基盤教育科目

Human and Communication : Japanese Pop Culture B【The 2nd quarter】

This class is taught in English. Do you know that “Doraemon” is bit different between Japan and the USA? Also, do you know that “Star of The Giants” is “localized” and broadcasted in India? You can learn how the anime and manga are commercialized and internationalized. In addition to that, we visit Oarai for a field trip, which is the stage of “Girls and Punzer”, to learn about “anime pilgrimage”.

Human and Communication : International Exchange【The 3rd and 4th quarter】

This class is taught in English and Japanese. In this class, all students from inside and outside Japan interact with each other to study and understand the other country’s culture. Students will actively research their favorite countries or areas, and they will give presentations. This class’s main purpose is to improve the communication skills of students who come from various backgrounds. Especially for the students who are willing to study abroad, this class will help them by giving them opportunities to try some cross-cultural understanding. It also prepares them for studying abroad by clarifying the purpose of studying abroad and making plans.

 

Global Studies：Communication in Global Context A/B 【The 1st and 2nd quarter】

This class is taught in English and Japanese. In this class, students will learn the basics of communication research for 2 quarters. The lecture covers a large area, from interpersonal communication to mass communication. This class aims to acquire cross-cultural understanding skills and communication skills through international and cultural comparison. For example, in Communication in Gobal A, students will learn the basics of verbal communication, non-verbal communication and interpersonal communication. In Communication in Global B, students will learn applied communications such as cross-cultural communication and mass communication.

 

Global Studies：Diversity and Social Issues in Japan A/B【The 3rd and 4th quarter】

This class is taught in English. In the course of Diversity and Social Issues in Japan A, students will learn about the Ainu, and Korean people living in Japan, new comers, and half heritages which are the ethnic and racial minorities in Japan. Students will think about what it’s like to be in a homogeneous culture, and vice versa. In the course of Diversity and Social Issues in Japan B, students will think about the social issues in Japan pertaining to foreign workers, poverty and genders, from the viewpoint of suppression and privilege. In the lesson, students will work in a group to deepen the discussion about those issues.

 

Thoughts and Literature：Communication and Mindset in Japanese Society A/B【The 1st and 2nd quarter】

This class is taught in English and Japanese. In this class, students will learn about the knowledge based on cross-cultural psychology, such as Uncertainty Avoidance, in-group / out-group, hi-context / low-context, guessing, hesitation, being spoiled, self-interpretation and individualism / collectivism. To communicate in English effectively, students will study and experience the similarities and differences of communication between the USA and Japan. Not only the differences between languages, but also cultural differences, and social etiquette.

5学部混合地域PBL科目

Local intention course：Course of Project Based Learning about community across 5 departments ( intensive course in the first semester )

This class is taught in Japanese. Student will learn and think what they could do as a member of the society, to make the place better as intercultural society. Students collaborated with Hitachinaka International Association and Japanese Classroom ”RUNRUN” to do some interviews and have discussions with, and they could even see what students from RUNRUN or volunteers do on sites, so that students could understand the problems the society currently had.

The students who took this course in 2021 helped Hitachinaka Internatinoal Association’s “Online International exchange school festival”. Our students worked together with the students from Japanese Classroom ”RUNRUN”, to make their original movies. For example, one of the movies was how to use Nunchaku, some of them were about their home countries’ foods, and the other was about traditional dance. Obviously, all the movies were interesting. Our students helped as MCs or timekeepers on the festival day.

グローバル英語プログラム科目

Studies in Particular field【3rd quarter】

This class is taught in English. The topic would be “Problems that Japan and the world have now”. Both Japanese and study abroad students think and discuss familiar problems by playing “commerce game” or Japanese version of “500 Years Ago ─ Re-discovering the colonialism”.

Also, in the class, students are divided into groups to work on what they are interested in, and they need to report that work as a project in the end.

 

Studies in Contemporary Japan【4th quarter】

This class is taught in English. The subject is project focused and students are doing projects to solve the problems that study abroad students have.

In this class, it’s not just finding the problem and giving the suggestion but students will be asked to take actions based on those suggestions. From 2015-2017, students supported foreign residents in Mito city. From 2018-2020, students supported the study abroad students on our campus. The project from 2019 can be seen from here.

On 29th January 2020, we held “Workshop for Thinking about Easy Japanese to Correspond to Study Abroad Students at the Counter” as Staff Development training for Ibaraki University’s educational affairs department. Study abroad students who had a hard time to communicate on campus planned and suggested this training on their own, because they wanted to let the others know how easy Japanese is.