Japanese Reading, Writing & Speaking for Beginner Students: Semester Long - FLEX

In this 15-week course, learners will begin to learn the fundamentals of the Japanese language, including the primary alphabets, common words and phrases, and the essentials of Japanese history and culture.  Classes will be divided in half, with one portion of the week's instructional materials dedicated to language acquisition and practice, and the second half being discussion of historical highlights and culture.  This class is a wonderful foundation course for students who have an interest in Japanese language and culture and will adequately prepare them for Intermediate Japanese courses.  While a FLEX class, this course is designed and taught in the same manner as a live language course would be taught.  The nature of FLEX classes makes these materials more accessible to a wider audience of students, and this class will contain the same contents as the live version of this course.  Learners will also receive the same amount and caliber of personalized feedback as they would receive in the live version of this course.

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Topics covered will include:
-Romaji
-Hiragana
-Katakana
-Kanji
-Reading Practice
-Listening Practice
-Speaking Practice
-Brief History of Japan
-Japanese Art
-Anime and Manga
-Japanese Calligraphy
-Japanese Literature
-Japanese Fashion and Beauty Aesthetics
-Japanese Video Games and Tech
-And more!

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Schedule **please note that this schedule is intended as a guide and slight variations may occur.  All content will still be covered**

Week 1:
-Self introductions - vocabulary and phrases
-Introduction to Romaji
-Introduction to Hiragana - reading and writing approx. 1/2 of hiragana
-Brief History of Japan

Week 2:
-Important Phrases - short phrases that are useful to know
-Introduction to Hiragana - reading and writing approx. 2/2 of hiragana
-Different art styles from Japan and their cultural significance

Week 3:
-First review week - recap of introductions and important phrases
-First speaking challenge - speaking practice of hiragana
-First reading challenge - reading practice of basic hiragana
-First listening challenge - listening practice of basic hiragana

Week 4:
-Additional Hiragana - diacritical marks and their usage
-All about me - vocabulary to talk about oneself
-History of anime and manga

Week 5:
-Additional Hiragana - character combinations and their pronunciations
-Calendar Vocabulary - days of the week
-Anime and manga - the impact on Japanese and global culture

Week 6:
-Second review week - recap of self description and days of the week
-Second speaking challenge - speaking practice of hiragana
-Second reading challenge - reading practice of hiragana
-Second listening challenge - listening practice of hiragana

Week 7:
-Introduction to Katakana - reading and writing approx. 1/2 of katakana
-Loan words and their history and use
-Calendar vocabulary - months of the year
-Japanese Calligraphy

Week 8:
-Introduction to Katakana - reading and writing approx. 2/2 of katakana
-Name calligraphy - students will practice writing their name's in Japanese calligraphy
-Getting around - vocabulary for traveling
-Japanese Holidays

Week 9:
-Third review week - recap of months of the year and travel vocabulary
-Third speaking challenge - speaking practice of katakana
-Third reading challenge - reading practice of katakana
-Third listening challenge - listening practice of katakana

Week 10:
-Introduction to Kanji - reading and writing 5 of the most commonly used, beginner kanji
-What are Kanji? - history, composition, and use of kanji
-Japanese Literature 

Week 11:
-Introduction to Kanji - reading and writing 5 more commonly used, beginner kanji
-Kanji Radicals and Decoding Kanji
-Grammar Point: です・ます form
-Color Vocabulary
-Japanese Fashion and Beauty through the Centuries

Week 12:
-Fourth review week - recap of kanji decoding, grammar point, and color vocabulary
-Fourth speaking challenge - speaking practice of current knowledge
-Fourth reading challenge - reading practice of current knowledge
-Fourth listening challenge - listening practice of current knowledge

Week 13:
-Additional Kanji - reading and writing 7 more commonly used, beginner kanji
-Grammar Point: Particles は・の・を
-School Vocabulary
-Japanese Video Games and Tech

Week 14:
-Additional Kanji - reading and writing 7 more commonly used, beginner kanji
-Grammar Point: がいます・があります
-Location Vocabulary
-Japanese Theater and Sport

Week 15:
-Final review week - emphasis on review of weeks 13 & 14, additional review of all weeks' material
-Final speaking project 
-Final reading project
-Final listening project

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A breakdown of the weekly schedule for students:
~Monday: weekly lesson materials will be released, to include a video lecture and demo of drawing the characters, as well as a practice sheet to use for independent practice drawing the characters
~Tuesday: students have this day to continue independent study and practice
~Wednesday: interactive activities will be released such as games, Jamboard access, discussion board posts, review activities, or creative projects like arts and crafts
~Thursday: learners will continue to interact with the class materials and can utilize this time to finish up any assignments or activities
~Friday-Sunday: learners can expect to receive feedback on submitted materials during this time frame

Students are expected to interact with each other in multiple ways each week. Interaction will include:
-Class discussions about the characters of the week
-Q&A discussion boards for instructor-to-learner and learner-to-learner education
-Personalized assignment feedback from instructor
-Creative project presentations 
-Peer evaluation of creative projects
-Games and review materials like Kahoot, Jamboard, and Nearpod