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Japanese Beginners (L81) - Updated for 2017/18

Summary

Level:

This course is designed for students who have no/little previous knowledge in Japanese.

Main Objectives:

This course is designed to introduce fundamental grammar and function to people who have no knowledge of the language. Students will acquire the ability to comprehend and produce simple statements and develop the communicative skills to deal with essential everyday situations, including greetings, ordering at a restaurant, using public transport and shopping. Students will be able to grasp the grammatical principles and culture underlying communication patterns in Japanese. The writing system; Hiragana will be introduced.

Please read our Can-do Statements (link on the right of this page) to see the competences which you will be working towards and can achieve by the end of the year.

Teaching:

1 x 2 hour class per week plus some independent learning.

 

Course Text

There is no course text book for this course. You will be given necessary resources in class as well as on moodle.


However, you may like to get the following book for your study at home.

The Revised 3rd Edition of JAPANESE FOR BUSY PEOPLE I (Kana Version) 2012, The Association for Japanese-Language Training (AJALT); Kodansha International, ISBN:978-1568363851

The syllabus of the class is largely based on this textbook.


A copy can be purchased from the University Bookshop.

Course Description

This course is designed to introduce fundamental grammar and function to people who have no knowledge of the language. Students will acquire the ability to comprehend and produce simple statements and develop the communicative skills to deal with essential everyday situations, including greetings, ordering at a restaurant, using public transport and shopping. Students will be able to grasp the grammatical principles and culture underlying communication patterns in Japanese. The writing system; Hiragana will be introduced.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1) Talk about nationalities and occupations

2) Introduce yourself and others

3) Ask for telephone numbers

4) Ask for the time

5) Ask for the opening hours

6) Ask the price of items and make a purchase

7) Ask where an item is from

8) Talk about where you plan to go, when, and with whom

9) Talk about travel destinations

10) Talk about means of transportation

11) Describe the location of objects and people

12) Describe what it is in a particular place

13) Describe daily routine

14) Talk about what you plan to do

15) Talk about what you did

16) Order food at a restaurant

Syllabus

Unit 1-5 of the book, Japanse for Busy People 1, covers the following.

Topics

  • introductions;
  • exchanging business cards;
  • asking about business hours;
  • shopping.
  • confirming schedules;
  • visiting another company;
  • going to NIKKO;
  • looking for a parking lot;
  • making plans for the weekend;
  • at a Tempura restaurant.

Grammar

  • nouns;
  • articles;
  • interrogatives;
  • verbs conjugation (current and past tense);
  • sentence patterns;
  • numbers and counters;
  • ko-so-a-do words;
  • countries, nationalities and languages;
  • extent, frequency, quantity;
  • time expressions.