Japan Societies/Club Activities

·Cambridge University Anglo-Japanese Society
·Cambridge University Interdisciplinary Forum (Toiro-kai)
·Cambridge University Japanese Players Society (JAPLAY)

Problems

Many Cambridge students would like to study Japanese in conjunction with another subject rather than a pure Japanese course but the Cambridge system does not allow for this. Some courses, such as Japanese politics and society, are cross-listed in the relevant Faculty, but coverage of Japan in the rest of the University is limited. The greatest present need is for funds to allow the teaching of Japanese to scientist and other non-specialists. Postgraduate numbers are still very low.

Japanese Institutions on College grounds

Nihon University opened a 92-bedroom accommodation block in the grounds of Pembroke College in 1998, to house Pembroke students during the academic year and Nihon University students during vacation programmes. The Kaetsu Educational Foundation has a site at New Hall to which it brings groups of students from Japan and where it holds cultural events.
http://www.newhall.cam.ac.uk

Additional Information

Since 1999, the Engineering Department has offered accredited Japanese courses at three levels: Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced; the number of students taking these courses is approximately 80. Students from the departments of Chemistry, Material Science, Chemical Engineering and Computer Laboratory can also take these courses. The main textbooks used are Shin Nihongo no Kiso I and II and An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese together with other materials including videos and audio tapes. In all levels, there are two contact hours per week plus students are expected to put in another two hours self study per week. The assessment is divided into 15% continuous and the remainder final examination. All four skills are assessed. The number of kanji aimed for at each level is: Beginners 100; Lower Intermediate 300; Upper Intermediate 1,000; and Advanced an accumulated total of 2,000 kanji.

In addition, a 4th year module in Japanese is offered, which invites speakers from the industry in the area of science and technology, and a four week 3rd-year Japanese project, which is a video conference style group project in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technology.

In the future, it is planned to include a trip to Japan. Contacts with Japanese universities are currently being made. There are two part-time teachers: Dr Ashikari and Ms Nomoto.
For more information contact Mr Casimir d’Angelo, Director,
e-mail: cd237@eng.cam.ac.uk

Pembroke College administers the Nihon University Rapid Japanese Language Course which entails 12 weeks in Japan and is available to all students at Cambridge, and also runs vacation programmes for the universities of Kyushu, Meiji, Nihon, Seikei, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and Waseda which provide instruction in Cambridge for some 300 Japanese students per year. These vacation programmes include summer schools taught in English, EFL courses and a mixture of EFL and subject-lecture courses. Nihon University has also assisted Pembroke with a significant contribution towards the cost of a complete refurbishment of the Waterhouse Library which was completed in September 2001.

Churchill College has close links with Japanese technologists, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and has recently formalised its link with the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The College teaches Japanese and a number of other languages to non-specialist linguists and also has a Japanese Fellow teaching civil engineering.

Students at Cambridge are free to attend lectures and seminars throughout the University in any discipline, subject to approval from the teaching staff.