The department offers undergraduate and graduate instruction in the classical and modern languages and literatures of East Asia. Entering students unsure of their levels of language competence should meet with language instructors during the advising period. Chronic over-enrollment in basic language courses makes it necessary to limit admission to registered University students. Ten-week intensive language workshops in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are offered in the summer. Each course is equivalent to one year of language training and carries ten semester units of credit.
Classes meet five days a week for four hours each morning.
In the San Francisco Bay Area itself are many amenities of special interest to students in the department. Chinese and Japanese films are frequently shown on and off campus. There is regular programming in Chinese, Japanese and Korean on local television channels. Chinese and Japanese bookstores are available in the area and there are numerous East Asian restaurants and food markets. There are also good permanent collections of Asian art, as well as frequent special exhibitions, at the University Art Museum on campus, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Stanford University Museum of Art .