Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2

v  5. How is Japanese pronunciation presented in this textbook? There is an audio recording for all the dialogues, vocabulary lists, and drills. The accompanying audio should be maximally used to learn all the dialogues and vocabulary lists and to practice drills. Keep in mind as you learn how to speak Japanese that you can only learn accurate pronunciation by listening to and mimicking the pronunciation of native speakers. Avoid reading off the written scripts. When using the audio, make sure you do not refer to the written scripts. For many of us, visual input affects audio processing so much that it may interfere with accurately perceiving the audio input. You should refer to the written scripts only when you need help with particular parts of the audio. After peeking at the script, go back to the audio again. In the first four lessons in the textbook, Japanese words and sentences are presented in Romanization (Roman alphabet representing Japanese sounds) along with the authentic Japanese script. Romanization is not meant to be an accurate representation of Japanese sounds but rather just a reminder of the sounds you hear when listening to your instructor or the audio recordings. Be particularly mindful not to pronounce Romanized Japanese as if you were reading English or any other language. Starting in Lesson 5, the model exchanges for drills are presented using the authentic Japanese orthography. Hiragana will be placed above kanji to indicate the correct reading. This use of kana is called furigana and is common in comic books and other publications where the writer wants to ensure the correct reading of the kanji used. By this point, you must be familiar with the correct procedure of doing drills described below, and not need written scripts anyway. 6. How should you use this textbook? Dialogues: The dialogues present frequently observed exchanges that are part of a longer conversation. It is practical and useful to memorize these to the point where you can recite them automatically and naturally. Make sure you memorize dialogues using the audio and while integrating body language. You can expand each dialogue by adding elements before and after each to create a longer conversation. You can also change parts of the dialogue to fit a different context. Either way, the original dialogue serves as a base to explore other possibilities. Drills: Each dialogue has at least two drills that target key grammar patterns and vocabulary. These are rather mechanical drills that are meant to train quick and automatic formation of language. The recommended procedure for these drill practices is to first listen to the two model exchanges and understand what changes to make in responding to the cues. Look at the scripts for the models if you are not sure what to do. Follow this 4-step procedure: 1) Listen to the first cue, 2) insert your response during the following pause, 3) listen to the model answer, and 4) repeat the model answer during the second pause. Repeat this procedure for the following cues. It is recommended that you loop back to the beginning of the drill frequently. Always give yourself a chance to respond to the cues before you listen to the model answer. Also think of the meaning as you do these drills. Needless to say, it doesn't make sense to just keep repeating the sounds you hear without knowing what you are saying. Exercisers: Two types of exercises will follow the mechanical drills. The first is ‘Say It in Japanese,’ which is a translation activity. The last exercise ‘Act in Japanese’ is a role-play exercise, in which students can freely respond to each other within the given context and expand the suggested interchange into a longer interaction. For this exercise, students are encouraged to perform the roles as naturally as possible integrating body language, facial expressions, etc. Review Questions: By answering the grammar review questions at the end of each lesson, you will self assess your understanding of the grammar before moving onto the next lesson. The parentheses at the end of each question indicate in which grammar note to find the answer to the question.