Category Archives: Liberal Arts & Sciences – Electives
All Liberal Arts Elective Courses: Quantitative Reasoning, Physical Science OR Life Science, Societies & the Social Sciences, Expressive Culture, General Liberal Arts Electives
The aim of this introductory course is to develop a comparative understanding of the national independence movements in China, India, and Vietnam, as well as the context within which they unfolded, in the period 1885-1962. The course will introduce students to some of the figures in modern Asian history who played a major role in the transition of India and Vietnam from colonial subordination to independent nationhood and of China from its semi-colonial status to liberation. The principal figures whose writings will be studied and compared are Mohandas Gandhi, Mao Zedong, and Ho Chi Minh in order to develop a third angle of comparison. The course will give due attention to other relevant figures such as Gokhale, Tilak, Jinnah, and Nehru in the case of India; Li Hongzhang, Sun Yatsen, Chen Duxiu, La Dazhao, and Chiang Kai-shek in the case of China; Phan Boi Chau in the case of Vietnam.
This course is designed to give students an introduction to basic syntax, grammar, and vocabulary of Classical Chinese through close readings of authentic texts. Almost all these texts are historically significant canon texts that are extremely rich in classical Chinese cultural connotation. They are selected from a wide variety of genres, such as historical literature, philosophical and political writings, written correspondence, poetry, essay, some of which are unique to Chinese culture. The course aims to develop the students’ reading and comprehension skills in this highly stylized form of written Chinese, acquaint students not only with the classic Chinese cultural heritage but also underlying working mechanism that is in many ways relevant to the form and usage of today’s Mandarin Chinese.
Designed to help students understand and appreciate the linguistic and aesthetic features of Chinese language rendered in poetic form and to improve their ability to read and interpret authentic texts in general. Integrates language learning with poetry study, introduces the formal structure of Chinese classical poetry and surveys its stylistic variations at different historical conjunctures. Conducted primarily in Chinese. English translations of the poems are provided as references from time to time.
Designed to enhance Chinese proficiency through reading authentic materials rich in cultural connotations. Stresses primarily reading and writing. The objectives are: to develop speaking skills needed for semi-formal or formal presentation on academic topics; to develop specialized vocabulary; to further improve reading speed and develop skills needed to conduct textual analysis on and, on some occasions, translate texts with syntactical sophistication and stylistic nuance; to develop responsiveness to and ability to interpret linguistic features of different genres and writing styles; to advance strategies for autonomous learning of Chinese from an analytical perspective.
This intensive intermediate course covers the second-year Korean material in a semester. The course is designed for students with intermediate-level speaking proficiency but with reading and writing ability equivalent to a student who has completed elementary level Korean, who can understand, with near-standard pronunciation and without basic major grammatical errors, conversational Korean related to daily-life situations and simple sociocultural topics. It aims to further strengthen students’ correct pronunciation and intonation, grammatical accuracy, ability to understand differences in nuances and overall competence in reading and writing.
Close readings in contemporary Japanese writings in social commentaries, history and literature. Emphasizes furthering reading and writings skills, and to a lesser extent speaking and listening. Students develop further strategies for autonomous learning.
This intensive elementary course covers the first-year Korean material in a single semester. The course is designed for students with some Korean-speaking background, who can understand and speak basic to intermediate conversational Korean but do not have previous formal language training in reading and writing. It aims to develop students’ correct pronunciation, grammatical accuracy and overall competence in reading and writing.
This course is designed to assist advanced students of Korean language as they continue to learn skills in conversation, reading, and writing. Reading Korean newspapers and visiting Korean Web sites are integrated as part of the course’s instruction.
This course is designed to assist advanced students of Korean language as they continue to learn skills in conversation, reading, and writing. Reading Korean newspapers and visiting Korean Web sites are integrated as part of the course’s instruction.
The Korean language at the intermediate level: phonetics, grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. Emphasizes the development of communicative skills in speaking, reading, and writing. Develops the language’s major social and cultural contexts. Requires students to write about and discuss various topics.
Continuing study of Japanese at the advanced level. Stresses reading comprehension, spoken fluency, and composition; uses original materials, such as newspaper/magazine articles, TV news, and video. Introduces additional Kanji characters. Advanced use of Japanese and character dictionaries.
Continuing study of Japanese at the intermediate level. Stresses reading comprehension, spoken fluency, and composition, with materials organized around social and cultural topics; continues to introduce new Kanji characters.
Designed to further develop proficiency in speaking and writing through readings on and discussions of socio-cultural topics relevant to today’s China. Focuses on improving reading comprehension and writing skills. The objectives are: to further improve oral communicative competence by incorporating semi-formal or formal usages; to acquire vocabulary and patterns necessary for conducting semi-formal or formal discussions of socio-cultural topics; to increase reading speed of texts with more advanced syntax; to learn to make context-based guess about the meaning of a new word, conduct sentence analysis and solve textual problems with the aid of dictionaries; to write and present more fully developed narratives or reasoned and structured arguments in length; to learn to employ basic rhetoric methods; to learn to appreciate stylistic usage of Chinese language.
Designed to consolidate the student’s overall aural-oral proficiency. Focuses gradually on the written aspect of Chinese. The objectives are: to be able to obtain information from extended conversation; to both express and expound on, in relative length, feelings and opinions on common topics; to expand vocabulary and learn to decipher meaning of compound words; to develop reading comprehension of extended narrative, expository and simple argumentative passages; to solve non-complex textual problems with the aid of dictionaries; to write in relative length personal narratives, informational narratives, comparison and discussion of viewpoints with level-appropriate vocabulary and grammatical accuracy, as well as basic syntactical cohesion; to continue being acquainted with aspects of Chinese culture and society related to the course materials.
Designed to consolidate the student’s overall aural-oral proficiency. Focuses gradually on the written aspect of Chinese. The objectives are: to be able to obtain information from extended conversation; to both express and expound on, in relative length, feelings and opinions on common topics; to expand vocabulary and learn to decipher meaning of compound words; to develop reading comprehension of extended narrative, expository and simple argumentative passages; to solve non-complex textual problems with the aid of dictionaries; to write in relative length personal narratives, informational narratives, comparison and discussion of viewpoints with level-appropriate vocabulary and grammatical accuracy, as well as basic syntactical cohesion; to continue being acquainted with aspects of Chinese culture and society related to the course materials.