Negative Stuff

Why I Would Never Recommend UMSL: Our Japanese Program and JSL (our Textbook)

Another piece of my "Why I would never recommend UMSL" series: the Japanese Program and our textbook, Japanese Spoken Language (JSL) (accompanied by JWL, Japanese Written Language)

Japanese 1001 was fine in focusing on pronunciation (including intonation and all that stuff), distal style, and ritual expressions (things like "thank you," "welcome home," etc.), but if JSL is your foundation, you are, quite simply, screwed. Literally, you will be incapacitated, learning-wise. I like the way that the textbook and our classes organize lessons into grammar patterns and then a set of vocab instead of grammar being second to vocab from the beginning, but that's really all it's got going for it. Literally. That is all that's good about JSL and UMSL's mainstream Japanese courses (besides the teachers being really nice and stuff).

First of all, the CCs and Drills take up most of class (and study) time. Do you know what Drills and CCs are? They're sentences we have to rehearse for class.

Drills are a set of sentences that you switch out a certain section(s) of. Basically, the grammar structure remains intact, and you just substitute the vocabulary.
Example (with the thing that's substituted being underlined):
1.
A: Do you know when the meeting is?
B: I think it's Saturday.
2.
A: Do you know what we'll do?
B: I think we'll work.

CCs (Core Conversations) are word-for-word conversations that could be as little as two sentences. The higher course you're in, the longer the conversations are.

We literally spend most of almost every class period reciting the Drills and CCs. This is, quite honestly, a waste of our time. CCs could be nice as examples of conversation (with an accompanying video that displays appropriate behavior, cultural differences, etc.), but have us translate and maybe discuss the CCs, not rehearse them word-for-word. I get how practicing some CCs are good for ritual expressions, but for anything else, it's just not practical. We need to practice making our own sentences, not regurgitating sentences that were made in the 90s. Humans don't speak by repeating sentences with minor substitutions; they create. Learning a foreign language should mimic what real language use does.

By the way, (according to when I asked my classmates how they studied for class,) I am the only one in my class (of eight, including myself) that actually listens to the audio on a regular basis (and does not have their textbook/notes out in class) like we're supposed to(, and I wish I didn't). Other than that, the only person who listens to the audio only does it if she has the time to test herself. In my opinion, that person stands by me as the best two people in our class, Japanese-skill-wise. (However, this is according to performance in class, which - quite honestly - doesn't give a lot of opportunities to prove your skills. I also don't partner with her often, and when we break off into pairs is really when I see people's true skill levels.) It's also clear to me that she did more self-studying prior to UMSL than I did(, so not only does this mean she started UMSL at a higher level than most of our class, but it's also quite possible that this messes with her Japanese at UMSL).

(I've actually written an entire essay on the use of class time alone, so I could talk forever on this, but I'll stop there for now.)

Second, the way that our class makes us think about the language. We use the terms verbal, adjectival, and nominal. Those are our main word classes. Do you know how they're defined? Simply on how they're formed: Nominals don't change in form; adjectivals have endings such as -i, -ku, and -katta, and verbals have endings such as -masu and -masita.

If you ever look online for explanations, lessons, etc. though, they don't use that terminology. They use terminology like nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, etc. Which means that UMSL students can't utilize those resources to their full potential.