Learn Japanese in Melbourne

Konnichiwa!

Japan is one of Australia’s largest business partners, and so Australian professionals often need to work with Japanese speakers. Lyceum’s Japanese courses are in demand from people who wish to enter the tourist and hospitality industries, while many others wish to learn in order to enrich their travel experiences. Japan offers a vast array of opportunities to Australian jobseekers with skills in Japanese.

At Lyceum Japanese is taught using the communicative method. The different character systems which are used in written Japanese are explained and discussed however a greater share of lesson time is spent in developing speaking and listening skills. There is a very strong focus on the spoken language as it is used in practical everyday situations.

Lyceum recommends 60 hours (levels 1-4) of tuition in order to achieve basic competence in regular everyday communication. The beginner levels focus on the following broad areas:

• Social interaction
• Planning outings
• Getting about town
• Shopping and other transactions, such as the bank and post office
• Booking accommodation and talking about the home

This level is recommended to people who wish to travel to Japan, and also for those who plan to use Japanese with their family and friends here in Melbourne.

As part of your course, our teachers will encourage you to seek out the Japanese speaking community in Melbourne, in order to help you practice your speaking and listening skills. Melbourne has a large population of Japanese speakers, which affords you great opportunities to practice the language and learn about the culture.
Teachers will give you information about the Japanese radio and television programmes, and newspapers available in Melbourne, and also about Japanese festivals & events in Melbourne.

As a group you will pool information about the best Melbourne Japanese restaurants, Japanese food stores, bookshops and Japanese clubs to help you further immerse yourself in the culture. With Lyceum's help, groups often plan outings together at the end of term.

English speakers find Japanese pronunciation quite easy. Because all our Japanese teachers are native speaking, it is possible to quickly achieve a good accent. Our teachers are able to tailor a lesson towards everyone’s needs, whether it be for general everyday needs, for business, for family purposes or for travel.

Each level of study at Lyceum corresponds to 15 hours of adult tuition, or twelve to eighteen months at high school. Check our course guide to see which level would suit you best, then call us to discuss and confirm.

Japanese Language Course - Level 1

Learn Japanese at our School (Lessons from Japanese for Busy People 1, chapters 1-5)

At our Japanese School you will learn:

• Brief overview of the writing and pronunciation system in Japanese
• Brief overview of Hiragana and Katakana characters
• The Romaji alphabet (Japanese words written in our alphabet)
• Daily expressions
• Self introduction and introducing other people, giving name, nationality and profession
• Reading common signs found in Japan, such as 'Exit', 'Information', 'Railway Station'
• How to formulate questions
• Replying to questions with yes or no
• Grammar sentence pattern, ".... is ...."
• Expressing possession using 'mine', 'yours', 'his', 'its' etc
• The numbers. Putting them into practice by asking each other for:
  Telephone numbers
  Addresses
  Prices in yen
  How to tell the time
  Days of the week, months, dates
• Roleplay topics: self introduction, asking/telling telephone numbers, shopping conversations etc.

See timetable for courses at:

Kew School, Fitzroy School, Malvern School, Melbourne City School

Japanese Language Course - Level 2

Learn Japanese at our School (Lessons from Japanese for Busy People 1, chapters 6-10)

At our Japanese School you will learn:

• Verbs: ‘to go’, ‘to come’, and ‘to return’
• Japanese sentences with verbs in present and past forms
• Vocabulary: places in Australia and countries in the world
• Asking questions using where, when, who and how
• Roleplay topic: visiting a Japanese person’s home
• Positions/locations: on, under, inside, outside, right, left, next to, between etc.
• Roleplay: Giving directions to places in your neighbourhood
• Shops and places in the city
• Forms of transport
• How to talk about things you will do
• Roleplay topic: talking about plans for the weekend
• Leisure activities such as listening to music, reading, watching TV
• Indicating the existence of objects and people: ‘There is….’
• Inside the house: rooms, garden, objects

See timetable for courses at:

Kew School, Fitzroy School, Malvern School, Melbourne City School

Japanese Language Course - Level 3

Learn Japanese at our School (Lessons from Japanese for Busy People 1, chapters 12-14, 16-18, 28-29)

At our Japanese School you will learn:

• Telephone conversations:
  Common expressions used on the phone
  Telephone manners
• Asking and answering ‘what kind of…’, ‘how is/was…’
• Invitation/asking preferences (Would you like to~? Shall we~?)
• Making an offer: (Shall I~?)
• Roleplay: Shall we go to the movies?
• Giving and receiving gifts
• Expressing preferences: to like/want/want to
• Expressing talents/abilities i.e. ‘being good at’ and ‘being bad/poor at’ something
• Parts of the body and expressing aches or pain: for example, ‘I have a headache’
• Roleplay: Arranging outings
• Dining out
• Traditional Japanese dishes and cooking
• Table manners
• Roleplay: At a Japanese restaurant

