Onomatopoeia (sounds of expression) are commonly spoken in Japanese language on a daily basis and many appear in Japanese comics and cartoons sold in the USA. The study of onomatopoeia is excluded in current Japanese language textbooks because it is difficult to teach and understand in the classroom setting alone. Digital Humanities Faculty Fellow, Dr. Shigeru Osuka, took on this challenge during the 2015-2016 academic year. As a Digital Humanities project Dr. Osuka worked with four graduate students interested in applying current digital technology to create a new teaching resource to be used in traditional language classroom settings. The end result is “A Guide to Japanese Onomatopoeia” a movie produced by the students to portray human gestures and sounds of expressions.
