Japanese 2A

This is the first course in a two-course sequence of the second year Japanese. Lessons focus on language skills in everyday social interactions such as shopping, ordering food, and asking about the weather to communicate one’s need. Lessons also focus on contemporary Japanese cultures and practices to support culturally relevant communications. The introduction to the semantic writing system, Kanji, widely known as “Chinese Characters,” begins in this course. All course materials use the Hiragana and Katakana writing systems without reliance upon the Romaji (English script) as guides. Therefore, students must be able to read and write hiranga characters and have a developing proficiency with Katakana characters prior to enrolling in this course. All lessons are equipped with audio and video learning objects to demonstrate native Japanese speaker’s pronunciation, which supports interpersonal and interpretive fluency in Japanese. Students will be asked to use various media tools including online resources, a microphone or a web cam capable of recording audio, and the web-based Video Notes tool in Brightspace in order to record their performance in assignment submissions throughout the course. This course targets the Novice Level of MI World Language Standards and Benchmarks.