Robert Kasza - Academic Staff

Robert lectures on a range of subjects related to the Japanese language, culture and society from a comparative perspective. He is also active in the field of translation, especially Computer Assisted Translation, as well as corpus-based language teaching and learning. In his teaching and research, Robert combines his interests in cultural anthropology (ethnopragmatics), cultural semiotics and applied linguistics. This enables him to successfully supervise postgraduate projects in a variety of areas. Robert enjoys learning new languages and testing new language acquisition methods and devices.

Robert teaches a range of modules that explore the Japanese language, culture and society. In particular, Robert introduces students to the basic concepts related to Japanese worldviews, lifecycles, and annual religious events and rituals. Robert also investigates accelerated methods of language learning in the context of figurative language and multi-word expressions like idioms, proverbs and sayings. Robert teaches a variety of methods that explore cultures through their keywords and expressions and researches cultural differences with a focus on Japan. With his keen interest in translation, Robert teaches and explores culture-specific items in translation, translation solutions, and untranslatability.

Robert has studied and worked in a number of HE institutions in the UK, Japan and Continental Europe, including Durham University and Hokkaido University. His research and teaching is based on resources in a variety of languages, which contributes to the diversity in his attitude to the fields of study that he explores. Robert organises and conducts seminars and sessions on learning Japanese, Computer Assisted Translation tools, cross-cultural communication and the human life cycles in various cultures (hosted by the Worldwise Learning Centre).

Japanese Comparative Cultural Linguistics:
a) Worldviews, attitudes, beliefs reflected in language
b) Cultural codes, key words and discursive practices
c) Time, space and lifecycles / rites of passage
d) Lexical semantics and lexical representations of Japanese reality
e) Ethnopragmatics and ethnoaxiology
Interpretative constructs to understand Japan
a) Japan’s views of the Other
b) The Occident and Japan
c) Identity, ethnicity and Nihonjinron
d) Cultural studies theories and Japan
e) Identifying and evaluation cross-cultural competencies
Language Processing, Decoding and Signifying Practices
a) Translation and interpreting
b) Translation for specific purposes and post-editing
c) CAT – Computer Assisted Translation
d) Language corpora, online dictionaries, thesauri
e) Digital Repositories for Japanese Studies
Literature and literary practices:
a) Genres, themes, writers and texts
b) Intertextuality, perspectives, and literary identity
c) World literature and Japanese literary heritage
d) Approaches to literary translation
Language acquisition and teaching strategies:
a) Japanese as a foreign language (JFL)
b) Evaluation of teaching materials and other resources
c) Second language acquisition (SLA) in the Japanese context
d) Japanese language testing and test materials evaluation
e) Japanese language across time

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Dr Robert Kasza

Dr Robert Kasza

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