Japanese Beyond Beginners (part 1)

Part 1 revisits topics covered at beginners level to refresh your knowledge and improve your fluency at a basic level. You’ll also learn new vocabulary and grammar to communicate in a wider range of scenarios. You’ll learn an additional 40 kanji, improving your reading and writing skills.

You’ll also explore more about Japanese culture, using lyrics and YouTube video clips to help you learn and bring some fun to the classes.

This is the first of three Beyond Beginners modules. If you choose to continue learning you can enrol on part 2 and part 3 and reach basic proficiency at Japanese-Language Proficiency Test N5 level.

Who is it for?

This is the natural next step after completing our beginners syllabus or if you have studied Japanese formally for 60 hours with another provider. More information can be found in the eligibility section.

Timetable

This course takes place one evening a week at 19:00 for 10 weeks.

Benefits

• Part 1 is ideal if you want to brush up on your skills before a trip to Japan, without needing to commit to the full year
• Taught in small groups, taught by a highly trained native speaker
• Gain an insight into Japanese culture and society.

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

• talk about the characteristics of things and people
• use numbers and counters
• use expressions of how often you do something
• talk about what you want to do
• ask someone to do something for you
• understand and use 40 kanji.

Grammatical structures

• Verb conjugation / Verb groups / Verb て-form
• N は どうでしたか。
  大学の日本語のべんきょうは、どうでしたか。
  How was studying Japanese at University?
• N はadjective です。
  すこしむずかしかったです。でも、おもしろかったです。
  It was a little bit difficult, however it was interesting.
• Vます-formたいです。 
  すしを　食べたかったです。でも、時間がありませんでした。
  I wanted to eat Sushi, however I didn’t have time to.
• Verb て-formください。
  東京駅で山手線に乗って、秋葉原で中央線に乗り換えて、お茶の水で電車を降りてください。
  Please take the Yamanote Line at Tokyo Station, change to the Chuo Line at Akihabara, and get off at Ochanomizu.

You will be awarded an official City, University of London certificate on completion of the course if you attend over 70 per cent of the classes. The course is not formally accredited.

Assessment

There is no formal assessment, but you will be expected to complete around two hours of homework each week.

Teaching

Our courses are designed to develop your skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. During the lessons you’ll have many opportunities to practice these and benefit from one-to-one interaction with the tutor. You’ll also study in pairs and carry out short role-play exercises of everyday scenarios.

You’ll also have access to our digital learning platform, Moodle, which hosts lesson content and other learning materials.

It is the right level if one of the following applies

• you have completed our Japanese Beginners syllabus, or equivalent elsewhere
• you have studied formally for 60 hours.

You should already be able to:

• write and read Hiragana and Katakana
• describe things and locations
• ask and tell the time and tell telephone numbers
• use basic greetings when visiting people and receiving guests
• talk about where you live
• speak about what you are doing now.

See our full range of Japanese courses.

English requirements

You will need a good level of spoken and written English to enrol on this course.