This class is designed for people with no background in Japanese. The aim of this course is to help students to develop basic survival-level communication skills in four language areas with special focus on speaking and listening. By the time of departure, successful students will have a basic linguistic, socio-linguistic and socio-cultural competence necessary to deal with most predictable situations of survival needs, such as greetings, self-introduction, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, describing daily activities and past events, invitation, describing locations, making requests, asking for permission, describing people, expressing ideas, etc.
Prerequisites:
Practice material of Hiragana and Katakana would be provided to the students prior to their arrival. Students are expected to become able to read and write hiragana and katakana by the first class.
Additional requirements:
In addition to conventional language classes, students are required to attend at least two Japanese cultural learning seminars, which consist of a lecture, accompanied by a field study trip.
Attendance policy:
Daily attendance is mandatory at all IES Tokyo courses. Exceptions will only be made for documented illness or emergencies.
Daily schedule (Mondays - Fridays):
1st period 08:45 – 10:15
2nd period 10:30 – 12:00
Cultural learning seminars and other programs 13:30 - onwards
Method of presentation:
Lecture, oral discussion and written activities.
Required work and form of assessment:
Grading Weights
Final Exams 15%
Midterm Exam 15%
Quizzes (vocabulary & kanji) 15%
Daily Homework Assignment 20%
Language Projects (Composition; presentation; interview etc.) 20%
Daily attendance and participation 15%
In order to fully benefit from lecture and oral practices, and to prepare you to actively participate in class, please do the following:
Prior to the first day of a new chapter, you are responsible for practicing Essential Vocabulary for that chapter and memorize them. To practice, say each word out loud while listening to the audio materials.
Before each grammar point is introduced, you are responsible for reading the explanations in the textbook.
Grading Scale
According to the IES Abroad grading policy which applies to all IES centers, the assessment of courses is based on the following letter grades. Letter grades can be expressed with a plus or minus sign for those numerical grades that fall within a range between letter grade assignments. The plus sign is not used with A grades and both the plus and minus signs are not used with the D and F grades.
Grade Score
A 90 - 100 Excellent performance
B 80 - 89 Good Performance
C 70 - 79 Adequate performance
D 60 - 69 Unsatisfactory performance and/or comprehension of the subject matter
F 59 or below Failure to complete course requirements or wholly inadequate comprehension of the subject matter.
content:
The following is what you should be able to do by the end of each week:
1st week: greetings, self-introduction, shopping, ordering in a restaurant
3rd week: describing daily activities and past events, describing locations
4th week: invitation, making requests, asking for permission, explaining the reason, offering assistants
5th week: describing people, expressing ideas, negative request
6th week: informal speech
<Chapters to be covered> GENKI I-2nd: Lesson 1 - 6 *This schedule is tentative and subject to change.
Required readings:
AN INTEGRATED COURSE IN ELEMENTARY JAPANESE: GENKI I -2nd <Textbook> The Japan Times
AN INTEGRATED COURSE IN ELEMENTARY JAPANESE: GENKI I -2nd <Workbook> The Japan Times
Notes:
This course is offered during the regular semester and in the summer. For summer sections, the course schedule is condensed, but the content, learning outcomes, and contact hours are the same.
This class is designed for people with no background in Japanese. The aim of this course is to help students to develop basic survival-level communication skills in four language areas with special focus on speaking and listening. By the time of departure, successful students will have a basic linguistic, socio-linguistic and socio-cultural competence necessary to deal with most predictable situations of survival needs, such as greetings, self-introduction, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, describing daily activities and past events, invitation, describing locations, making requests, asking for permission, describing people, expressing ideas, etc.
Practice material of Hiragana and Katakana would be provided to the students prior to their arrival. Students are expected to become able to read and write hiragana and katakana by the first class.
In addition to conventional language classes, students are required to attend at least two Japanese cultural learning seminars, which consist of a lecture, accompanied by a field study trip.
Daily attendance is mandatory at all IES Tokyo courses. Exceptions will only be made for documented illness or emergencies.
Daily schedule (Mondays - Fridays):
Lecture, oral discussion and written activities.
Grading Weights
In order to fully benefit from lecture and oral practices, and to prepare you to actively participate in class, please do the following:
Grading Scale
According to the IES Abroad grading policy which applies to all IES centers, the assessment of courses is based on the following letter grades. Letter grades can be expressed with a plus or minus sign for those numerical grades that fall within a range between letter grade assignments. The plus sign is not used with A grades and both the plus and minus signs are not used with the D and F grades.
Grade Score
A 90 - 100 Excellent performance
B 80 - 89 Good Performance
C 70 - 79 Adequate performance
D 60 - 69 Unsatisfactory performance and/or comprehension of the subject matter
F 59 or below Failure to complete course requirements or wholly inadequate comprehension of the subject matter.
The following is what you should be able to do by the end of each week:
1st week: greetings, self-introduction, shopping, ordering in a restaurant
3rd week: describing daily activities and past events, describing locations
4th week: invitation, making requests, asking for permission, explaining the reason, offering assistants
5th week: describing people, expressing ideas, negative request
6th week: informal speech
<Chapters to be covered> GENKI I-2nd: Lesson 1 - 6
*This schedule is tentative and subject to change.
This course is offered during the regular semester and in the summer. For summer sections, the course schedule is condensed, but the content, learning outcomes, and contact hours are the same.