MLO 5
MLO 5: Cultural Internalization and Language Immersion
5.1 Students demonstrate that they have actively immersed themselves in authentic Japanese cultural and linguistic environments and have internalized the language and cultural experience, from which they have developed a personal understanding and new perspectives of the community.
Courses Taken to Meet this MLO:
Japn 420
Community Project
WLC 400
MLO Reflective Narrative:
This MLO was a bit different for me than for others in my graduating class. I was unable to study abroad but I was able to use a community project to better understand what it is like to be more immersed in Japanese language and culture. I interviewed four people of different ages who were born and raised in Japan. Through these interviews I was able to understand how Japanese people see and understand their familia bonds and how that may differ from how I see my own familia bonds and the culture around family. I explored the concept of amae which allowed for me to see a concept that does not necessarily exist in the U.S. This concept was very interesting to me because I had not heard of it before and yet it did not seem to be a concept specific only to Japan. It was however a concept that was only able to be named in Japanese culture. I also was able to explore the concept of amae in a specific relationship, as after I finished the interviews I realized that this was most frequently attached to the relationship between mothers and their children. Being able to focus on a specific relationship allowed for me to understand the ways that amae can differ and how it perceived among different generations and what societal changes may have caused this change in relationships. This experience allowed for me to more accurately understand Japanese families, which is not an experience I would have been able to have simply through a class. I was exposed to informal Japanese which I had to be able to understand throughly enough to critically examine its content. I was also able to experience Japanese culture within families and how it is connected to the larger structural changes that I am more familiar with due to my coursework. This project was very effective in causing me to grow a more personal connection to Japanese culture and language as it was no longer simply a course subject.
5.1 Students demonstrate that they have actively immersed themselves in authentic Japanese cultural and linguistic environments and have internalized the language and cultural experience, from which they have developed a personal understanding and new perspectives of the community.
Courses Taken to Meet this MLO:
Japn 420
Community Project
WLC 400
MLO Reflective Narrative:
This MLO was a bit different for me than for others in my graduating class. I was unable to study abroad but I was able to use a community project to better understand what it is like to be more immersed in Japanese language and culture. I interviewed four people of different ages who were born and raised in Japan. Through these interviews I was able to understand how Japanese people see and understand their familia bonds and how that may differ from how I see my own familia bonds and the culture around family. I explored the concept of amae which allowed for me to see a concept that does not necessarily exist in the U.S. This concept was very interesting to me because I had not heard of it before and yet it did not seem to be a concept specific only to Japan. It was however a concept that was only able to be named in Japanese culture. I also was able to explore the concept of amae in a specific relationship, as after I finished the interviews I realized that this was most frequently attached to the relationship between mothers and their children. Being able to focus on a specific relationship allowed for me to understand the ways that amae can differ and how it perceived among different generations and what societal changes may have caused this change in relationships. This experience allowed for me to more accurately understand Japanese families, which is not an experience I would have been able to have simply through a class. I was exposed to informal Japanese which I had to be able to understand throughly enough to critically examine its content. I was also able to experience Japanese culture within families and how it is connected to the larger structural changes that I am more familiar with due to my coursework. This project was very effective in causing me to grow a more personal connection to Japanese culture and language as it was no longer simply a course subject.