Martinez: MLO4
MLO 4- Secondary Cultural Knowledge
In addition to complete the requirement for this MLO 4 Secondary Cultural Knowledge I choose the pathway 1, which means that I took a class as regular times instead of doing the independent culture study. In my own opinion, learning about a new culture and different from my own is very interesting. I believe it is always good to understand other people from different cultures and in order to do that we need to to have knowledge about their culture, traditions, beliefs, and the way they see the world. The best way to do it is thru education because we can learn about the history and customs from various countries. During Fall 2012 at the beginning of the semester I was undecided to take Japanese because I feel that it is a hard language. But then I decided to do it because the class was tough in English , but it was about the Japanese Literature and culture. I took a Japanese class because for me it was a totally different culture from mine and especially because I had never study anything about the Japanese culture. I took Japanese 309, Literature in Translation which was about the early Japanese prose and poetry and see how those pieces of writing have influence modern literature. In this class I read three books, “ Japanese tales,” “ Japanese Literature” and “Samurai”. After reading these books I found out that the Japanese people really belief in animal especially in foxes and they have and important meaning in that culture. Also the Japanese people have a big respect for foxes and they have a big hill full of stones foxes. It was interesting for me because in my culture are just a simple animal without meaning.
Also it was interesting that most of the tales are about animals, most of the stories focus on the same theme or topic just using different characters, and stories are short. It was also interesting that I noticed that the Japanese people focus most in the positive aspects in their writing and not in the negative like most of the writing from other cultures. I studied about women from different Japanese periods and how they differ from each other. In this class I learned about the language, the way they speak, write, dress and eat. I also had the opportunity to watch Japanese movies, which I really enjoyed because most of them are in animation style. Some of the tales that I like was the “ Bamboo Cutter, “The Tale of Haiku” and the “ Izu Dancing Girl.” And I did a PowerPoint presentation about the Japanese love for nature in the Japanese tales and I use my three favorite tales and I wrote an eight pages assignment paper about my topic. Because this course now I understand the Japanese culture and see that it is totally different from mine. I also learned that the Japanese people have love for the nature, seasons, and respect for animals. Most of the Japanese writings were nonfiction and a few fictions.
To conclude the Japanese class was a great experience for me because I learn about the Japanese culture and I really enjoyed the literature from Japan. After taking that class now I can compare the Japanese culture to my Mexican culture and I can say that they have similarities in literature writings even if they are two totally different cultures. With Japanese 309 class I was able to fulfill the MLO 4 requirements successfully.
The following samples are from the class above.
Sample 1: Final Essay, JAPN
Sample 2: Final Powerpoint Presentation, JAPN
In addition to complete the requirement for this MLO 4 Secondary Cultural Knowledge I choose the pathway 1, which means that I took a class as regular times instead of doing the independent culture study. In my own opinion, learning about a new culture and different from my own is very interesting. I believe it is always good to understand other people from different cultures and in order to do that we need to to have knowledge about their culture, traditions, beliefs, and the way they see the world. The best way to do it is thru education because we can learn about the history and customs from various countries. During Fall 2012 at the beginning of the semester I was undecided to take Japanese because I feel that it is a hard language. But then I decided to do it because the class was tough in English , but it was about the Japanese Literature and culture. I took a Japanese class because for me it was a totally different culture from mine and especially because I had never study anything about the Japanese culture. I took Japanese 309, Literature in Translation which was about the early Japanese prose and poetry and see how those pieces of writing have influence modern literature. In this class I read three books, “ Japanese tales,” “ Japanese Literature” and “Samurai”. After reading these books I found out that the Japanese people really belief in animal especially in foxes and they have and important meaning in that culture. Also the Japanese people have a big respect for foxes and they have a big hill full of stones foxes. It was interesting for me because in my culture are just a simple animal without meaning.
Also it was interesting that most of the tales are about animals, most of the stories focus on the same theme or topic just using different characters, and stories are short. It was also interesting that I noticed that the Japanese people focus most in the positive aspects in their writing and not in the negative like most of the writing from other cultures. I studied about women from different Japanese periods and how they differ from each other. In this class I learned about the language, the way they speak, write, dress and eat. I also had the opportunity to watch Japanese movies, which I really enjoyed because most of them are in animation style. Some of the tales that I like was the “ Bamboo Cutter, “The Tale of Haiku” and the “ Izu Dancing Girl.” And I did a PowerPoint presentation about the Japanese love for nature in the Japanese tales and I use my three favorite tales and I wrote an eight pages assignment paper about my topic. Because this course now I understand the Japanese culture and see that it is totally different from mine. I also learned that the Japanese people have love for the nature, seasons, and respect for animals. Most of the Japanese writings were nonfiction and a few fictions.
To conclude the Japanese class was a great experience for me because I learn about the Japanese culture and I really enjoyed the literature from Japan. After taking that class now I can compare the Japanese culture to my Mexican culture and I can say that they have similarities in literature writings even if they are two totally different cultures. With Japanese 309 class I was able to fulfill the MLO 4 requirements successfully.
The following samples are from the class above.
Sample 1: Final Essay, JAPN
Sample 2: Final Powerpoint Presentation, JAPN