Web-based Materials for Self-studying the Kansai Dialect

Grant Details

Amount: $5,000

Project Start Date: 05/31/07

Status: In Progress (under development)

Project Type:
Campus Based

Languages: Japanese

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Skills:
Cultural Awareness
Speaking
Listening
Reading

Institutions Involved:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Primary Contact:
Ikue Shingu (ikue@mit.edu)

77 Massachusetts Avenue
14N-232
Cambridge , MA 02139
Phone: 617-253-3543

This project involves the creation of a web-based, guided, self-study program on the Kansai dialect, a powerful regional dialect spoken by over 20 million people in the Kansai area of Japan, where Osaka and Kyoto are located. The website helps users gain basic knowledge of structure and intonation patterns of the Kansai dialect, and build up basic aural and oral communication skills with Kansai native speakers. By including video clips of interviews with various individuals from the region, this site is also a helpful resource to examine how this dialect relates to local identity. This project was funded from the Consortium in 2006, and four out of seven chapters have been created and uploaded as a prototype that contains texts and exercises along with numerous audio files and video clips. The prototype website has been presented and disseminated at language/technology-related conferences. This year's fund enables this project to be updated and more complete in terms of programming (e.g. make the site IE compatible) and site-design as well as contents.