Sapporo Tsunagu Japanese Language School

Sapporo Tsunagu Japanese Language School offers one-year and two-year general Japanese programmes from its Chuo ward campus. Both have April and October intakes. The curriculum specifies what a student should be able to do with the language at each stage, which makes the difference between the two programmes particularly clear.

How the Japanese curriculum develops

Beginners start with familiar tasks such as shopping and ordering food. They then move on to talking about their home country, describing travel plans and expressing preferences. In the intermediate stages common to both programmes, learners work on conversations with friends, use connecting words to organise a piece of writing and practise giving reasons for an opinion. The school uses the Genki books for the beginning stages and moves on to Quartet for intermediate work.

The two-year route continues into more sustained discussion. Students conduct interviews, write up what they have learned and debate ideas about social issues. Later objectives include following dialogue in Japanese television drama, a different listening task from the short exchanges used in the early lessons. The published timetable divides a teaching session into four 45-minute periods, with separate morning and afternoon schedules.