American students' interests in the Japanese language : what Japanese language teachers should be aware of.

This thesis illustrates that the relationship between American students' interests in Japanese culture and the Japanese language. The result of the thesis demonstrated that the majority of the college students are interested in Japanese popular culture upon their decisions to take a foreign language class. Particularly, video games are more prevalent than anime and manga among American college students. However, through Japanese language courses, they often expand their interests in other aspects of Japanese culture. The role of teacher is significantly important in order to raise students' awareness to other aspects of culture.