Level Descriptions

Basic grammar and expressions necessary for everyday living are studied, with particular emphasis placed on conversational Japanese. Stress is placed on expressions in Japanese that will immediately come in handy in situations such as greeting people, shopping, answering the phone, and getting around town. Basic knowledge concerning the reading and writing of Japanese is also imparted. Through the school's unique teaching method, basic grammar and vocabulary are memorized and consolidated, thus enabling the student to gain a good grammatical foundation and actively use what has been learnt. From this early stage, instruction in composition and speech making are also given. The level of difficulty of this course corresponds to the knowledge possessed by those who have been certified at Level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

This course is designed for students who have already acquired an all-round knowledge of Japanese at the elementary level and who have studied about 1000 kanji. The course aims at enabling students to acquire a level of Japanese that is sufficient for handling matters of a more complex and intricate nature than they may come across in daily life. The curriculum at this level, which incorporates writing compositions, conducting mini interviews and studying haiku, is organized so as to enable the students to gain a richer "sense" of the language and is also designed to prepare students to study at a Japanese university or vocational school. The level of difficulty of this course corresponds to the knowledge possessed by those who have been certified at Level 2 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

This course is designed for those students who have no problems in communicating in Japanese in everyday situations. Novels, commentaries, as well as works pertaining to business, economics, history and culture are studied. Instruction is given in the writing of organized compositions and in debating skills. The curriculum, which incorporates projects such as producing student radio dramas, writing newspaper articles and conducting street interviews, enables students to gain an independency with the language while improving their knowledge of everyday spoken Japanese. The level of difficulty of this course, corresponds to Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.