Fall 2019

Focuses primarily on Colloquial (or Spoken) Burmese, with some excursions into the Literary Style, usually reserved for written communication.

Lessons include the following:

• Pose and respond to Yes-No questions.
• Pose and respond to Who, What, Where, When, Why questions.
• Read and write words in the Ah, Ee, U (Oo), Ay, Ae, Aw diacritic families.
• Read and write words in the Un, In, Oh diacritic families.
• Read and write words in the Ut, It, Et diacritic families.

You'll learn to speak in simulated conversations, where you get to be a shopkeeper in Bogyoke Market, a pilgrim on the way to Shwe Dagon, and a diner in a Mandalay restaurant.

You'll learn to read by studying fragments of poetry, passages from short stories, song lyrics, and political cartoons.

You'll learn to write by attempting your own poems, prose, song titles, and song lyrics.

The Filipino 1A Beginners’ class emphasizes the four basic skills:  listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  The course uses the functional approach in learning a language.

The students focus on basic conversational skills in Filipino.  At the end of the course, they should be able to use Filipino in introduction, greetings and situations such as shopping, telling the time, counting, going to the market; and asking and giving directions.  They should also be able to use Filipino in: describing people, objects, and places.

The teacher shall use Filipino and English with the aid of pictures and other teaching materials.  However, English may be used in explaining grammar rules and discussing Philippine culture.  Classroom techniques shall include games, songs, pair- work, role- plays and writing exercises.

Five hours of lecture per week online in synchronous time. Prerequisites: None.

Do you know the words nanay (mother), tatay (father), sinigang (sour soup), masarap (delicious), and kawawa (poor you)? Would you like to better communicate with your grandparents who speak Filipino and only have a limited knowledge of English? You may be a heritage learner, or a person who has a proficiency in or a cultural connection to the language he/she is studying. Filipino 1X WBL is an elementary Filipino class designed for heritage learners. It is the first course in the elementary Filipino for Heritage Learners sequence (Filipino 1X and Filipino 1Y). This course builds on the students’ passive vocabulary to harness four basic skills:  listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  The functional-situational approach in learning a language is used in this class. 

Five hours of lecture per week online in synchronous time.

Prerequisites: Completion of Filipino or Tagalog 1A or 1B or one year of Tagalog instruction, or placement test.

This is an intermediate class. The students shall learn four skills in the use of Filipino: paglalahad (explaining); paglalarawan (description); pagsasalaysay (narrating a story); and pangangatwiran (argumentation). Vocabulary is expanded through dialogues and essays.  Each lesson shall have three components: reading to increase vocabulary and study grammatical structures; doing a role-play; and writing a dialogue or a paragraph. Other techniques are games, songs, and pair work. At the end of the course, the students should be able to talk about themselves, their families and communities; narrate events and stories, give instructions and explanations, and express opinions.

This course emphasizes development of the full range of Hindi language skills: reading, listening, comprehension, the use of grammatical structures, and oral and written communication—through a variety of learning themes. Individual and small group activities, interactive work and multimedia-based activities reinforce language skills and provide the platform for adapting the curriculum to specific student learning goals. Use of graded exercises and readings drawn from Hindi literature, leads to the mastery of grammatical structures, essential vocabulary and achievement of basic reading and writing competence.

This course is designed for students who have already achieved an intermediate level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing Hindi. Its objective is to move students toward a greater level of fluency in each of these key areas. It introduces students to a variety of contemporary literary genres. Weekly readings and discussions will be on short stories, poems, and dramatic sketches from representative authors. These readings focus on various social, cultural, political, and historical aspects of Indian society. Students are encouraged to explore these issues in their written assignments as well as in their class discussions. Written assignments on themes suggested by the reading will be required. Students will also work on advanced grammar and special emphasis will be on vocabulary building, idioms, and problems of syntax. There will be advanced exercises in composition. The class will be conducted entirely in Hindi and students will acquire language skills sufficient to approach literary texts on their own.

This course, conducted entirely in Hindi, is for students who have achieved an intermediate level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing. Its objective is to move students toward a greater level of fluency in each of these key areas and to acquire language skills sufficient to approach literary texts on their own. Students use written assignments and discussions to explore contemporary literary genres including short stories, poems, and dramatic sketches from representative authors, focusing on various social, cultural, political, and historical aspects of Indian society. Includes advanced grammar & composition with special emphasis on vocabulary building, idioms, and problems of syntax. 

Readings in Indonesian texts, including newspapers, journals, and literature exploring a variety of styles. Systematic study of grammatical and lexical problems arising from these readings. Advanced exercises in composition, oral and written communicative skills, and cultural competence.

Political and Cultural interpretation of Indonesian/Malay texts

Language instruction is generally conducted on the notion of legibility and a semblance of transparency.  Yet, ambiguity, concealment, imitative malfunction, and even outright dissemblance are all ingredients involved in the discursive act and contribute to the richness of a language.  Irony, parody and humor often present some of the greatest obstacles to comprehension:  is there a "grammar" of irony (or parody, sarcasm, even humor) that would help us overcome this obstacle?

This semester focuses on reading Indonesian texts.  We will develop a set of methods and tools to help us read, analyze and interpret a variety of texts in Indonesian and/or Malay.  We will approach the text as a link between author and audience against the broader social, cultural and political environment.  

Readings: we will begin with a selection of essays in contemporary Indonesian including material from journals like Tempo, and the newsmedia (print, online).  We will look at how arguments are formed, what assumptions are made, and discuss local techniques of persuasion and what happens when persuasion begins to break down.

