A new Japanese language course targeted beginners started on January 17, 2022. Three of newly enrolled students have been participating in this “Pre-Starter” course, every Monday morning at 11:30 for 30 minutes.

The purpose of this course is to introduce basic expressions and knowledge useful in daily life, prior to the regular introductory course starting in April, so that the students can get used to life in Japan more quickly and feel more comfortable.

The planned study topics includes “Japanese pronunciation,” “greetings,” “self-introduction,” “how to ask for help,” and “how to ride buses”.

On the first day, we tackled Japanese pronunciation. The students had a hard time with double consonants (small “tsu”) and contracted sounds (“kya”, “mya”, “ryo”, etc.) in particular, but all students were very interested and proactive in learning.