Tuesday, September 2, 2008
What's missing?
A recent topic at faculty meetings has been what component(s) is/are missing from our curriculum. As many of you know, we underwent an outside program review last year and part of that process was interviewing students about what they wanted out of the department. We got some really useful information from that process, but the sample size was small (that is, we only heard from current students who could make the interview sessions). I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who couldn't be part of the process but have useful input for us. So, here is the question: if we were to add courses to the department, what area of specialty (e.g., Sociology, Economics, Psychology, Political Science, etc.) would you most like to see? How likely would you (and your fellow majors) be (or have been) to sign up for classes in that area?
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7 comments:
In some cases, we were even seniors who had no way of taking advantage of any changes made to the curriculum!
I think some political science classes could be in order. The governments of East Asia being so different from our own in the US. (I`ve been getting a bit of a crash course in Japanese politics the past few days with Fukuda`s resignation.)
But I`ve already graduated so um...listen to the current students first of course.
I think for a lot of double-majors, or even people with minors outside of EAS, it would be interesting to see how the two could interplay. For example, I think it would be great to see some sort of psychology/sociology courses that would incorporate East Asian cultures as a basis for study. When I was in Japan I was fascinated by the behavior of the general public and even more intrigued by those who had snapped under societal pressure and had begun to act completely against it. So, I think a course somehow incorporating those things would be great. I know in literature courses especially these things have to be touched on (for example, if you even attempt to understand Mishima's craziness), but maybe taking it one step beyond that would be worth it. Perhaps the course could include some sort of focus on crime for the criminal justice students.
I also really enjoyed the Japanese sexuality course that was offered at Kansai Gaidai, so I think something like that that could potentially be cross-listed with the Women Studies department would draw in a nice audience and do a great job of spreading awareness about women's issues throughout East Asia as well as squashing some of the stereotypes people may have heard.
But, above all, I think what the EAS Department is really lacking is a graduate program! I know a whole bunch of us that would jump at the chance to come back to rejoin the department and further our education. I really hope that can become a reality someday!
Just to add on to my previous comment---I know professor Eason was teaching a more historical course about Japanese women through the ages, but what I mean is a course that's more deeply involved with sexuality, gender issues, discrimination, women's rights, etc. that has a little less history wrapped around it and focuses on more contemporary issues. I know there was a course somewhat like that about Chinese women, but I think it would be great to widen the scope.
Ashley is right! We need a graduate program. Nobody has an East Asian Studies graduate program in the area besides Cornell in Ithaca or schools down in NYC.
Music! I am a music minor and would love to see some courses that specialized in this area.
I think everyone is going to say "I want to see my other major, ______, somehow incorporated!" but that should probably be left up to the student, one, because it's impractical that any one department could feature cross-overs with every other department (and while remaining fair about it), and two, because the student should be the one to bridge that gap, because it's sometimes hard enough to determine why a student is interested in a single field (even for the student), let alone why they are interested in their particular combination out of the dizzying array of combinations of majors possible.
I've put a fair amount of thought into this before and considered asking why there weren't specialized translation courses. An example would be a class that focused on categories of information and experience that are often required of freelance translators, like medical terms, engineering terms, law terms, etc., but in the end these courses might be little more than extended vocabulary drills. And any student who could get into such a class already has access to the resources necessary for compiling their own specialized vocabulary sets.
Maybe a class on idioms and common sayings? There are a lot of rich features of language that enhance fluency that often go ignored in traditional educational settings.
Maybe a freestyle writing class would be cool. Students would be able to write anything they wanted, would have to present it in class, and would provide any possibly obscure vocabulary to the class a week prior. Students could then discuss the piece (in that language), asking questions about parts they didn't understand, etc. The focus could be on writing very short but high quality works (fiction, non-fiction, technical, screenplays, and so on).
At the risk of causing Patrick's head to explode in frustration, I'll let you all in to a little secret: the paperwork is in to create a course designed to prepare students for Level 2 of the JLPT. Please, alumni, don't ask me why this course didn't exist when you were here! I promise it wasn't intentionally done to annoy anyone. These things simply take time, and this course's time has come. The earliest it would be offered is Fall 2009 (assuming it is approved by the powers that be in university governance). It would replace EAJ410 for that term in the schedule.
The course won't require students to take the JLPT, but if they choose to do so they can substitute it for the final exam.
And, in 2010 when the "new" JLPT level of N3 is introduced, the course will aim at that one, instead of the current Level 2.
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