In this course you will use anthropological approaches to increase your understanding of global issues in diverse locales. This course challenges you to engage with other ways of knowing and being, and to rethink your taken-for-granted knowledge and beliefs through the comparative analysis of the human condition. This course will take a problem-based approach to […]
Provides practical instruction in the folk repertoires of Korean ensemble drumming. Students study the technique and rhythmic patterns for various instruments: the jango (hour-glass drum), buk (bass drum), sogo (fan drum) and small gongs. Traditional singing and dancing are included. Open to all majors/non-majors/minors.
This course uses the Chinese body as an entry point into the richness and complexity of daily life as it was lived and experienced in Chinese history. It focuses on two preeminent concerns in Chinese civilizationhealth and foodand on one of the most mysterious, widely condemned, and little understood Chinese bodily practices of footbinding.
Provides practical and repertoire studies in traditional instrumental techniques (shakuhachi, koto etc.) Students concentrate on issues of performance such as tone colour, rhythmic accuracy and nuance and ensemble performance. Open to majors/non-majors.
Provides practical and repertoire studies in traditional Chinese orchestral techniques (yangqin, erhu, dizi,xiao, pipa, etc.). Open to majors/non-majors.
This course examines the modern evolution of Asian countries with special emphasis on imperialism and the rise of nationalism. With distinctive political, cultural, and socio-economic traditions, Asian countries shared the experience of western imperialism's expansionist pressures. Those traditions helped mould the varieties of nationalistic responses to that intrusion, culminating in the independence struggles which, in […]
This course introduces Modern Standard Chinese (also known as Mandarin). This course is designed for two major groups of students with different initial advantages in learning Chinese: a) those who speak the language but cannot read characters, and b) those who know characters but cannot speak the language. Standard pronunciation, grammatical structures and the writing […]
This course provides students with the fundamentals of modern standard Korean in basic conversational & grammatical patterns, assuming that the students have no or little previous background knowledge of Korean. The objective of the course is to equip students with basic spoken and written communicative skills in the interpersonal mode in most essential daily life […]
Basics of spoken Japanese, with strong emphasis on immediate practical usefulness in everyday situations, and on the relationship between facets of language and those of social phenomena. Writing is introduced after some competence in spoken Japanese is acquired: the two Kana syllabaries, approximately 120 Kanji 'Sino-Japanese characters' and elementary reading are introduced. Video files are […]
This course serves as an introduction to Modern Standard Chinese, variously known as "Putonghua" (Common language), "Guoyu" (National language), and "Guanhua" (Mandarin). Classroom activities will focus on: 1) proper pronunciation, development of listening comprehension and oral skills, 2) essential grammatical structures of the language, and 3) acquisition of written Chinese. Students are expected to regularly […]