The Japanese for Beginners course is designed for absolute beginner students with little or no prior knowledge of the Japanese language. This course introduces basic communication skills so that learners can use the language in particular cultural and societal contexts (e.g. greeting, self-introducing, shopping, ordering food and beverages, describing where things are, etc.).

Eligibility to enrol in Japanese for Beginners

This course is designed for students with little or no prior knowledge of Japanese. If you have already acquired hiragana, katakana and some basic kanji characters, you are advised to enrol in JAPAN231 (in A trimester). Students who are uncertain about the prerequisites should contact the Course Convener to discuss suitable course options.

FLEXI paper:

This paper is delivered in the FLEXI mode which means students are highly recommended to attend face-to-face lectures, workshops and tutorials on campus (please see the allocated rooms where to attend physically on campus) at the same time all lessons will be live-stream via Zoom, please note that lessons are not video recorded (this is because privacy issues and lessons are mostly focused on task-supported communicative activities in pairs or groups), lecture notes of lesson points on PDF documents or Panopto recordings will be uploaded on Moodle after each lecture and workshop.

Note: Scheduled classes may be moved online if the Covid situation requires.

All four language skills, namely; reading, writing, speaking and listening will be practiced through the medium of modern Japanese grammar and vocabulary. The basic writing system of hiragana, katakana and about 30 kanji characters will be focused on in JAPAN131. In Japanese classes, emphasis will be placed on developing students’ communication skills in both receptive (listening and reading) and productive (speaking and writing) skills in Japanese in order to build a competent and confident foundation at the beginner level.

The assignments, quizzes and tests (written and spoken) will take place in classes or workshops during the trimester.

There is an online Moodle community for this course. Moodle can be accessed via iWaikato. Moodle is used for class announcements, supplementary notes, important dates, the paper outline etc. so students will be required to check the Moodle site regularly.

The expected workload for this paper is 10-13 hours per week (3 hours of lectures + 1 hour of workshop + 1 hour of tutorial and approximately 5-8 hours of self-directed study including task completion, review and preparation for the lessons throughout the course).