The Language Table

Every Friday from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., the Japanese language table takes place where UofM students studying Japanese can speak with Japanese students to improve their language skills and learn Japanese culture and vise versa for Japanese exchange students trying to improve their English. There are also German, French, Italian, etc. language tables available throughout the UofM campus.

The teachers monitor the first few weeks of the language table and have activities planned out for the students. Eventually, the professors will leave it up to the dedicated students that will go to the language table on their own and have converse with the exchange students.

UofM Japanese

Japanese courses were available to students as an elective in the year 2000, the major became available for them in Fall 2008. There were only two teachers that taught Japanese to 30 students when the program started, only a minor degree was available at the time. Now there are six professors in the Japanese department teaching more than 300~400 students, a fraction of them has Japanese as a major.

There are two study abroad (exchange) programs available to the students, Nagoya Gakuin (University) and Osaka University of Economics. Students in 2nd year Japanese will be able to study in Nagoya Gakuin and higher level Japanese students and IMBA students will be able to study abroad in Osaka University of Economics. Starting in Spring 2012, students will be able to study abroad to Meiji University in Tokyo, provided that their hours in Japanese meets the requirement.

Since it is an exchange program, UofM has students abroad from Japan. This year, the university has 12 students from Nagoya Gakuin, Osaka University of Economics, and Oberlin University of Tokyo. There was a welcoming party held at the International House on UofM Carpenter Complex for the Japanese exchange students recently.

UofM Japanese Department

Formality Levels

Formality Levels

Japanese people have a different way of speaking to each other depending on who they talk to, it is called Keigo (敬語). This mostly takes place in business and schools, talking humbly and using honorifics to talk to someone who is formally ranked higher than you. Therefore, the title of is blog is "Formality Level."

The photo on the background is Fushimi Inari located in Kyoto, Japan; one of the most famous series of shrines in Japan.