In our first week we will learn all about the history of the Japanese language and writing systems, how and why Katakana and Japan's other writing systems came to exist, and how they are used. We will also look at how a typical Katakana chart looks, and how to use it to read and write words!

In week 2, we will learn the first 10 letters of the Katakana alphabet (the "a" row and the "ka" row), and practice reading and writing interesting words using those letters. We will also learn a little bit about Japanese geography, and look at some cultural photos and videos!

In week 3, we will learn the next 10 letters of the Katakana alphabet (the "sa" row and the "ta" row). We will also learn to count to 99 in Japanese, and practice how to say how old you are and what time it is.

In week 4, we will learn the next 10 letters of the Katakana alphabet (the "na" row and the "ha" row), and learn about Japanese foods!

In week 5, we will learn the next 10 letters of the Katakana alphabet (the "sa" row and the "ta" row), and learn about Japanese daily greetings and question words ("Where is it? What is it?")

In week 6, we will learn the next 13 letters of the Katakana alphabet (the "ma" row, the "ya" row, and the "ra" row), and learn about current and upcoming Japanese holidays!

In week 7, we will learn the next 10 letters of the Katakana alphabet (the "ga" row and the "za" row), and how to say that you do or don't want to do an activity in Japanese.

In week 8, we will learn the final 15 letters of the Katakana alphabet (the "da" row, the "ba" row, and the "pa" row), and play some games as part 1 of our review of everything we've learned in this class!

In week 9, we will learn about combining Katakana letters from the "ya" row with other letters to make sounds such as "kya" and "cha," and play some different games as part 2 of our review of everything we've learned!

Students will be given weekly practice assignments in the free app Lingo Deer, and depending on the week may also get short reading or writing assignments that I will send out as PDF worksheets. Students should expect to spend 1-2 hours each week on homework and practice outside of class. Completed worksheets can be sent back to me so that I can check the work.

For our in-class and homework practice materials, we will be using a combination of my own materials and also various real-life media, including movie posters, billboards and signs, products, magazines, and videos, in order to get contextualized experience reading a wide range of fonts and types of words & in order to get as comprehensive a cultural experience as possible! I think that learning a new language is a lot of fun and that cultural exchange is a very important part of youth education, so one of my main goals is for you all to enjoy yourselves in this class at the same time as you're learning all about the Japanese language and culture.

Our main goal in this class is to become super familiar with the Katakana alphabet and how its letters are pronounced, and super comfortable with reading and writing in Katakana; while getting a comprehensive introduction to Japanese vocab, grammar, and culture along the way  :)