Course Syllabus for Japanese 101
March 4, 2008
Tuesdays and Thursdays 5:00pm EST
http://www.freewebs.com/japanese-language-101/
Cake
anrakuinks@gmail.com
Software: The kanji and kana software available from kenjikojima.com is highly recommended but not mandatory.
Text: Your Text for this class will be a compilation of my own creation, and so I recommend you print out the lessons for refrence. This is optional as you may feel more comfortable keeping everything in digital format, but is expected to be helpful.
Exam Policy: Exams are given via e-mail. I will let you know far ahead of time when the exams will be so that you will have time to adjust your schedule. If you have an unavoidable conflict, please let me know immediately. Exams will usually begin at 5:00pm and should only take about an hour to complete. Each exam will consist of a written portion and a proficiency exam. To take an exam students must “check in” by posting on the classroom forum by 5:00 when the exam begins. I will then e-mail you the exam and when you have completed it, you must e-mail it back to me, and then I will start your proficiency exam via instant messenger (preferably AIM, It comes with gmail accounts which I will provide students with upon request). When you have completed that please post again to signal your completion. There will be 4 exams, 3 regular exams and 1 cumulative final. Remember to study!
Quizzes: Quizzes will be given at random so always be ready for them. If homework, projects and other grades show satisfactory knowledge and improvement, quizzes will be less frequent.
Homework: Homework will be given almost every Tuesday and Thursday, each assignment will have a clearly visible due date (usually located in the title of the post). All homework must be submitted by 12:00 midnight on the due date. Please do the homework, it will help you learn your new language.
Projects: There will be 3 projects students are required to complete in this course. Projects will be announced with detailed instructions and rubrics for grading. These must be submitted with the same policy as homework. By 12:00pm midnight on the due date.
All homework must be submitted via e-mail to me at anrakuinks@gmail.com
Lessons: I will post new lessons and homework every Tuesday and Thursday. The lessons will appear in a blog post with a downloadable Word document of the lesson. This can be downloaded and printed. I will also frequently post podcasts that I highly recommend you listen to. Some lessons will also appear in the form of a streaming video that you can also download to an ipod or mp3 player.
Communication: You can contact me at any time at anrakuinks@gmail.com
Grading Policy:
There will be 4 exams - All 4 total add up to account for 50% of your overall grade
Homework - accounts for 30% of your overall grade
Quizzes/Projects - accounts for 15% of your grade
Class participation - accounts for 5% i.e. forum and posting activity
Course Outline
1. About the language
~Pronunciation
~Word Order
~Greetings
2. About Writing
~Intro to Hiragana
~Intro to katakana
~Kanji Basics
3. Particles
~”This is”
~Desu → “To be”
~Meeting the new neighbor
~2 different forms of verbs
EXAM 1
4. Hiragana
~Particles (1-3)
PROJECT 1
5. “This and That”
~”Where from?”
~Yota’s room
~Meeting Mary
6. Hiragana
~Particles (4-6)
7. Numbers
~The Narita Airport
~Casual Vocabulary
~Discussing the weather
EXAM 2
8. Hiragana
~Particles (7-9)
PROJECT 2
9. Time
~Yota’s birthday and Mary’s parents
~The weekend/Writing
10. Hiragana
~Particles (10)
11. Directions
~Plans for tommaro
~Kyoto trip
~Going to a restaunt
12. Kanji
~Particles
EXAM 3
13. Days of the month
~The news stand
~The bank
14. Kanji
~Particles
PROJECT 3
15. Where is it?
~Lets go
~The trip
~The post office
16. Kanji
~Particles
FINAL EXAM
This is a rough out line and can be adjusted to our pace. It we end up getting further than this in this course, we will then move onto grammar.
This will be a 2 month course and there likely be courses that follow this.