Course Description
This course focuses on learning about Japanese culture through Anime, developing intercultural competency, and digital literacy. As such, the course consists of three important learning content. Firstly, students will read the textbook and watch Anime to develop their knowledge of the Japanese perspectives, communication styles, and cultural products. Secondly, students will engage in perspective-shifting practices, group discussions, and reflections to strengthen their intercultural competency skills. Thirdly, students will build collaboration skills and digital literacy by working in teams to create social media marketing materials with tools using the Adobe Creative Cloud. Lastly, I hope to give you a cursory introduction to Japanese culture that will inspire you to explore and view more Japanese Anime on your own. No Japanese language background is required as all lectures and accompanying texts will be in English, and films will be shown in Japanese with English subtitles.
At the end of the semester, students will be able to:
1 . Appreciate and flourish in a cross-cultural experience;
2. Identify key elements underlying Japanese culture and society and reflect upon the roles that these concepts play;
3. Develop the ability to communicate to a diverse group of audiences using a diverse array of technologies and multi-media platforms.
4. Learn their role as a member of the team and their responsibilities to the entire team by participating in a collaborative learning environment through group discussions and projects;
5. Improve their ability to use knowledge, skills, and materials at hand to produce a team-designed presentation to an outside agency.
6. Deepen their understanding of their diverse strengths and weakness;
7. Develop digital literacy skills with Adobe Creative Cloud.
Japanese Mind - Book Presentation -
The first module of this class begins with understanding the Japanese perspective. I used the book by Ikeno (2000), "the Japanese mind" to introduce concepts of Amae, Ganbari, wabi-sabi, and forth. I assign students to a group of 5 and ask them to make a presentation of four chapters and to suggest discussion questions at the end of their presentation. Students introduce the concept in the book by using examples from their favorite anime to elaborate on the concept.
Anime Presentation
The second module of this class is to present the assigned Anime and introduce the cultural aspects and perspectives depicted in it. Students talk about the director, e.g., his biography and art styles, and Anime Studio, and interpret the verbal/non-verbal communications of a character using the Japanese mind. They are also asked to find five cultural aspects that they want to do further research on. For instance, in the presentation about "Tale of Princess Kaguya", students were curious about the beauty standard in the Heian era when single females must paint their teeth black and pluck their eye brown and paint them in the middle of their forehead. In the presentation of "Spirited Away", students introduced the concept of public baths and the rules of their use. They also learn about the idea of Shintoism as they see many deities in the movie. In the presentation on "Grave of Fireflies", students talked about the content of the U.S. history education about WWII and realized how little they knew about humanity.
Anime Review Video
Students are now asked to create an Anime review video. This is the final project where they were asked to review their favorite anime from Japanese perspectives and introduce some cultural aspects of it. Here are some students' projects.
