Potential Class

Because I knew going into college that I wanted to study abroad, I took care of most of my difficult or required classes in the first two years. Finishing up the grunt work early would leave me pretty free to choose whatever courses struck my fancy when I was in Japan. Regrettably, I can't register for my classes ahead of time, so it will be a mad dash to sign up during my orientation. ICU was kind enough to send me a list of options for the fall and winter terms (they are on trimesters, so next year's spring term classes haven't been finalized yet).*

While I still need to take a Japanese language class each term, my only other restrictions would be that I have 2 history and 1 social institutions course to complete. Besides that I could take Japanese gym classes the whole time, if I wanted. Here is a list of courses that I am interested, ranked by my desire/need to take them:

Tier 1 - Readings in Japanese History, Aural: Advanced Japanese 2, History of the Mediterranean World, Interpreting in Sociology, Bilingualism & Multilingualism, and Language, Poitics, and Media

Tier 2 - Society & Culture, Cultural Studies 1, Area Studies in Ethnology, and History of Japan in Asia

Tier 3 - Individual Sports (PE), Intro to Japanese Sociology, and Culture in Contemporary Japan

Perhaps this list should be longer; I don't know what order they will let me pick my classes in, but, I want to try and work my way into Japanese (start with just English classes, move into Japanese/English taught course, and finishing in some classes taught just in Japanese). I don't want to get overwhelmed in the beginning, which is why the Aural class would be such a big help.

I'll post my actual class schedule later on. Who knows? I might get all of my first choices!

*While many schools, like ICU have changed their school year to start with Western universities, they still maintain the traditional start-and-end times for the school year. While we in the West start every school year in the fall, the Japanese believe that the school year begins in the spring time and end in winter (the minds of the students follow with the seasons; blooming in the spring, growing in the summer, maturing during fall, and resting in winter).