Japanese
5-star classes taken by more than 700 students
Absolute Beginner
parent, K. S.
My 12 year old really enjoyed this class! He was able to use the words and phrases in his daily life and he found it very interesting to learn the backgrounds of the language as well. Meredith is a really encouraging and engaging teacher. He is looking forward to doing the next level!
Intermediate
parent, Anne
The style of teaching is excellent. And practicing with other students with the teacher is very helpful. Questions are always answered!
Absolute Beginner
parent, Tanya
When I asked my daughter what she would rate this class, from 1 to 5 stars, she exclaimed, “SIX STARS!” Needless to say, she loved this class and Meredith’s gentle and effective style, and she is looking forward to continuing on to the next level!
Intermediate
parent, anonymous
Meredith Kaunitz is one of my 13 year old son's favorite teachers. He's learned so much so far, and says that it's mostly due to her teaching style and the study resources she provides. We highly recommend any classes she teaches.
Spring Offerings
start March 1, 2021
Just for fun
Beginner Japanese
Minimum Required Skills
- Took Absolute Beginner Japanese at Art Play Learn
OR
- Can introduce themselves
- Can read and write in Hiragana
- Has begun learning Katakana
- Can count to 1,000 in Japanese
- Can ask and answer yes/no questions
- Can ask for prices
- Can use counters for age and money
- Can use verbs in the dictionary form and the ~nai form
Students will learn to speak, understand, read and write Japanese. Material may include using adverbs of frequency, going to a restaurant, culture of eating, and more. Students will continue to learn to read and write in Katakana.
Thursdays 2:30pm- 3:25pm EST
12 weeks for $150
Intermediate Part 4
This class is for anyone who took Intermediate Part 3 or anyone who meets the minimum skills listed below.
Minimum Skills:
*can read and write in Hiragana and Katakana
*knows ~masu, ~u, ~te and ~tai forms in the unfinished tense
*numbers up to 9,999
*telling time
*talking about dates and days of the week
All conversations and materials will be written in Japanese syllabary. I do not set a specific curriculum in order to be able to address the needs of each group of students in each section. Material will likely include talking about destinations and modes of transportation, using large numbers and incorporation of many questions already studied such as family relationships.
Mondays 5:00pm- 5:55pm EST
8 weeks for $98
Intermediate Part 3
Minimum Required Skills
- Took Intermediate Japanese Part 2
OR
- Working knowledge of hiragana & katakana
- Can use kanji for numbers, days of the week, dates, money, simple objects such as book, field, mountain, woman, person, man, child and family relationships
- Can ask and answer questions using 'desu', and 'masu' verb forms.
- Can use numbers up to 9,999
- Can use describing words such as colors and sizes
- Can use in-group/out-group family relationships
We will continue to manipulate verbs between 'u', 'nai', 'masu/masen', 'tai' and 'te' forms while we build vocabulary and add sentence structures. This section will likely include talking about activities, what people are doing, asking them to do something, invitations and more.
Tuesdays 2:00-3:30pm EST
5 weeks for $92
Intermediate Part 6
Minimum Required Skills
- Took Intermediate Japanese Part 5
OR
- Working knowledge of hiragana & katakana
- Can use kanji for numbers, days of the week, dates, money, simple objects, prepositions, verbs and family relationships
- Can ask and answer questions using 'desu', 'masu', 'tai', 'u/nai', and 'te' verb forms.
- Can use numbers up to 999,999,999.
- Can use describing words such as colors and sizes
- Can use in-group/out-group family relationships
- Can use prepositions and give directions
- Can talk about where, who, how and when
- Can use counters
This class follows my Intermediate Part 5 class on Outschool. The exact content will be determined by what the enrolled students have studied but will likely include speaking about past events, and the beginnings of storytelling. The focus of this class is to make the transition to expressing one's own thoughts. We will add vocabulary and kanji as we venture into talking about more student driven topics.
Mondays 1:30pm- 2:25pm EST
6 weeks for $62
Enrichment and For Credit
For students who are taking this class to only fulfill their own desire to learn Japanese, the enrichment option offers that experience.
For students who are also trying to fulfill a homeschool World Language requirement, the "for credit" option will fulfill this requirement in most states. Please contact me if your state has very specific requirements and I will let you know if I can fulfill them. For credit students will receive a syllabus, graded assignments and assessments and a certificate of completion with covered Standards of Learning and grades notated on the "back". If digital versions of these are not acceptable, please communicate that to me and I can snail mail them to you.
For more information, please contact
Absolute Beginner Japanese
Minimum Required Skills
None
Students will learn to speak, understand, read and write Japanese. Material may include introducing oneself, asking about personal information, numbers up to 9,999 and asking about prices. Students will learn to read and write in Romaji and Hiragana.
Thursdays 11:00am-12:30pm EST
Enrichment
12 weeks for $220
For Credit
12 weeks for $250
Intermediate Part 3
Minimum Required Skills
-
Read and write using Hiragana
-
Have some experience with Katakana
-
Be able to make, read and write in kanji numbers up to 9,999
-
Understand how to use the counters for age, money, months, days of the month, and time
-
Know how to ask basic information seeking questions and yes/no questions for like/dislike, wellness, dates, days of the week, times, and adverbs
-
Change verbs between the infinitive (~u form) and the neutral (~masu form) in the unfinished tense
-
Change verbs into the ~tai forms, ~mashyou form and ~te form
-
Use describing words in the affirmative and negative
-
Use entry level kanji for describing words and natural objects (tree, moon, sun, mountain, etc)
-
Express family relationships with in-group and out-group forms
-
Use describing words
-
Talk about country names, nationalities and languages
Thursdays, 4:00-5:30
recommended age range: teens
Students will learn additional kanji, how to talk about destinations, how to quote others, and new vocabulary and perhaps more
Enrichment
12 weeks for $220
For Credit
12 weeks for $250
Advanced Beginner Japanese
Minimum Required Skills
- Took Not-so-absolute Beginner Japanese at Art Play Learn
OR
- Can introduce themselves
- Can read and write in Hiragana
- Can read and write in Katakana
- Can count to 1,000 in Japanese
- Can ask and answer yes/no questions
- Can ask for prices
- Can use counters for age, money and people
- Can use adverbs of frequency
- Can tell time
Wednesdays, 10:00am-11:25 am EST
Students will learn to speak, understand, read and write Japanese. Material may include using basic kanji, expressing dates and times and more.
Enrichment
12 weeks for $220
For Credit
12 weeks for $250
Advanced Intermediate Part 3
This class is the next level up from Advanced Intermediate Part 2.
Minimum required skills:
* ability to read and write in hiragana
* familiarity with katakana
* basic kanji
* knowledge of 'u' form and 'masu' form in unfinished and finished tense
* numbers to 100,000,000
* basic understanding of the use of counters
* knowledge of how to make and answer basic information seeking and yes/no questions
* understanding of how describing words work
* vocabulary including colors, foods, family members, every day usage verbs
* vocabulary for 'too much', 'all the way', 'try'
* ability to express every.../no..../some.../any...
* ability to express decision making and acting on someone or something else
* ability to use shiru and wakaru appropriately
* knowledge of the ~nagara form and potential form
*knowledge of body parts and expressing injury or sickness
This level will focus on generating self-motivated speech in Japanese. We will use storytelling techniques, and will start discussing our past, habitual and breaking news life events. Some advanced grammar will be embedded as will some new vocabulary and new kanji.
Wednesdays 1:30-2:55pm