Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 3

Before We Begin 1. For whom is this textbook designed? This is Book 3 of the textbook series Beginning Japanese for Professionals. The series is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. It focuses more on social and professional life beyond school. This textbook can be used for self-study, as part of an online course, or as a traditional college course. As a beginning level textbook, this book includes many elementary grammar patterns (Japanese Language Proficiency Test Levels 5 and 4), but the vocabulary and situations are selected specifically for working adults. Explanations are kept concise so as to only cover key points. The main focus is on oral communication. This textbook series was originally written for the beginning Japanese courses in the graduate program of Master of International Management in the School of Business at Portland State University. The goals of the Japanese courses are to provide students with a foundation for acquiring future business language skills and to increase students’ knowledge of Japanese culture within 150 instructional hours. This is the first edition that has been piloted in the program and will be replaced with revised editions in the future. 2. What kind of things can you do in Japanese after finishing this book? Based on ILR (Interagency Language Roundtable) estimates, we assume that in order for an English- speaking learner with average language aptitude to achieve the proficiency level of ILR Proficiency Scale 2: Limited Working Competence in Japanese, over one thousand hours of instruction will be required. The MIM program at PSU provides 150 hours of instruction in total. So, what can we expect our students to be able to do at the end of the program? It is not likely that they can negotiate business in Japanese or handle many professional interactions. However, it is possible that they can handle many everyday interactions, avoid well-known taboos, answer routine questions about themselves, and network for business purposes. The topics to be covered in this volume are: Greetings and Ritual Expressions Meeting People and Self-Introductions Exchanging Business Cards Schedules and Calendar Shopping Eating and Drinking Locations and Directions Public Transportations Family and My Profile Leisure and Hobbies Manners and Customs 3. How is this textbook structured? This textbook series is comprised of ten lessons in total, two lessons in Book 3. Each lesson consists of four dialogues. Each dialogue is followed by a vocabulary list, grammar notes, drills and exercises. At the end of each lesson, you will find a grammar review and application activities. 4. How is reading and writing handled in this textbook? The modern Japanese is written using a combination of kanji (characters borrowed from China) along with hiragana and katakana (two independent systems representing Japanese syllables). While parts of the textbook are written in Kanji , hiragana and katakana , no reading or writing instruction is included in this volume. 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 look at 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