Japenese Language Courses

The approach of the Washington Academy of Languages program is to emphasize the use of authentic Japanese as it is naturally spoken and written.  Speaking and listening are practiced at normal speeds in the classroom.

As a  result, students can communicate easily with native speakers. Research in the area of second language acquisition suggests that the most effective process for acquiring a language begins with listening followed by speaking,  reading and, finally, writing. At the Washington Academy of Languages, we follow this process.

Japanese texts are used for learning reading and writing. Hiragana is introduced in level 1. Students are encouraged to read and write in hiragana from the start. Katakana, for foreign loan words, is taught in level 2. Finally,  Kanji is introduced towards the end of level 2 as part of this unified system so that students can understand the various readings and pronunciation of each character in different contexts.

Japanese is a non-European language and is quite different from  English; therefore, the time needed to master the language is longer than that for European languages. At the Washington Academy of Languages, stress is placed on the quality rather than the quantity of language skills. Because of the small class size, however, students have ample opportunities to speak and ask questions in the class and are thus able to proceed quickly toward the acquisition of the language.