The University of South Carolina at Columbia offers minor and cognate programs in Japanese. Each semester approximately 100-120 students, both undergraduate and graduate, study the Japanese language and culture. Every year the number of highly motivated students who decide to learn Japanese increases.  Our program has an excellent teaching staff and recently renovated lab facilities. Facilities including a satellite program broadcasting the news from Japan (SCOLA), a movie room, TV and VCR systems and a technologically sophisticated language lab are available to any student studying Japanese.  The Japanese program is committed to personalized instruction in classes that focus on developing speaking and listening as well as reading and writing proficiency. Instructors attend to the student's individual needs so that he or she can attain the greatest improvement in language ability. Students who are currently attending class enjoy small classes that enable them to concentrate on authentic Japanese practice.  For high school students who have finished Japanese I and II of the Satellite Educational Resources Consortium (SERC)  or other Japanese programs, the USC Japanese program offers a placement test. Students who are measured as having a high Japanese language proficiency can earn an exemption from Japanese 121 and/or Japanese 122 (first year Japanese). Every year the placement test is given the week before the beginning of the fall semester. Information regarding the specific date is available through our department.  High school students who have already been admitted to the fall semester and have finished Japanese I or I and II, have an opportunity to begin their college level Japanese studies earlier. A five-week summer course in intensive Japanese (Japanese 123) is open to those students. This program usually starts the first week of June. This intensive course is equivalent to Japanese 121 and 122; therefore, students who finish this summer course may enroll in Japanese 221 (second year first semester Japanese) in the fall semester. This opportunity will provide students with a more flexible time schedule during their junior and senior years in college.

Minor in Japanese:

In order to minor in Japanese language and literature, a student must satisfactorily complete a minimum of 18 credit hours above the 200 level. Courses applied toward general education requirements cannot be counted toward the minor. No course may satisfy both major and minor requirements. All minor courses must be passed with a grade of C or better. Other college regulations also apply to the completion of the minor in Japanese.

Cognate in Japanese:

In addition to completion of all courses in the major field, a student may have a cognate in Japanese with a minimum of 12 credit hours above the 300 level. The cognate courses must be passed with a C or better.  For more information, please contact Dr. Sakakibara at  (803) 777-7034.