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I was talking to a few of my Japanese student friends about this, and they told the first thing they should know is how to get around town, order food and other such things, with specific grammar following shortly. As an anateur teacher of the language, one of the most upsetting trends I see with students of the language is that for all they know about grammar, they have close to 0 knowledge on any relevant topics to use that grammar practice with, and as such leads me to think along with learning the language, they should also educate themselves on the different aspects of the culture and current events in the country so they have something worth talking about as they build up their vocab and grammar skills. What do you guys think?

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2 Answers

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If this is for students who may never actually visit Japan, maybe supplementing class with modern Japanese movies with story lines rooted in reality would be a good idea.

This way they get a taste of modern Japanese culture, they'll see things that might spark further interest in Japan, and they'll learn Japanese as well. They can even try to use their language skills to talk about or describe the movie to someone.

Personally I would find lessons based on how to get around town boring if I were a student who didn't have immediate plans to visit Japan.

Maybe arranging pen pals or something would be good. Lang-8.com has a great service where you can write something in a foreign language, and native speakers of that language will check your work and interact with you if you want.

My two cents!

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I've often thought about that, and think that would be a good primer on the cultural aspects. Any recommendations? – Koiyuki Feb 5 at 2:16
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I would say that the most important thing to do when you first start to study a foreign language is to do just that – to actually start – and develop a habit of studying on a regular basis.

The second thing I would look at is the goal of the language learner. Will he/she be traveling to Japan shortly? If so, then starting with phrases/vocabulary that is useful in certain situations, such as at restaurants or at the train station, would certainly be very worthwhile.

I would agree that early on that (whether right at the start or not) understanding a language within its cultural context is very important. Speaking a foreign language isn’t simply a process of translating your native tongue word-for-word or phrase-for-phrase; rather it is a process that takes into consideration cultural norms and social context. For example, there really is no translation for “yoroshiku onegaishimasu”. Yes, you can come up with some word-for-word translation, but you would never use that phrase in English (at least not very naturally) or you can translate it as “nice to meet you”, but that’s not what it really means. Yet, “yoroshiku onegaishimasu” is a phrase that is used all the time in Japanese.

So, yes, please incorporate “real” situations that take into consideration the social and cultural context of the Japanese language.

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