Japanese Level 9+ is a very practical communication course. A communicative method is applied and a lot of interactive activities and actual classroom communication are used to develop your communication skills in a casual atmosphere. The teacher does not use English in class unless it is necessary for some grammatical explanation. Level 9+ probably requires about 4~5 years prior leaning. In terms of grammar, vocabulary & kanji, the course is most suitable for those who are trying to achieve N4 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and can read/recognize at least 150 kanjis. Kanji study is included in this course and the learnt kanjis are used in all the course materials to maintain the reading ability, and new kanjis will be slowly introduced in class. However, the biggest aim of this course is to increase your oral communication ability, so most of the class time is used for listening & speaking practice. Hope you enjoy the course and develop your communication skill successfully!

Course Outline:

• The lesson is divided into three parts;

• (1) Teacher-centred casual talk to the class,

The teacher decides a topic and casually talks about the topic in class, using a lot of learnt vocab and grammar/structures to develop listening skills. The teacher also introduces new vocab/grammar in the talk and demonstrates the use in the communication. The teacher occasionally communicates with a student/students to check their
understanding or ask for the opinion/comment etc. You will receive a list of all the new vocab/grammar used in the teacher’s talk

• (2) Student-to-Student activities (pair or mingle):

Various communicative activities e.g. Q & A, grid survey, role play, information gap etc. are used to practice communication with classmates.

• (3) Kanji study:

Review the learnt kanjis and study new kanjis (about 15 kanjis for 8 weeks) using the kanji practice book.

• The Japanese cultural or other interesting information (e.g. movies, festival etc.) are provided throughout the course in class or via class email.

Please note the course schedule and outline might be adjusted according to the learner’s progress.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course, you will be able to;

• Remember and use the learnt language (vocab, grammar, kanji) in communication
• Increase new language (vocab, grammar, kanji) to use in communication
• Talk about various topics in Japanese
• Develop listening & speaking skills in actual communication
• Get used to communicate with the native speaker
• Increase accuracy and fluency
• Take initiative to start and enjoy communication and increase confidence
• Increase the kanji knowledge and develop reading and writing skills for daily communication

Prerequisite:

• You need to have completed Level 8 – Parts 1 & 2 to enrol in this class or demonstrate your relevant ‘level’ through a conversation with the tutor prior to enrolling.

Course Materials in Mayumi’s Class:

All the course materials including the “Kanji practice book” will be emailed to you on the first day if you have just joined this course. Please print them out and bring to class from the 2nd week. All course materials including Kanji practice book will be emailed to you on the first day. Please print them out and bring them to class from the 2nd week.

About the tutor:

Mayumi Tomi has been teaching Japanese at SGSCC since 2016. Mayumi was born in Fukuoka-city in Japan and immigrated to Australia with her family in 1991.
In 1994, she studied at The University of New South Wales, Institute of Languages and received the Certificate in Teaching Asian Language-Japanese, and from 1996 to 1998, studied at the University of Sydney, Postgraduate course, and obtained Master of Arts in Japanese Studies. Mayumi has over 27 years of teaching experience across adult, tertiary and secondary education.

She has worked for various institutions as a Japanese language teacher including:
1995 – 2018 Sydney Institute of Technology, Ultimo
1996 – 2006 The University of Sydney
2017 – 2019 Meriden, An Anglican School for Girls

Mayumi has also written a number of Japanese course books and the books listed below:
Sample Speaking Questions for Japanese Continuers Stage 6, published by the NSW Department of Education & Training in 2001
Japanese Grammar Workbook, Japanese Essential Grammar for Speaking self-published in 2010

Other Information:

• To ensure resources are ready for you at the start of your course, we ask you ideally enrol at least one week before the course commences.
• All courses need a minimum number of students to run ("we try our hardest to get those") . If your course does not have enough students it will be cancelled before the commencement and you will be informed