Japanese Language Courses

The Japanese Studies Program at the University of Missouri offers a full four-year series of eight Japanese language courses designed to provide students with a solid foundation in speaking, listening, reading, and writing from which they may choose to pursue graduate study in Japanese or use Japanese in a career after graduation.

Elementary Japanese 1 - 1100 - 6 credits
Elementary Japanese 1 is designed for students with limited or no previous background in Japanese language. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Japanese. J1100 teaches all four skills - speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students develop basic conversational skills and the most basic phonetic writing system, hiragana, is taught at the beginning of the course. Students continue by learning the other phonetic system, katakana, and beginning the study of Chinese characters or kanji. (Offered in fall semester)

Elementary Japanese 2 - 1200 - 6 credits
Elementary Japanese 2 continues to build on the skills students acquired in J1100. In addition to work in conversation Japanese, students are introduced to the use of a kanji dictionary and the reading of authentic materials. Successful completion of this course fulfills the foreign language requirement for Arts and Science. (Offered in spring semester)

Japanese 3 - 2160 (Second-Year Japanese) - 3 credits
Japanese 3 continues to build on the skills students acquired in the first-year series with increasing work in authentic materials and situations in conversation and reading that encourage students to understand the use of language in its social and cultural context. (Offered in fall semester)

Japanese 4 - 3160 (Second-Year Japanese)- 3 credits
Japanese 4 continues developing the skills taught in J2160. (Offered in spring semester)

Intermediate Readings in Japanese - 3370 (Third-Year Japanese) - 3 credits
Intermediate Japanese focuses on the development of skills that allow students to engage both the written and spoken language. Materials used include newspaper articles, literature, television, and cinema. (Offered in fall semester)

Intermediate Readings in Japanese - (Third-Year Japanese) - 3 credits
Continues developing the skills taught in J3370. (Offered in spring semester)

Advanced Japanese 1 and 2 - (Fourth-Year Japanese) - 3 credits each
Advanced Japanese is taught under the Japanese 4005 course numbers. These courses continue development of Japanese reading comprehension skills and the ability to discuss materials that elucidate Japanese culture. Advanced Japanese courses are designed to prepare students to use Japanese in professional or scholarly work. (Offered in fall and spring semesters)