LoginThe Japanese Lessons Are Finished!
The lessons have been done!
It’s been a year and a half in the making, but we have finished the Japanese lessons.
What has been done?
An extra set of lessons were added for the student beginning from the very start. They are titled, “Introduction to Japanese.” There are four of them. These lessons have been pared down to their simplest form. For those of you who are familiar with Japanese, you know that it can be quite a complex language. Actually though, Japanese conversation can be really concise! In fact I have found that if I am not in a conversation from the beginning, it can be pretty hard to understand what people are talking about.
Ear training
When learning a new language, the hard part in the beginning is catching the individual syllables and the unfamiliar sounds. Especially if the sounds are very similar to the ear of a new learner. The introductions lessons have been pared down to the very basics so as to make them easier to hear and remember. However, the lessons have not been unnaturally oversimplified. The Japanese that is taught in the lessons is real Japanese as it is used in everyday conversations.
After you finish with those four lessons, you can then go on to the Ultimate Beginners Lessons. You an also look at the lessons to learn the two basic writing systems, hiragana and katakana. These lessons will help you become familiar with the sounds of Japanese.
The Basics
There are a number of basic lessons to help you get started from the beginning. There are counting lessons and also basic greetings. There are many lessons to help get you started with learning Japanese that you can choose from.
Pre lessons
There are also pre lessons that you can do to help prepare you for the full lessons. The pre lessons have a variety of practice styles. Most of the time, there are two sentence patterns to focus on. The pre lessons will swap certain key words so that you can learn to say a wide variety of things. You will be shown different words to use in the focus sentences.
That’s too much!
When doing the lessons, don’t worry about the Kanji. The lessons at language101.com are about what you hear. The kanji and the literal translations are just helps. Your ears will get you through it!
Greetings,
I just accepted a new job in Japan, so my husband and I are moving there in mid Sept. Neither of us have studied Japanese before, but we are eager to find the right method to help us get started. Though much of my staff will speak English, I want to demonstrate my respect for the culture and the people, as well as be able to explore Japan with a growing sense of independence that comes with the use of language.
thank you,
-Rebecca
Hello Rebecca. That’s great! You are headed for a lot of new and exciting experiences. You have the right idea, wanting to lean Japanese despite the staff’s English ability. You’ll find your life outside of work more rewarding. The Japanese lessons at language101.com provide some very useful basic phrases in the beginner lessons. They will also get you used to what conversational Japanese sounds like. I was very confused when I discovered that Japanese people didn’t talk like I was taught in text books.in Asian languages,a lot of information that is necessary in English is often omitted in conversation. If you do have text books, it is good to read through those and get yourselves familiar with grammar points and supplement your reading. Go through the lessons here and get yourselves familiar with the sounds of Japanese. Even when you are here in Japan, you’ll find our lessons valuable for building conversational ability.
You’ll note, as you may have seen in the demo lesson, that there is no romanization of the Japanese words. Have the English letters may give you a hand at the very beginning, but it the long run it will be a hinderence. If the Japanese script bothers you, just ignore it and you’ll soon get used to learning by listening. Which is a great skill to have for when you get here!