The Majors in Chinese and Japanese

Language Programs

Senior Language Support Program

Language Placement and Proficiency Examination

Language Tables

Undergraduate Program Information
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Jing Tsu
309 HGS, 432-2861

The Majors in Chinese and Japanese

East Asian Languages and Literatures offers majors in Chinese and Japanese, two of the world's great literary traditions, and language courses in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean from the elementary to advanced level and beyond. Chinese and Japanese are liberal arts majors that give students a thorough knowledge of Chinese or Japanese literature and a high level of competence in the respective language. Students pursuing many other majors also enroll in the department's language courses. These are relatively difficult languages, so students interested in studying them should start as early as possible, particularly if they intend to major in Chinese or Japanese.

The department offers courses on Chinese and Japanese literature and Japanese and Korean film that are open to all undergraduates and provide an introduction to these cultures and their traditions of artistic expression. These courses are taught in translation and do not require knowledge of an East Asian language.

Students who wish to major in Chinese or Japanese should consult the Director of Undergraduate Studies by the beginning of the sophomore year. The department strongly encourages students to study abroad for at least one term. Students who do not complete the language prerequisite for the major (Intermediate Chinese or Japanese or the equivalent) by the end of the sophomore year will have difficulty completing the major unless they study abroad. In addition to beginning their language studies, students considering a major in Chinese or Japanese should take one or more courses on the literature or film of the country early in their Yale career.

Credit toward the major may be earned for courses taken elsewhere with the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Majors sometimes apply credits from approved junior year abroad or junior term abroad programs in China and Japan. Students interested in studying an East Asian language abroad, regardless of their major, may qualify for financial support through the Richard U. Light Fellowship program. The Office of International Education and Fellowship Programs can provide information on a number of other opportunities to study abroad.

For official Yale College information on the requirements for the Chinese and Japanese majors see Yale College Programs of Study.

* Guidelines for Senior Essays
Senior essays in East Asian Languages and Literatures must be about Chinese or Japanese literature and the primary material must be a literary text or texts written in the target language. The senior essay course may be one or two semesters. (A two-semester essay requires significant research.) Most commonly students complete the essay as a semester course in the spring, following these steps:
1. an initial consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies before registration in the course, preferably by the end of the previous spring semester, but no later than the first week of the fall term of their senior year;
2. preparation of a proposal endorsed by a faculty sponsor (not a language instructor) who will serve as the senior essay adviser by the last week of classes in the fall term; a second faculty reader will also be selected at this stage by the Director of Undergraduate Studies in consultation with the adviser;
3. submission of a prospectus in the second week of the spring term;
4. submission of an annotated bibliography with a thesis statement in the fourth week of the spring term;
5. submission a rough draft for the adviser in the week after spring break, and
6. submission of the final draft of the essay, approved by the adviser and submitted to the second reader in the second to last week of classes, spring term.
The student will meet with the adviser on a regular basis to discuss the project, and the adviser will help the student with bibliography, the refinement of topic and thesis, and issues of interpretation, composition and argument. Translation projects are acceptable, but only if at least one-third of the essay's length consists of commentary on the translated text that would stand alone as an essay in literary interpretation or historical scholarship on literature. Such commentary is expected to be as thorough and academically rigorous as a term paper in a course on literature. There is no regulation regarding the essay's length, but successful essays in recent years have been in the range of 25-40 double-spaced pages.

* Student Advisory Committee
The East Asian Languages and Literatures Student Advisory Committee serves as an important line of communication between the department faculty and students interested in and concerned with the department, its courses, and activities. In recent years the committee has discussed the Chinese and Japanese majors, course offerings (actual and potential), and especially the language programs in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The Director of Undergraduate Studies chairs the committee. The membership of the committee is open to all members of the Yale community. Please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies if you are interested in participating in the committee.

