Hi everyone,
I’ve been looking through the syllabus of Kobe University and noticed a lot of English named courses at first sight. However, when clicking on those courses, the majority’s “Classroom Language” was Japanese. This might come off as a dumb question, but what does this mean? Because why would they put their course names in English, just to give their lectures in Japanese.
Thanks in advance for your answers!
3 comments
I can’t talk for Kobe University, but my school also has some classes with English as the title despite being 100% Japanese.
At my school, the titles of the classes are determined by the professors. One professor proposes a set of classes to add to the curriculum and the rest of the professors in the department vote to accept the changes or not. Some departments are more English friendly than others. I am part of the computer science faculty at my school and they are one such department. The reason for the English names is because it is easier and more accurate to just write the English than a long string of Katakana sounding out the same words.
I have taught at a few universities in Tohoku. The excel file that some unis provide for teachers to fill in their syllabus seem to have the language option locked and uneditable.
I used to care, and would ask the office to change the language on my behalf, but then I stopped caring. So, I teach through English, but my syllabuses say 日本語.
Again, can’t speak for Kobe University, but at my university we have courses on the curriculum that have certain sections (individual classes) that are taught in English and others that are taught in Japanese. We have courses with English course titles, but Japanese as the Medium of Instruction (JMI) sections and we have courses with Japanese course titles but English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) sections.