Integrative Narrative:
Why did I choose Japanese Language and Culture as my major? need to incorporate MLOs
As I was growing up, my family and I moved around quite a bit due to my father's past profession working in the United States Navy. While we were stationed in Hawaii, I remember watching late night cartoons like Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing, and Pokemon. At that time, I was really interested in those cartoons because compared to the American cartoons I also watched the art style was different and it really made an impact on me. Little did I know that those favorite cartoons I used to watch were not from the U.S. but actually from Japan. Then, as my father finished his term in Hawaii we were suddenly moving again. I was too little to remember much but when my father told me we were going somewhere again I thought it was going to be another family vacation. We moved to Yokosuka, Japan in Kanagawa Prefecture where we lived there for about seven years. While we were living there I noticed that Japan had the same cartoons and they were advertised in more places than in Hawaii. Eventually I later found out those cartoons were called Anime, short for animation in Japanese, and watching them in Japanese only peeked my interest even more so that I gained interest in the Japanese language. Having lived in Japan for while I feel like I have this strong connection with Japan and since I already had a strong interest in the Japanese language I wanted to become more proficient in the language and use it in my future career.
What have I learned from this major? What was my initial goal and how has that changed?
Having been a Japanese Language and culture major here at CSUMB I have learn quite a lot compared to when I first started learning Japanese. I believe without taking classes of culture, having not studied abroad, and not talking to Native speakers people cannot fully learn about a country, their language, and culture which is why I highly recommend people to travel abroad when then can and experience different cultures. Looking back now when I started Japanese, I really had a superficial image of Japan. Taking a few cultures class(MLO2) here such as Japan: Land and People has really broaden my perspective of Japanese culture. Having gone abroad for one year and taking culture classes in Japanese has really changed my perspective of Japan.
Also, being a Japanese major here at CSUMB, it is required for students to take the Capstone class (MLO4). In this class we learned how to research in both Japanese and English on a topic of our choice. we then learned how to create surveys and final present what we learned and discuss our findings in during the Capstone festival.
What areas am I most proud of through learning in this program?
The area I am most of proud of the Japanese language program at CSUMB was the strong community. Having transferred from San Jose State University and being exposed to their Japanese major program there I it felt different than the community at CSUMB. The classes I have taken at CSUMB were challenging but at the right amount of difficulty and as we progressed to the higher levels of the language course more and more classes were only taught in Japanese. I believe this is a great thing because it help us as students use more of our Japanese which helps us then thinking in Japanese and not in English. Also, the study abroad program(MLO5) at CSUMB is implemented really well. After choosing our top three universities we would like to study at, we had to meet with a panel of ourJapanese teachers and the international department faculty. They ask question like "Why do you want to study abroad?" or ""Have you ever travel to Japan before?" to make sure we would be ok studying and living in a different country. Then ultimately our teachers choose the university at which they feel we would fit in and benefit the most from studying there based on our language goals.
What areas do I want to develop in the future?
Of course my main areas I want to develop is to further my language proficiency. I will take what I learned from the Japanese language classes (MLO1) here and while abroad and continue to study for the rest of my life. There is always more room to learn new things in language because it is always changing as time passes. My main goal in learning Japanese was to use in my future career but having studied abroad and meeting many different people from other countries I too want to eventually learn other languages because I like to hear people's stories, learned from them, and share exciting experiences with them as well.
As I was growing up, my family and I moved around quite a bit due to my father's past profession working in the United States Navy. While we were stationed in Hawaii, I remember watching late night cartoons like Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing, and Pokemon. At that time, I was really interested in those cartoons because compared to the American cartoons I also watched the art style was different and it really made an impact on me. Little did I know that those favorite cartoons I used to watch were not from the U.S. but actually from Japan. Then, as my father finished his term in Hawaii we were suddenly moving again. I was too little to remember much but when my father told me we were going somewhere again I thought it was going to be another family vacation. We moved to Yokosuka, Japan in Kanagawa Prefecture where we lived there for about seven years. While we were living there I noticed that Japan had the same cartoons and they were advertised in more places than in Hawaii. Eventually I later found out those cartoons were called Anime, short for animation in Japanese, and watching them in Japanese only peeked my interest even more so that I gained interest in the Japanese language. Having lived in Japan for while I feel like I have this strong connection with Japan and since I already had a strong interest in the Japanese language I wanted to become more proficient in the language and use it in my future career.
What have I learned from this major? What was my initial goal and how has that changed?
Having been a Japanese Language and culture major here at CSUMB I have learn quite a lot compared to when I first started learning Japanese. I believe without taking classes of culture, having not studied abroad, and not talking to Native speakers people cannot fully learn about a country, their language, and culture which is why I highly recommend people to travel abroad when then can and experience different cultures. Looking back now when I started Japanese, I really had a superficial image of Japan. Taking a few cultures class(MLO2) here such as Japan: Land and People has really broaden my perspective of Japanese culture. Having gone abroad for one year and taking culture classes in Japanese has really changed my perspective of Japan.
Also, being a Japanese major here at CSUMB, it is required for students to take the Capstone class (MLO4). In this class we learned how to research in both Japanese and English on a topic of our choice. we then learned how to create surveys and final present what we learned and discuss our findings in during the Capstone festival.
What areas am I most proud of through learning in this program?
The area I am most of proud of the Japanese language program at CSUMB was the strong community. Having transferred from San Jose State University and being exposed to their Japanese major program there I it felt different than the community at CSUMB. The classes I have taken at CSUMB were challenging but at the right amount of difficulty and as we progressed to the higher levels of the language course more and more classes were only taught in Japanese. I believe this is a great thing because it help us as students use more of our Japanese which helps us then thinking in Japanese and not in English. Also, the study abroad program(MLO5) at CSUMB is implemented really well. After choosing our top three universities we would like to study at, we had to meet with a panel of ourJapanese teachers and the international department faculty. They ask question like "Why do you want to study abroad?" or ""Have you ever travel to Japan before?" to make sure we would be ok studying and living in a different country. Then ultimately our teachers choose the university at which they feel we would fit in and benefit the most from studying there based on our language goals.
What areas do I want to develop in the future?
Of course my main areas I want to develop is to further my language proficiency. I will take what I learned from the Japanese language classes (MLO1) here and while abroad and continue to study for the rest of my life. There is always more room to learn new things in language because it is always changing as time passes. My main goal in learning Japanese was to use in my future career but having studied abroad and meeting many different people from other countries I too want to eventually learn other languages because I like to hear people's stories, learned from them, and share exciting experiences with them as well.