Dear Learner,

Hello and welcome to the basic survival course in Japanese. Japanese, which is spoken by more than 120 million people, is one of the major languages in the world. Japan is not only a world leader in technology as you may be already knowing but also a country with a unique and fascinating civilization. Learning Japanese will open the door for you to this wonderful culture.

This course has been divided into 10 modules and one introductory module. Completing each module will enable you do develop language skills for specific tasks such as handling various situations at the airport, introducing yourself and using proper greetings, discussing a tour schedule, enquiring about various tourist destinations, finding one’s way to places such as post office, convenience store etc., shopping, ordering food in a restaurant, giving directions to a taxi drivers and informing the authorities about your lost items and correctly describing the items.

Each module includes a few video dialogues followed by some set phrases, expressions, and vocabulary. This is then followed by various exercises such as filling in the blanks, choosing the correct alternative, matching correct equivalents of words and their meanings, reading a small passage and choosing whether a statement based on the passage is true or false and so on. These exercises will enable you to check how much you have learned and understood. If you find that you are having difficulties in doing the exercises, go back to the beginning and do the module again. Please do not go to the next module unless and until you have thoroughly understood and mastered all the previous modules.

We hope you will enjoy doing this short course in Japanese. So good luck and see you in the modules to come. Happy learning!!