See timetable for courses at:

Kew School, Fitzroy School, Malvern School, Melbourne City School

Japanese Language Course - Level 4

Learn Japanese at our School (Lessons from Japanese for Busy People 1, chapters 15, 19-25, 27)

At our Japanese School you will learn:

• Grammar: ~te forms of verbs
• Use of ~te form 1: actions in sequence
• Use of ~te form 2: requests and orders
• Roleplay: Ring and order food and drinks to be delivered
• Roleplay: Giving directions to a taxi driver
• Roleplay: Making a reservation at a restaurant
• Explaining how to get somewhere by public transport
• Telling how long it takes to get somewhere
• Use of ~te form 3: Asking permission
• Grammar: ~nai forms of verbs
• How to make a polite refusal
• Use of ~te form 4: present condition
• Special verbs: ‘to live’ and ‘to know’
• Vocabulary: family members

See timetable for courses at:

Kew School, Fitzroy School, Malvern School, Melbourne City School

Japanese Language Course - Level 5 + 6

Learn Japanese at our School (Lessons from Japanese for Busy People 2, chapters 1-5)

At our Japanese School you will learn:

• Comparison: (more than/the most)
• Expressing preference using comparison
• Vocabulary: Sports and recreation
• Roleplay: Signing up for a gym membership
• Expressing possibility
• Converting adjectives into adverbs
• How to describe objects/people using more than two adjectives
• Expressing previous experiences: ta kotoga arimasu
• Role play: Reporting lost or stolen property at the police station
• Grammar pattern: before doing~/ having done~
• Grammar pattern: have not ~ yet
• Roleplay: How to behave in a business situation
• Grammar: ~ta forms of verbs

* Students should be able to read Hiragana script comfortably to do this level
* Katakana and some basic Kanji scripts are introduced in this course

See timetable for courses at:

Kew School, Fitzroy School, Malvern School, Melbourne City School

Japanese Language Course - Lower Intermediate

Learn Japanese at our School (Lessons from Japanese for Busy People 2, chapters 6-10)

At our Japanese School you will learn:

• How to talk about personal experiences, relationships
• Talking about experiences using ‘I think’, ‘I heard’, ‘He said’
• Expressing opinions: ‘I think that ~’
• Indicating conjecture/probability
• Giving advice: had better~/ had better not~
• Expressing obligation: have to/ must, don’t have to
• Roleplay: At the airport, picking up a visitor from Japan
• ~nai forms of verbs
• Relative clause (modifying clause): ‘noun which/who/whom/that’
• Grammar pattern: Sometimes it is the case that~ (I sometimes do~)
• Letter writing in Japanese
• Common phrases for letters
• Vocabulary: Weather types
• Forecasting weather
• Roleplay: Making plans for Japan’s O-Bon Festival

See timetable for courses at:

Kew School, Fitzroy School, Malvern School, Melbourne City School

Japanese Language Course - Intermediate

Learn Japanese at our School (Lessons from Japanese for Busy People 2 chapters 11-15)

At our Japanese School you will learn:

• Roleplay topic: Booking into a hotel room
• Colloquial expressions: ~n desu
• Grammar pattern: I know that~/Do you know that ~/ I heard that ~
• How to write a job application
• Roleplay topic: At a job interview
• Grammar pattern: When~ / In the case of ~
• Giving reasons
• Expressing uncertainty
• Expressing a hypothesis or a doubt
• Use of te / de to indicate reason/ condition
• Conditional 1: tara
• Conditional 2: nara
• Cultural discussion: At a sumo tournament

See timetable for courses at:

Kew School, Fitzroy School, Malvern School, Melbourne City School

Japanese Language Course - Upper Intermediate

Learn Japanese at our School (Lessons from Japanese for Busy People 2, Chapter 16-20)

At our Japanese School you will learn:

• Conditional 3 (necessary condition): -ba / kereba
• Grammar pattern: The more ~, the better.
• Conditional 4: ~to
• Plain Style: formal writing and casual speech
• Diary writing
• Grammar pattern: easy to do~/ difficult to do~
• Expressing intention
• Writing a birthday card

* Revision of grammar patterns introduced in Book 2
* Reading review

See timetable for courses at:

Kew School, Fitzroy School, Malvern School, Melbourne City School

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