JAPN 306: Japanese Mind: (MLO 2) Completed Fall 2011
Description:
A project-based course that looks behind the Japanese social mask to understand how Japanese people build relationships, community, and lives worth living. Covers modes of thinking and communicating, negotiating, and decision making; ethical systems; the central role of social status and hierarchical relationships; patterns of making friends and influencing others; psychological factors such as dependence and duty; and the Japanese aesthetics and ideology.
A project-based course that looks behind the Japanese social mask to understand how Japanese people build relationships, community, and lives worth living. Covers modes of thinking and communicating, negotiating, and decision making; ethical systems; the central role of social status and hierarchical relationships; patterns of making friends and influencing others; psychological factors such as dependence and duty; and the Japanese aesthetics and ideology.
Course Narrative:
By taking this course, I was able to fulfill the MLO 2 requirement of this major because this course contributed to my understanding on how the Japanese think and feel about certain issues that they experience in life. One of things I learned is how Japanese use many different types of beliefs and superstitions that they believe and taken it into heart. One example of this comes from one of the readings I did for class called “Kawaii.” In this book, I read about how a beautiful man/woman saw woman met a beautiful woman/man and how that woman/man wanted them to watch over their house but forbid them from looking at a certain room, the man/woman breaks it and a Bush Warbler leaves the room leaving the man/woman alone. Through this reading, I wrote a feedback sheet about how this basically saying that this story teaches us that if we do not keep our promises, then we will end up losing everything in the end. By taking this course I was able to learn that many of the religious and supernatural elements found in Japanese modern manga and anime come from ideas from Japanese myth which allowed me appreciate learning from this course. Even though I have taken this class, I plan on trying to learn more on some of the aspects on how the Japanese people will act in modern society as well as try to learn a little bit more about why these supernatural beliefs play a role in Japanese society. In order for me to do so, I plan on trying to learn more about these ideas and beliefs by taking either more class about it or researching about it on my own free time.
Feedback paper 1: PDF
By taking this course, I was able to fulfill the MLO 2 requirement of this major because this course contributed to my understanding on how the Japanese think and feel about certain issues that they experience in life. One of things I learned is how Japanese use many different types of beliefs and superstitions that they believe and taken it into heart. One example of this comes from one of the readings I did for class called “Kawaii.” In this book, I read about how a beautiful man/woman saw woman met a beautiful woman/man and how that woman/man wanted them to watch over their house but forbid them from looking at a certain room, the man/woman breaks it and a Bush Warbler leaves the room leaving the man/woman alone. Through this reading, I wrote a feedback sheet about how this basically saying that this story teaches us that if we do not keep our promises, then we will end up losing everything in the end. By taking this course I was able to learn that many of the religious and supernatural elements found in Japanese modern manga and anime come from ideas from Japanese myth which allowed me appreciate learning from this course. Even though I have taken this class, I plan on trying to learn more on some of the aspects on how the Japanese people will act in modern society as well as try to learn a little bit more about why these supernatural beliefs play a role in Japanese society. In order for me to do so, I plan on trying to learn more about these ideas and beliefs by taking either more class about it or researching about it on my own free time.
Feedback paper 1: PDF