SUGGESTED ENTRY-LEVEL JAPANESE CLASSES

The following are general guidelines to help students self-select the appropriate Japanese class in which to start off here at Georgia Tech. Please note that the School of Modern Languages is now located on the 2nd floor of O'Keefe Building.

• No native/heritage speakers of Japanese are allowed to take JAPN 3002 or below.
• If you are unable to register for a specific class, fill a Permit/Overload Request Form on-line for the section(s) you desire. Be aware that if you select the wrong course or level, the instructor may oblige you to drop the class. In other words, if in doubt, then make an appointment with an advisor!

The school will grant 6 hours of elective credit in Japanese for high school study in a foreign language, provided the student has two or more years of high school credit (or the equivalent) in Japanese and has completed 6 semester hours at the 2000-, 3000-, or 4000-level with an average grade of C or higher. Transfer students must complete at least 3 of the 6 hours at Georgia Tech.

• This is the right class for you if you have never taken any formal classes in Japanese before.

This is the right class for you if...

• You have successfully taken JAPN 1001 at Georgia Tech, or its equivalent at another college/university; or you have taken 2 years in High School and feel fairly confident.
  
• You are comfortable in reading and writing both hiragana and katakana.

This is the right class for you if...

• You have taken 3 years of high school Japanese or more, 1 year of college-level Japanese, or its equivalent.
  
• You are hesitant when you speak Japanese, and you make vocabulary and structure mistakes, but you can describe yourself and your family, talk about your interests, ask other people about themselves and their daily activities, giving locations, shopping, your past experiences, etc.
  
• You have done some reading in textbooks, but it takes you some time and effort to follow the gist of a short text. You can recognize most of the following 74 kanji:

  

• You can write a paragraph or two (using many of the kanji characters shown above) about yourself and your friends or family, your daily activities without a dictionary, but with errors.

These should be the right classes for you if...

• You are able to understand most of what your teacher says in Japanese classes, and you are comfortable in a classroom taught mostly in Japanese.
  
• You speak rather easily, make some mistakes, and are able to speak comfortably in the past or present, and to talk about things like your health conditions, changing weather, travel plans, instruction on how to use some machines, giving directions, your future plans, etc.
  
• You can read relatively long Japanese texts with the help of a dictionary. It might take time, but you can read with attention and some enjoyment. You can also recognize most of 149 kanji shown below:
  
  
• You're comfortable writing longer compositions (using many of the additional kanji characters shown above) that develop a sequence of events or climate or thoughts about your plans and intentions. You probably need a dictionary occasionally, and you still make grammatical errors.

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If you are still not sure which course to take, please contact Japanese faculty members.
• Dr. Masato Kikuchi
• Dr. Rumiko Shinzato (Simonds)
• Ms. Masako Kanno
• Ms. Aki Matsushima
• Ms. Satomi Suzuki

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