A new course will be offered in May session 2013 (May 6-31), Mondays through Fridays, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in 351 Hagerty Hall. The course, titled "Japanese 5121: Kanbun," will be taught by Dr. Naomi Fukumori, and will introduce the basics of grammar of classical Japanese styles subsumed under the broad term kanbun 漢文. Kanbun describes classical Japanese texts from earliest times written largely or entirely in Chinese characters that employ the reading and writing techniques of kundoku 訓読 (and as such, kanbun is not simply classical Chinese written by the Japanese). Students will become familiar with the fundamentals of kundoku during the May session, putting them in a position to subsequently gain further competency in kanbun texts of their specific areas of research. A prerequisite of this course is Japanese 5111 Classical Japanese I, which introduces the basics of classical Japanese grammar, and Japanese 5112 Classical Japanese II, which focuses on building reading skills in classical Japanese. Because kundoku uses classical Japanese grammar to understand character-based texts, a solid knowledge of classical Japanese grammar is vital for attaining kundoku reading skills.