Language Programs

The department teaches elementary, intermediate, and advanced courses in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean in a semi-intensive format, requiring substantial daily preparation and meeting three to five times per week. The department offers a separate track in Chinese designed for students who have had varying degrees of exposure to Chinese in a family or other setting. Courses in this track are not more "advanced" than those designed for students with no background in Chinese but rather address a different set of needs. Placement in all courses is determined by the teaching staff.

* Guidelines for Independent Tutorials in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CHNS 470a/471b, JPNS 470a/471b, KREN 470a/471b)
Independent tutorials are not language courses but are rather academic courses in which a student pursues a research and reading project in the language of interest. Students must already have advanced knowledge of the topic in question. The course culminates in an exam on content (not language proficiency) or a term paper, in English or the target language depending on the nature of the topic. Tutorials are usually intended for Chinese or Japanese majors. A tutorial may not substitute under any circumstances for a course regularly taught at Yale. On the contrary, such a course would be essential preparation for a tutorial which by its nature constitutes advanced work.

Students interested in proposing an independent tutorial must consult the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the beginning of the semester in question and must provide a detailed written proposal for approval by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by the end of the first week of classes. The tutorial must begin by the second week of classes. Students are responsible for finding an instructor in the department who is able to supervise the tutorial. In some cases the Director of Undergraduate Studies will find an additional reader to help evaluate the work.

Independent Tutorials must meet at least one hour per week. Preferably the tutorial session are longer. Proposals must include an explanation of the rationale for the tutorial, a plan of readings, a projected schedule of meetings, and an explanation of an schedule for evaluations, whether these are written work or exams. The proposal must be signed by both student and instructor.

The Director of Undergraduate Studies is the instructor of record, and will consult with the instructor and reader (if any) to determine the grade.

Senior Language Support Program

Undergraduate students who are using East Asian-language resources to write their senior thesis or complete their senior research project are eligible for assistance in finding and using these resources. The program will match the undergraduate student with a graduate student course assistant who will provide individualized assistance in locating and utilizing sources for the thesis.   This program is open to undergraduates across all majors and departments and is available in both fall and spring semester. For further information, please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies of East Asian Languages, Jing Tsu.  This program is sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University and the Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures through generous funding from the United States Department of Education.

Language Placement and Proficiency Examination

Course placement and foreign language proficiency exams in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are given at the beginning of every fall semester, the beginning of spring semester if needed, and can be arranged on an individual basis in special cases. In Fall 2009 the tests will be given between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon on Monday, August 31st. The Chinese test and Japanese test include online components that students should complete in August and in any case before coming to the exam on August 31st. Click here to access the online Chinese exam and the Japanese exam. The Korean exam will be held on Monday, August 31st, 9 a.m. -12 noon in the Hall of Graduate Studies, Rooms 217 and 218a.

The following students must take a placement examination: students who are enrolling in the department's language classes for the first time but who have studied Chinese, Japanese, or Korean elsewhere; students who have skills in one of these languages because of family background; students who have missed one semester or more of language instruction; and students of Japanese and Korean returning from programs abroad. Students who completed a summer Chinese language course with a grade of B or higher at an institution pre-approved by the Light Fellowship program and who will continue to enroll in Chinese language courses at Yale upon their return, are not required to take the placement examination in order to receive credit.  They must, however, bring their transcripts to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) for final credit approval.  They should also consult with the language-teaching staff on the first day of classes, if they continue to enroll in Chinese language courses. If you are in doubt about your status please come to the placement exam or contact the DUS (Jing Tsu) in advance. Questions about the examinations themselves can be addressed to Wei Su for Chinese, Yoshiko Maruyama for Japanese, Angela Lee-Smith for Korean.

The language placement exam also measures students' progress toward fulfilling the Yale College foreign language requirement. Students wishing to use Chinese, Japanese, or Korean to fulfill all or part of the requirement must take the placement exam. See your residential college dean for details about the requirement for your class year.

Language Tables

The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, with the generous cooperation of the residential colleges, maintains weekly lunchtime language tables for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Contact Hiroyo Nishimura (Japanese), Ninghui Liang (Chinese), or Angela Lee-Smith (Korean) for details.

Next: Graduate Program