JS1101E Module Review

JS1101E Introduction to Japanese Studies

AY2016/17 Semester 1

Taught by Dr. Chris McMorran & Dr. Timothy Amos

Textbook: None, though there’s a coursepack with assorted readings for each week

No, this isn’t a language module but I’m sure most of you already knew that. 

This was my Asian Studies exposure module I picked, mainly because it had MCQ finals and I hate writing essays (my handwriting sucks) and I think every other Asian studies exposure module had essay finals at that point in time.

The first half of the course (taught by Dr. Amos), centred around Japan’s history (from I think their Warring States period?). It covered a lot about war and military stuff, which I was interested in so I thoroughly enjoyed it. The second half covered human geog (taught by Dr. McMorran). I honestly thought that I would hate it but Dr. McMorran was an inspiring lecturer. There was also a guest lecture on the film Akira. The class was more riveting than I had imagined. 

However, this module came with a pretty bad reputation when I signed up. It earned its boogieman status due to the amount of readings (<30 pages a week; heavy for year 1s I guess, they seemed quite reasonable to me though. My expectations may have been inflated by all the negative reviews I read). A large component of the course was also devoted to a 3000-word group report (20-30%?; I admit, this intimidated me).

We sorted ourselves into groups of 4. Sitting at the front, I was the odd one out :'(. I was assigned to a group that needed 1 more person. Thank goodness for that because there was a year 4 history major who was awesome. He really taught the rest of us a lot about writing academic papers and came with a tonne of expertise on the topic. We got the 2nd highest grade in the cohort (I believe). It was a lot of work but it was exciting to have your name attached to an academic paper (I still love this feeling).

The rest of the course requirements comprised making an IVLE post (essentially a short essay) on anything about Japan (try to put some thought into the topic, else you run the risk of writing a run-of-the-mill essay). I focused on something about WW2 because I like military stuff, did pretty well. But wait, there’s more. The second part of this assignment required you to comment (formally, short essays again) on other people’s posts. 

Just do a bit of research and ensure that your essay’s/replies’ arguments are convincing.

Given the demands of the module, I understand if people are reserved about taking it.

MCQ finals (50%) though. Make sure you take notes in class of anything and everything they say. It’s all fair game. Hell, make sure you attend class, you’re paying for it. Needless to say, studying the readings was a must, although I probably went overboard.

Got an A+ for this boogieman though. 

Being an MCQ exam, people would naturally leave early. However, I had never seen such an exodus at the hour mark before. I stayed till the end to check my answers (good habit guys, it’s just another hour).

Admittedly, I lucked out on the group project.