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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This unit surveys world literature written in a range of languages 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 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.