culture and society is also fostered through comparative research projects on specific cultural, social and/or linguistic, aspects that are of interest to students. A range of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) activities are utilised for this unit.

Intercultural Pragmatics

This is an optional level 3 core unit for the major in Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and Italian, within the BA Languages Key Program. It also constitutes part of the linguistics major and sub-major. It can also be taken as an elective. This is a language-specific unit intended to develop the students’ awareness of language usage issues which may have an impact on intercultural communication and, therefore, on cultural stereotyping as well as other real life interests, such as business relationships and professional performance. It covers issues such as the relationship between culture and language use, ingroup-outgroup relationships, speech acts across cultures, politeness in text and discourse, miscommunication and stereotyping.

World Cinema

This unit surveys contemporary world cinema in a range of languages in order to address a range of linguistic and cultural issues, including the role of subtitling and dubbing in cross-cultural communication. The unit allows students majoring in a Language other than English to enrol in a language specific tutorial (Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Japanese or Spanish) and other students to enrol in a tutorial conducted in English.

World Literature in Translation

This unit examines representative works of world literature written in languages other than English in order to address a range of literary and cultural issues, including the role of translation in cross-cultural communication. The unit allows students majoring in Italian or Japanese to enrol in a language specific tutorial, and other students to enrol in a tutorial conducted in English.

Applied Critical Methods

This unit gives students knowledge of research methods relevant to humanities disciplines. Modules provide advanced instruction in developing a research topic, evidence-based research and Human Research Ethics processes and policy.

Humanities Internship

This unit aims to provide third year humanities students with first-hand knowledge of workplaces or research processes related to their chosen field of study (major), such as art galleries, museums, libraries, local and state government, tourism and administration or in academic contexts. The unit will introduce students to various fields in which the skills developed over two years of study in humanities can be applied. It will augment their study and provide much needed work experience. The internship placement and/or project will be chosen by the student in consultation with the staff member responsible for the major area and the placement will be overseen and the academic work assessed by the member of staff responsible for the major area of study relevant to the internship.