Non-native speakers who have completed Beginning Khmer will build spoken proficiency with emphasis on everyday "storytelling" and the expression of emotions, feelings, and opinions. Students will gain experience reading progressively difficult authentic Khmer texts, including folk tales and newspaper articles. Heritage speakers with family exposure to Khmer will be introduced to the writing system. They will quickly "catch up" with non-native classmates who have studied the writing system before. All students will study important patterns and structures in Khmer grammar and morphology, and gain a foundation in formal spoken Khmer, express opinions and positions, form arguments, and learn to discuss a variety of topics with educated Khmer speakers. These include Khmer religion, village culture, news, and advertising.

Gurmukhi script. Survey of grammar. Graded exercises, leading to a mastery of basic language patterns, essential vocabulary, and achievement of basic reading and writing skills.

The focus of Sanskrit 100A is to introduce students to the Sanskrit language, with a goal of developing the skills necessary to read, write, and speak basic Sanskrit.  Students will learn to read and write in Devanagari. Students memorize  traditional verses for recitation in class, where emphasis is placed on correct prosody and pronunciation.  Homework is assigned weekly.  Attendance is required. There are two quizzes, two mid-term exams, and a final exam. No prior knowledge of Sanskrit is required for Sanskrit 100A.

Advanced readings in Sanskrit literature, including Sanskrit ornate poetry with emphasis on the canons of poetic analysis of the Indian aesthetic tradition.

Reading and composition based on 10 classic works of Indian literature ranging from the ancient Sanskrit epics to modern novels by Indian and western authors. Weekly composition on texts and topics read and discussed in class. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

Reading and composition based on 10 classic works of Indian literature ranging from the ancient Sanskrit epics to modern novels by Indian and western authors. Weekly composition on texts and topics read and discussed in class. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

Reading and composition based on 10 classic works of Indian literature ranging from the ancient Sanskrit epics to modern novels by Indian and western authors. Weekly composition on texts and topics read and discussed in class. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

This course is designed to provide a dual chronological and thematic approach to the study of one of the great empires in human civilization: the Mughal Empire. Although the bulk of this course will focus on the Mughal Empire during its heyday between the 1550s and the early 1700s, careful attention will be paid to the larger historical and geographical contexts that both enabled the emergence and, ultimately, decentralization of Mughal power. In so doing, this course will not only study South Asia’s complex history on its own terms but also examine the intricate web of political, economic and social links that connected South Asia to the rest of the world. Simultaneously, this course will also pay particular attention to a series of common misconceptions that dog the study of pre-modern Islamic polities. Among them: the supposedly lesser role played by women in politics; the dogmatic and central role of Islam in “Muslim” states; and the economic and political superiority of Western Europe. Crucial to these questions also is an examination of the historiography and historiographical traditions that have come to define contemporary understanding of the Mughal Empire.

This course provides a place for graduate-level seminars in Tibetan Buddhism that rely primarily on secondary sources and Tibetan texts in translation. Content will vary between semesters but will typically focus on a particular theme. Themes will be chosen according to student interests, with an eye toward introducing students to the breadth of available western scholarship on Tibet, from classics in the field to the latest publications.

An introduction to the mythologies of Southeast Asia, providing a comparative overview of key myths. We will focus on indigenous narrative traditions encompassing myths of creation and origin, agricultural and maritime myths and practices, the founding of kingdoms, and indigenous geographies. We will further explore the role of myth in the contemporary world.

This introduction to the study of Buddhism will consider materials drawn from various Buddhist traditions of Asia, from ancient times down to the present day. However, the course is not intended to be a comprehensive or systematic survey; rather than aiming at breadth, the course is designed around key themes such as ritual, image veneration, mysticism, meditation, and death. The overarching emphasis throughout the course will be on the hermeneutic difficulties attendant upon the study of religion in general, and Buddhism in particular. 

Discussions

Section 101 - CCN 24189 - T 9:00-9:59A - DWIN79

Section 102 - CCN 33070 - T 9:00-9:59A - BARR54

Section 103 - CCN 24190 - T 10:00-10:59A - GPBB107

Section 104 - CCN 33069 - T 12:00-12:59A - WHLR106

Section 105 - CCN 24191 - T 1:00-1:59P - WHLR120

Section 106 - CCN 24192 - W 9:00-9:59A - DWIN258

Section 107 - CCN 24193 - W 11:00-11:59A - DWIN242

Section 108 - CCN 24194 - W 12:00-12:59P - DWIN130

Discussions are led by GSIs.

This introductory level course focuses on progressive acquisition of language skills to communicate effectively in both written and spoken Tamil. It facilitates development of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing competence along with basic grammar.

The focus of this course will be on systematic grammar, essential vocabulary, and conversations. The goal is to achieve basic reading, writing, and conversational competence as well as exposure to Telugu culture and traditions through language learning. Students will be able to read short stories by the end of this course with some facility.

Discussion

Section 101 - CCN 25284 - T 4:00-5:59P - DWIN225

Introduces various types of written and spoken Urdu; vocabulary building, idioms, and problems of syntax; and conversation. Reading of selected fiction and nonfiction in modern Urdu, including fables, short stories, and poetry. Exercises in grammar, conversation, and composition.

An introduction to modern spoken and written Vietnamese, including intensive drill on basic phonology and grammar. The first semester emphasizes phonetic concepts, syllable formations and tonal distinctions along with simple sentence structures in everyday topics. By the end of the second semester, students should be able to function successfully in ordinary Vietnamese conversation and read simple texts of moderate difficulty.

A second-year course in Vietnamese vocabulary and syntax with intensive drills on short colloquial expressions and auditory recognition of speech patterns. First semester course stresses phraseology, sentence building, rules of composition and development of students' communicative skills. By the end of the second semester students will learn to write and present short essays on more abstract topics and will have a cursory introduction to Vietnamese literature and sample readings from contemporary Vietnamese writers.