UNIVERSITY OFFERS NEW JAPANESE LANGUAGE PROGRAM

Southeast Missouri State University will offer for the first time a beginning foreign language course in Japanese this fall.

Daniel A. MacLeay, chairman of the department of foreign languages, explained that the course is designed for people who have no experience or knowledge of Japanese.

"We've been wanting to offer this for quite some time since there is a Japanese connection between the town and the university," MacLeay said.

"We are hoping there will be a large enough response that we will have enough people to offer a more advanced course in the spring also," he said. "Hopefully in time we will be able to offer courses that will allow students to really become proficient, but we've got to start somewhere."

The class offers three hours of college credit through the foreign language department. "This will be a permanent part of our schedule."

MacLeay said the teacher for the course will be coming to Southeast from Japan. The specific teacher has not been named.

He said the teacher will come through the university exchange program with IET University in Japan or through the masters program in teaching English.

"We want to look at the possibilities before we make a decision," he said. "We want someone experienced in teaching Japanese to foreigners and also someone familiar with our educational system."

MacLeay said students in the class will learn the basics of conversation, along with some information about writing Japanese and also about the Japanese culture.

"We want to give the students some practical communicative ability," he said.

The course is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"We intentionally scheduled the course at a time we hoped would allow the most people to participate," MacLeay said.

He said the late afternoon time may allow some community and business people to take the course. Also, he said, students in other disciplines, especially business, may be able to fit this course into their schedules.

"Our courses are always primarily offered for the university students, but this kind of course also has some interest in the community."

MacLeay said over the past few years he has had several requests to offer a class teaching the Japanese language.

"We are planning for a class of 25 to 30 students," he said. "But we can open another section if needed."

For more information, call the department of foreign languages at 651-2146 or the admissions office at 651-2053.