RY131: Okinawan Vocabulary 1 (WIP)

Chapter 1: Chapter 0

RY131: Okinawan Vocabulary 1 (WIP) Lessons

Number of words you should already know

Plain and simple, it's ZERO.

Why I'm making the course and who I am

This course is designed to learn 500 beginner words (there will be part 2 and 3 sequels to get up to 1,500 words).

I grew up in the central part of Okinawa for many years of my childhood. Though to be fair, Central Okinawan refers to Central and Southern Okinawan or Okinawan for short. I was picked on during my early childhood because I couldn't pick up the Okinawan language quickly. I swore to someday go beyond the average Okinawan language native speaker in Okinawa. While sure, I am native as well, it's a little bit different that people learning with just one or two languages from their pre-school days. I had to learn three: Okinawan, English, and Japanese, although now I am learning even more languages out of pure curiosity and prevention of language barriers.

By the age of 16.5, I was able to confidently say that my Okinawan language skills were above the average native speaker. By the age of 17 (almost 18), I published my first research paper on the Japonic language family, more specifically on the vocabulary comparison between Okinawan and Japanese. Additionally, I am also the head contributor/creator of the Duostories Okinawan language course.

Which order are the courses?

# 1st Year:

Semester 1 (Minimum 15 credit-hours: 9 required, 6 from electives major or

outside major)

RY101: Introduction to the Ryukyuan Languages
Credit-hours: 1
RY131: Okinawan Vocabulary 1 (THIS COURSE!)
Credit-hours: 1
RY132: Okinawan Vocabulary 2 and 3
Credit-hours: 2
Japanese Beginner Courses (Zero to N5)
Credit-hours: 5 [Author does not teach]

Electives:

RY102: Introduction to Ancient Ryukyuan Cultures (c. 1100-1880)
Credit-hours: 3 [Not for free, not on Asakiri]
RY103: Introduction to Contemporary Ryukyuan Cultures (21st century)
Credit-hours: 1 [Not for free, not on Asakiri]

Semester 2 (Minimum 15 credit-hours: 14 required, 1 from electives major or

outside major)

RY133: Lower-Intermediate Okinawan 1
Credit-hours: 3
RY181: Teaching Okinawan for Beginners
Credit-hours: 6
Japanese Beginner Course (N5 to N4 or equivalent, AP Japanese 3 or 4 are exempted up to here)
Credit-hours: 5 [Author does not teach]

Electives are the same as the previous semester.

# 2nd Year:

1st Semester (Minimum 15 credit-hours: 11 required, 4 from electives major

or outside major):

RY231: Lower-Intermediate Okinawan 2
Credit-hours: 6
Japanese Intermediate Course (N4 to early N3 or equivalent. AP Japanese 5 are exempted up to here)
Credit hours: 5 [Author does not teach]

Electives:

RY201: Political Landscape of Okinawa
Credit-hours: 3 [Not for free, not taught on Asakiri]
RY202: Okinawa in the perspective of the world
Credit-hours: 1 [Not for free, not taught on Asakiri]
RY203: Ryukyuan Linguistics
Credit-hours: 1 [Not for free, not taught on Asakiri]

2nd Semester (Minimum 15 credit-hours: 11 required, 4 from electives major

or outside major):

RY281: Teaching Okinawan and Basic Sentence Construction for Intermediates
Credit-hours: 6
Japanese Intermediate Course (early N3 to late N3 or equivalent)
Credit-hours: 5 [Author does not teach]

Electives: Same as previous semester.

# 3rd Year:

1st Semester (Minimum 15 credit-hours: 10 required, 5 from electives major

or outside major):

RY331: Intermediate Okinawan 1
Credit-hours: 5
Japanese Upper-Intermediate course (late N3 to early N2 or equivalent)
Credit-hours: 5 [Author does not teach]

Electives:

RY333: Modern Ryukyuan Culture in Okinawan. (All Okinawan Language)
Credit-hours: 1 [Not for free, not on Asakiri]
RY334: Ryukyuan Language Revitalization Efforts in Okinawan. (All Okinawan Language)
Credit-hours: 1 [Not for free, not on Asakiri]
RY301: Ryukyuan History (pre-1100s to c. 1430)
Credit-hours: 3 [Not for free, not on Asakiri]
RY302: Ryukyuan History (c. 1430 - 1879)
Credit-hours: 3 [Not for free, not on Asakiri]
RY303: Ryukyuan History (1879 - present day)
Credit-hours: 3 [Not for free, not on Asakiri]

2nd Semester (Minimum 15 credit-hours: 10 required, 5 from electives major

or outside major):

RY332: Intermediate Okinawan 2
Credit-hours: 5
Japanese Upper-Intermediate course (early N2 to late N2 or equivalent)
Credit-hours: 5 [Author does not teach]

Electives: Same as previous semester.

# 4th Year:

1st Semester (Minimum 20 credit-hours: 17 required, 3 from major electives

ONLY):

RY431: Teaching Okinawan for Advanced Students
Credit-hours: 6
RY432: Advanced Okinawan [late B1 -> early B2]
Credit-hours: 3
RY433: School, Business and Business Culture in Okinawa
Credit-hours: 3
Japanese Advanced course (late N2 to early N1 or equivalent)
Credit-hours: 5 [Author does not teach]

Electives:

RY434: Introduction to Dialectal Okinawan Variants
Credit-hours: 2
RY435: Converting Japanese Loanwords into Okinawan
Credit-hours: 1
RY436: Converting English Loanwords into Okinawan
Credit-hours: 1
RY401: Introduction to Ryukyu Shinto
Credit-hours: 3 [Not for free, not on Asakiri]

2nd Semester (Minimum 25 credit-hours: 24 required, 1 from major electives

ONLY):

Attend ONE Seminar A (examples below) [Culture-linguistics based]; Credit-hours: 3
RY501: Miyakoan Poetry and Birds
Attend ONE Seminar B (examples below) [Dialectal-linguistics based]; Credit-hours: 6
RY531: Gima, Yomitan dialect Okinawan
RY532: Gushikawa, Uruma dialect Okinawan
RY533: Nanjo dialect Okinawan
Graduation Research Project (RY491)
Credit-hours: 10
Japanese Advanced Course (N1+)
Credit-hours: 5 [Author does not teach]

Electives: same as previous semester.

135 credits minimum total to graduate.

# 5th and 6th Year (Masters):

Attend 6 Seminar As, Attend 6 Seminar Bs, Graduation Research Project, 6 credit-hours in electives.

70 credits minimum total to graduate.

Current Progress (WIP)

FAQs for this course will be listed here once I get multiple of the same question asked for this course.