The goal is to obtain the capability to read and understand Japanese written texts. In the fall semester simple texts of the daily life help to understand the basic grammar. In the spring semester, however, the final goal of this course is to enable engineers to read and to understand also research reports and abstracts of Japanese technology, written in Japanese characters.
1) How to look up Japanese terms in seconds By means of a "mnemonic code", which can be derived from the structural form of the Sino-Japanese characters the Japanese words can be found in seconds in a so-called Code-Dictionary or by computer-aid. A Japanese-German Code-Dictionary with 12,000 words and a Japanese-English Code-Dictionary with 80,000 words are available. The latter one is strongly recommended for those, who want to be able to understand Japanese written technical information (operation manuals, guide books, abstracts, etc.) or who are interested to do research work in Japan. Yearly about 22 graduate and postdoctoral students respectively make use of the generous offer of the Japanese Government (see fellowships of the scientific exchange program). 2) How to read and understand Japanese sentences A research work on a computer-aided sentence analyzer of the Japanese language is still in progress. However, the lectures already fully contain the new methods of the translation. This language course imparts the basic knowledge of the Japanese grammar to the students in an easily understandable way, by reading simple texts of the daily life and not too difficult technical abstracts, as well. About 100 pages of selected texts and explanatory sheets will be distributed during the two semester program.
The exercises (UE) for this course take place weekly in form of homeworks.
To pass the exam successfully it is necessary to attend the courses regularly as well as completing homeworks on time (80 % rule), generally within 2 weeks time.
Further information are found in the handout on the given website.
The attendance of this course is limited to 100 students. In case of absence > 1 during entrance phase (12.10., 19.10, 09.11.) further participation is not possible and students on the waiting list will receive a seat instead.
