This online course is designed for learning elementary Japanese using PANORAMA. The course is based on a four-credit first-semester Japanese language course offered at a post-secondary educational institution. This first course covers PANORAMA’s Module I: The Japanese Sound and Writing Systems (pp.13-38), Grammar Points 1 through 5 (pp.39-108) of Module II: Grammar, pp.05-31 of Module III: Practice in the Activity Booklet, and Module IV: Kanji on this website.

Course Summary

What you will be able to do

By completing this course, you will be able to do the following things:

• You can read sentences written in hiragana and katakana.
• You can read some basic kanji.
• You can make grammatically correct simple sentences.
• You can talk about future actions and events.
• You can talk about habitual actions and events.
• You can talk about past actions and events.
• You can have a basic conversation using formal speech. (e.g., when you speak to a social superior, stranger, etc.)
• You can have a basic conversation using casual speech. (e.g., when you speak to your friend)

What you will learn

These are the main goals of this course.

• Characteristics of Japanese sounds
• Japanese characters (hiragana, katakana, kanji)
• Functions and usages of particles
• Sentences with predicate verbs
• Sentences with predicate nouns
• Sentences with predicate adjectives
• Long forms (desu/masu forms) and short forms
• Basic conversations in polite and plain styles (formal and casual speeches)

Target Learners

This course is designed for the following learners:

• Learners who have never studied Japanese before
• Learners who are at an early stage of studying elementary Japanese either by themselves or at an educational institution

Course Modality

This is a 100% asynchronous online course. You can proceed with your study at your own pace.

Course Length

This course is based on a four-credit course that is offered during an approximately four-month semester at a post-secondary educational institution. That said, this is a 100% online course and learners can complete it faster or take longer.

Materials

Required Material

Textbook Elementary Japanese PANORAMA: Fast-Track to Mastery in Just 12 Grammar Points

Recommended Material

Digital flashcards Anki (free)

IMPORTANT!

The following are notable characteristics of this online course. These are important factors to facilitate efficient learning, so keep them in mind while proceeding with your study.

• Textbook-based Approach
  Unlike many asynchronous online courses, this course is designed based on a textbook. This enables learners to study new materials efficiently and look over old items quickly. You can easily keep track of your development, which helps you feel real progress. 
• Emphasis on Learning Strategy
  Applying effective learning strategies is crucial for facilitating deep, long-term learning. It is not uncommon, however, that necessary instructions on how to learn (cf. what to learn) are not given in online courses. In this course, Lesson 0, the preparatory module, teaches you a scientifically-backed method to use throughout this course.
• Practice Over Lecture
  Asynchronous online courses commonly have students watch a lot of lecture videos. Excessive time spent on lecture-watching often yields diminishing returns compared to active learning strategies, on which this course puts more emphasis. We too provide concept-learning videos, but a majority of our videos are active learning practice videos. After learning new materials effectively using the textbook, spend as much time as possible on active learning exercises (cf. passive learning activities).

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Lessons

Lesson 0 (Preparation)

When you learn a foreign language, it is essential to memorize words and expressions and practice them repeatedly until you achieve mastery. This is among the most important yet challenging tasks. PANORAMA uses the app called Anki to facilitate effectively these repeat practice exercises. As a preparation to start the first lesson of this course, let’s learn how to memorize and retain words and expressions efficiently using Anki.

Lesson 1

Japanese is written using a mixture of three principal writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. In this first lesson, we will learn the characteristics of Japanese syllables and hiragana.

Lesson 2

Understanding the functions of particles is essential to make grammatical sentences in Japanese. In this lesson, we will learn how to make sentences correctly through various sentences with predicate verbs.

Lesson 3

In Lesson 1, you studied the one-to-one correspondences between character and sound and the basic Japanese syllables. Here, we will learn a few exceptions in the letter-sound correspondences as well as additional sounds that we haven’t learned. Upon completing this lesson, you will have finished the entire Sounds and Writing 1 in the textbook (pp.15-28).

Lesson 4

You have learned various particles through example sentences in Lesson 2. In this lesson, you will learn four more basic particles that we haven’t covered. Upon completing this lesson, you will have finished the entire Grammar Point 1 in the textbook (pp.41-56).

Lesson 5

In Lessons 2 and 4, you learned how to make verb-predicate sentences using various particles. In this lesson, you will learn how to conjugate verbs correctly so that you can use those sentences in conversation. Upon completing this lesson, you will have finished the entire Grammar Point 2 in the textbook (pp.57-64).

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The following lessons are in development and will be released in sequence.