EPD 330: Basic Technical Japanese I

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EPD 330 - Basic Technical Japanese I

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EPD 330 Basic Technical Japanese I, Fall09 (1) Sections: 001, 002, 003

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Engineering Outreach Course Description

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Catalog Description

330 Basic Technical Japanese I. (Crosslisted with E Asian 330.) I; 3 cr. Introduces the three types of Japanese writing and most grammar necessary for reading technical writing in the sciences. P: Sr or Grad st. Davis.

Course Prerequisite(s)

See catalog description above.

Prerequisite knowledge and/or skills

Understanding of basic principles of science and engineering.
No previous experience with Japanese is needed.

Textbook(s) and/or other required material

1) Basic Technical Japanese; E. E. Daub, R. B. Bird, and N. Inoue; University of Wisconsin Press; ISBN 0-299-12730-3
2a) The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary; A. N. Nelson; Tuttle; ISBN 0-8048-0408-7
or
2b) The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary; J. H. Haig; Tuttle; ISBN 0-8048-2036-8
3) Shogakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary; I. Kondo and F. Takano; Shogakukan; ISBN 4-09-510252-7

Course objectives

In the Basic Technical Japanese sequence students will learn:
the Japanese pronunciation system;
the two types of Japanese phonetic script (hiragana and katakana);
265 kanji (characters) that are used frequently in technical fields;
a vocabulary of common scientific and engineering terms;
most of the grammar necessary to read technical documents;
strategies for reading in Japanese.

Topics covered

Introduction and Overview
Pronunciation and Romanization: vowels, doubled vowels, consonants, palatalized consonants, doubled consonants, modified Hepburn romanization, KUNREI-SHIKI romanization
KATAKANA Syllabary: basic KATAKANA, modified KATAKANA, palatalized consonants, doubled vowels, doubled consonants, loan words (GAIRAIGO)
HIRAGANA Syllabary: basic HIRAGANA, modified HIRAGANA, palatalized consonants, doubled vowels, doubled consonants
Introduction to KANJI: stroke count and stroke order, radicals, ON and KUN readings, JUKUGO, KANJI dictionaries, how to learn KANJI
Elementary Sentence Structure; Basic Verbs: nouns and pronouns, demonstrative words, particles, essential verbs (to be, to do, to become, to say)
Present-Tense Forms; Complex Sentence Structure: present tense of verbs and adjectives, modifying clauses, conjunctions and compound sentences
Past-Tense Forms; Noun- and Verb-Following Expressions: past tense of verbs and adjectives, noun-following expressions, verb following expressions
Connective and Conjunctive Forms: connective form of verbs and adjectives, constructions containing auxiliary verbs, conjunctive form of verbs and adjectives, compound verbs
Note: KANJI are introduced at a rate of 10-15 per week, beginning in the fourth week of the semester. New technical terms are introduced in each chapter of the text. Readings and vocabulary are drawn from the physical and biological sciences and from all fields of engineering.

Class/laboratory schedule

Monday, Wednesday, Friday; 50 minutes per class

Contribution of course to meeting the professional component

This course contributes primarily to the students' general education.

The following statement indicates which of the following considerations are included in this course: economic, environmental, ethical, political, societal, health and safety, manufacturability, sustainability.

This course enhances the student's ability to gather information from diverse sources. This course contributes to the student's ability to understand a different culture through its language and writing style.

Relationship of course to undergraduate degree program objectives and outcomes

This course serves students in a variety of engineering majors. The information below describes how the course contributes to the college's educational objectives.

This course counts toward the 27-credit Certificate in Japanese Studies for Engineering Majors. The Certificate helps meets industry and government agencies' demands for engineers who function effectively in Japanese. The course supports program objectives by providing instruction in a foreign language that is extremely important as a vehicle for conveying current scientific and technical information.

Assessment of student progress toward course objectives

Homework is assigned daily. Assignments provide practice in writing characters, vocabulary building, word usage, and sentence structure. All assignments are corrected, returned, and discussed in class.
Three examinations assess the following: recognition of specific characters and technical terms in Japanese; understanding of Japanese grammatical patterns and idiomatic expressions; ability to read and understand Japanese sentences and short essays containing technical information.

Person(s) who prepared this description

James L. Davis

Copyright 2007 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Date last modified: 03-Aug-2007
Date created: 29-Jul-1999
Content by: custserv@epd.engr.wisc.edu
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