110-468 Colloquial Japanese

Formerly available as 110-112 or 158-231/331/431. Students who have completed 110-112 or 158-231/331/431 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

110-467 Reading Contemporary Japanese Texts or satisfactory completion of a placement test. Admission to fourth-year honours or the postgraduate diploma in Japanese for fourth-year students.

This subject aims to familiarise students with colloquial and dialectal expressions used in Japan. It introduces students to various styles of Japanese spoken by people from different age groups, genders, and regions. It will also give students opportunities to examine different register in various conversation settings. In class, students will view contemporary Japanese films and TV dramas, and learn the structure and functions of spoken Japanese. Students will observe various types of conversations appeared in the films and dramas, and will analyse the language differences in terms of age, gender and region. Students will practise speaking in appropriate styles depending on the situation, and will learn to use appropriate register for the interlocutor. Students who complete this subject should have acquired good knowledge of colloquial language, and should have developed linguistic and metalinguistic awareness.