Japanese J1S
This is my Japanese language class which I go to 3 times a week. I'm super lucky to be in J1S because it means my classes don't start until 10:45am. I'm struggling a bit with the content since apparently languages aren't really my forte and I'm probably the weakest in the class in terms of skill level, but the teachers are generally lovely and we have a cosy little class of 8 students so at least I'm not making a fool of myself in front of 30 people like I was in my classes at UQ. The biggest problem at the moment is the quizzes we get once or twice a week which we're graded on. The vocabulary we're required to know for these quizzes is about 80-100 words, and we generally only have a day or 2 to learn them. My brain just can't handle that so we'll see how I go. The strange thing is that we have the quiz and THEN we'll spend 2 lessons covering the content. Doesn't make sense to me...
Japanese Modern History 2
This class is a bit of fun, but if anyone plans to take this class you need to be prepared to give up a few of your Saturdays because part of the syllabus is to go on walking tours of historic parts of Tokyo. The upside to giving up your Saturday is that you then don't have to go to class that week. Unfortunately though, if your timetable is like mine, this just means you have a big break with nothing to do in the middle of the day rather than being able to go home early.
Intercultural Management
This is a great class, if you can get into it. What we weren't told prior to our arrival is that some classes are limited placement, meaning that only about 5 exchange students from the College of Business (CoB) are admitted to the class, and these spots are decided by a lottery. I was pretty damn lucky to get into this class, because QUT told me I needed to take it to get credit for my International Marketing unit. Phew. The professor for this subject is rather animated, and I'm not gonna lie, maybe just a little bit scary for the first half hour of the first lesson until you work out what he's all about. Another thing I wasn't aware of was that other than the 5 CoB exchange students, the rest of the class is Japanese students. This was a little bit intimidating at first, especially as in every lesson you get split into groups of 5, which generally means one exchange student per group which results in you becoming the centre of attention. The class really is very interesting though, and I recommend taking it if you get the chance. Just make sure that you do the weekly readings, as the whole class is based on discussions and it will be obvious if you haven't done them.
Japanese Culture 2
This was probably the class that I was the most excited for, although now I'm not so sure. I don't want to make a decision about whether I like it or not after just one lesson though, so I'll have to get back to you on that haha. The professor is interesting, although I found she had a tendency to ramble a little, and the homework seems a bit too much. Each week there is a reading that you need to do, and then you need to write a short reaction paper. This doesn't sound so bad, but this week's reading was 34 pages long. Hopefully this was an exception and future readings won't be so long, I simply don't have time for that on a weekly basis.
Corporate Social Responsibility: A Japanese Perspective
This is a graduate level class, and it should prove to be interesting if it's anything like the professor. He's a crazy Aussie, and I can't tell when he's joking or not. It's going to take me awhile to work him out I think, but it should be an interesting semester.
Business and Society in Japan
I haven't actually been to one of these classes yet, I was supposed to take another class instead but I got booted out of it because they had too many students and I had no prior knowledge about the subject (I'm sorry, I thought I was here TO LEARN ABOUT IT). This class is taken by the same professor who takes Corporate Social Responsibility though, so I'm going to assume I'll enjoy it based on that fact alone.
Marketing in Japan
This is the graduate level marketing class, and as the name suggests its about marketing in Japan. I think it looks at the retail sector quite a bit (and hopefully fashion) so this should be a good class. My only complaint is that the teacher (despite being a lovely lady) speaks English rather slowly (although I really can't blame her as it's her second language). Unfortunately this causes a problem as the class finishes at 8pm and I'm going to struggle to stay awake at times I think...
Marketing Positioning Strategy
This is the undergrad marketing class, and unfortunately it looks at the basics about where to position your company in the market. This is all stuff that I did in my first semester of uni, so I don't know how exciting it will be, but at least it should be a breeze in terms of assessment.
So that's all my classes, and my initial impressions. If any future Rikkyo students have any questions about the classes I'm taking, let me know and I'll try and answer as best I can. I'll leave you now with some pictures of the campus (minus a picture of the inside of the dining hall which I keep forgetting to photograph, but it truly looks like something out of Harry Potter). As you can see everything is very green, and they employ countless groundsmen to keep it looking like this.
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| Main entrance |
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| Main entrance |
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| Opposite side of the main entrance |
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| I swear this is the only clock on campus, none of the classrooms have clocks and I'm yet to buy a watch... |
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| There's one of these trees on either side of the entrance. I'm secretly hoping they get decorated for Christmas... |
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| These tiny doors reminded me of something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And then I saw a tiny groundsman come out of one, just like an Oompa Loompa (without the orange skin). |
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| Groundsmen at work. They were literally inspecting every individual piece of grass. They're INSANE. |
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| Immaculate. |
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| Outside the dining hall. |
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| Leading up to the dining hall. |
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| Proof that not all the buildings are brick... |
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| View from level 6 of McKimm Hall. |
Anthea xx
The university buildings look very 'western'... Those groundsmen must take ages to do their work; wonder how much they get paid to work so slowly :-)
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