Course Overview

CIC courses are divided into four categories: compulsory courses, core courses, basic courses and specialized courses. Continue reading to learn about some of the courses offered at CIC.

Compulsory Courses

Academic Skills: Students learn the Japanese language communication skills, information literacy and logical thinking abilities in Japanese that form the foundation of their studies at CIC, and practice making logical sentences in Japanese. Group activities encourage students to analyze their views objectively and share them with their classmates, and teach them to actively try to understand other people’s views while enhancing their awareness of the ethics required for university studies.
Overview of Language and Communication Studies: CIC faculty members take turns giving lectures for this course. Exposure to the various research fields that CIC faculty members are involved in teaches students basic knowledge and multiple perspectives on language and communication, and provides them with the opportunity to consider and determine what and how they want to study at CIC.
Overview of Global Studies: CIC faculty members take turns giving lectures for this course. Students who take this course will learn basic knowledge and various research fields within global studies research, which will enable them to consider and determine what and how they want to study at CIC.
Cultural Exchange: In this course, students learn together with international students from many different countries who are studying abroad at Rikkyo University. Engaging in cooperative learning exercises with students with different cultural backgrounds teaches students about a variety of cultures and opens them up to understanding and accepting cultures different from their own. Students use Japanese and other languages to communicate with each other in an effort to acquire the practical skills to engage in intercultural communication.

Core Courses

College Life Planning: CIC students will take Overseas Study Program in the fall semester of their second year. Overseas Study Program comprises the courses students take at overseas universities for a semester or an entire year; thus, a strong sense of purpose is critical to success in this course. It is also important for each student to consider how Overseas Study Program fits into their four years of study, and how it will advance their course of study. College Life Planning is a course to help first-year students build foundations for their four years of study at CIC, and in it students learn about career planning, studies abroad and other events ahead of them, and engage in various activities to help them translate what they have learned into action.
Study Abroad Program: Students study abroad at universities in countries and regions where English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese or Korean are spoken in an effort to improve their abilities in their chosen languages, learn skills for dealing with different cultures and practice using those skills independently in the real world. Experiencing foreign cultures first-hand teaches students the value of intercultural understanding and communication, and helps them master the fundamental skills for succeeding in the global community after graduation.
Seminar in English: Seminars on specific themes related to intercultural communication, conducted in English. Students express their views and engage in discussion with other students based on their understanding of lectures in English―in other words, they experience first-hand what it is like to study at an overseas university.
Internship: Students apply their knowledge and skill in actual working environments at corporations, NGO and public institutions with which the College of Intercultural Communication has deep ties, and in so doing learn the fundamentals and mentally prepare to become employees and full-fledged members of society. In addition, this course gives students opportunities to think critically about their vocational aptitude and choice of occupation after graduation.
Japan Studies Program: This program features courses conducted in Japanese and courses conducted in English. Courses in either language give students opportunities to view Japan through multiple lenses, through studies of Japan from a diverse mix of linguistic, social, cultural and historical perspectives, and through real-world experiences of what they learn in the classroom. Knowledge of Japanese is critical for graduates to flourish outside Japan as people with knowledge of Japan. This course teaches many different things about Japan.
Communication Seminars (Intensive): These courses give students the opportunity to intensively study foreign languages other than those regularly taught at the College of Intercultural Communication. Presently available are seminars on Asian and Middle Eastern languages. Students can study and gain the ability to use various languages while learning the cultures that underpin those languages, and how to explain them and accept them.

Basic Courses

Introduction to Linguistics: This course teaches the basic structures and functions of language by focusing on the characteristics of languages familiar to students. Students build a firm foundation of language-related research by understanding the diversity of language and comparing their native languages to the languages they are learning and other languages, and finding differences and similarities between them.
Introduction to Translation and Interpreting Studies: This course teaches the various states and prominent challenges of interpreting and translation in practice in contemporary society from the perspective of interpreting and translation as acts of intermediation between different languages and cultures.
Introduction to Intercultural Communication: This course teaches multiple aspects of intercultural communication from the perspective that the concept of (foreign) culture is interpreted not only within the framework of the nation-state but also as a mutable context in which the lines between “us” and “them” are determined. Students will master the fundamental concepts and theory of intercultural communication through study of themes such as language and non-language, communication in practice and assigning meaning, identity, stereotypes and cultural assimilation.
Introduction to International Development and Cooperation: This course teaches basic approaches and methodologies of international cooperation, and the process Japan went through to become an initiator of international cooperation. Students will discover familiar and relatable activities that constitute international cooperation, and begin to think critically about how they as students can contribute to international cooperation.

Specialized Courses

Bilingualism: Students will further their understanding of bilingualism from linguistic, psychological and pedagogical perspectives. Specific cases will be used to illustrate the language ability of bilingual people, characteristics of language acquisition and use, intelligence and intellectual/cognitive capacity, and the types, methodologies and effects of bilingual education.
Translation and Interpreting Practicum: Students will work on actual interpreting and translation projects in the area or on campus, in groups or individually, based on the knowledge and skills they acquired in their interpreting and translation courses. These practical class meetings will help students fulfill their potential as vehicles of communication, and teach them the importance of effective communication between customers, clients and colleagues.
Interpersonal Communication: This course is a consideration of relatable phenomena in everyday life that illustrate how closely communication is related to interpersonal relationships. Students will learn fundamental concepts of interpersonal communication such as self, others, identity, self-disclosure, sense of belonging and stereotyping, and will further their understanding of how communication is involved in various relationships between friends, family members, generations, sexes, and doctors and patients among other interpersonal relationships.
Topics in Multi/intercultural Issues: This course offers students the opportunity to recognize the world of various cultures and to explain concretely the phenomena caused by cultural differences. Students will also come to objectively discuss measures to coexist with pluralistic and different cultures while respecting each other.