Reflective Narrative
JAPN 304 is a class that helped meet the MLO 1 requirement by continuing to submerse me in Japanese language, and teach me valuable translation and interpretation techniques. For the beginning of the class we would use a textbook that woud refine our reading and comprehension abilities. From this text we would then learn the differences between skimming and scanning. By learning these different techniques we were able to more effectively and quickly gather important information from the articles while still retaining the overall, important meaning. The articles in the book covered a wide variety of topics such as research data findings, news articles, and even the top of a ramen noodle container. For every assignment we were assessed on our ability to completely comprehend the content by answer questions that were directly related to each article. These exercises helped us have a better understanding of sentence structure and learn a wide variety of different kanji.
Another important part of the class was learning how to shadow and interpret. In class we would get a partner and do a brief self-introduction. After a bit of practice one of us would do our self introduction in Japanese to the class. At the same time, the other person would be interpreting what their partner was saying into English. For our final assignment, we were required to pick five article captions, and translate them from English into Japanese in a way that would be seen on a newspaper. These assignments were instrumental in allowing me to gain a better understanding of sentence structure, and learn how to properly translate and interpret from one language into another.
Another important part of the class was learning how to shadow and interpret. In class we would get a partner and do a brief self-introduction. After a bit of practice one of us would do our self introduction in Japanese to the class. At the same time, the other person would be interpreting what their partner was saying into English. For our final assignment, we were required to pick five article captions, and translate them from English into Japanese in a way that would be seen on a newspaper. These assignments were instrumental in allowing me to gain a better understanding of sentence structure, and learn how to properly translate and interpret from one language into another.