MLO 2: Culture
- 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).
- 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.
Narrative
2.1
The courses Japn 305: Into to Japn Culture/Civ. and Japn 306: The Japanese Mind both helped me develop "a comprehensive understanding, appreciation of Japanese culture...practices....and products..." In Japn 305 I got to know a lot about the history that influences modern day Japan. I especially liked reading about Yoshimasa and the silver pavilion. He was considered Japan's worst shogun in history, but at the same time was responsible for the foundation of many of the cultural practices that Japan is known for; calligraphy, flower arrangement, and the tea ceremony. This class culminated in a research project with a subject of our choosing. I chose to research the Ainu, the indigenous people of Northern Japan. In Japn 306 we delved into the Japanese perspectives, such as the concepts of soto and uchi, seishun, and wabi sabi. I did have some difficulties in this class as some the articles were dense, scholarly and difficult to understand, but overall the articles were very informative. For Japn 306 and 308 I did a combination research project, combining the themes of both the classes. I chose Takashi Murakami as the subject and wrote about his role in the Contemporary Art World (product). The paper was fun to write and I was able to include aspects of Japanese culture like anime and manga, and combined that with the psychological effects of World War II on the country. 2.2 All four of the Japanese Culture courses that I took show in some way how Japan's cultural history affects modern day life in Japan, but the semester that gave me the most insight into this was Spring 2012 when I took Japn 305 and Japn 313 at the same time. One class taught about historical Japan while the other taught about anime/mange, one of Japan's biggest modern day cultural exports. For Japn 313's midterm project, I did a presentation about the Anime Gintama, which basically parodies all aspects of Japan's culture. Gintama is set at the beginning of the Meiji era, but instead of Americans coming to open Japan's harbors, aliens came. I talked about how one can learn much about Japan's historical history from anime and manga such as this. For the final project, I created my own manga combining aspects of American and Japanese culture. I chose to do a manga with the theme of Pokemon meets Into the Wild. Overall, I gained a very well-rounded education in Japanese culture, which came in handy when I arrived in Japan for study abroad.
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Courses Completed Toward MLO 2
Japn 305: Introduction to Japanese Culture/Civilization
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