Today (2008-10-08) was an auspicious day, as my Japanese language class graduated from the 初級 (beginning level) class to the 中級 (intermediate level) one. After having had a couple of weeks off to decompress and prepare, the day started with an introduction to the faculty for the intermediate level course. Some of the instructors are the same as for the beginning level, but there were quite a few new faces amongst the teachers.

Each of the instructors for the intermediate level prefaced their self-introduction by saying that the intermediate level would be “very difficult”, as compared to the beginning level.  Our one-hour orientation in our new classes bore this out.  The work does not seem insurmountable, to be sure, but the coursework load is definitely going to increase in intensity and complexity.  I guess we’ll have to see how the upcoming classes unfold before passing any judgment.

We were each given copies of our new textbook, entitled 中級から学ぶ日本語 (“Japanese study from the intermediate level”), as well as the associated workbook.  At first glance the book seems very dense and hard to follow.  It is very unlike the excellent “J Bridge to Intermediate Japanese”, which has very clearly outlined grammar points in each chapter.

One big difference is in the presentation of new kanji, which are the Chinese characters used to represent most Japanese words.  The number of kanji in each chapter steadily increases throughout the book.  Unlike in the beginning level, we are expected to find the compound words in which each is used, so that we can figure out the associated “reading” (sound) of the kanji.  That may not be particularly difficult, but in practice it is quite time-consuming.

It appears from the first month’s schedule that we’ll be breezing through this book.  The book does not look easy at all, so the idea of “breezing through” is going to invovle a lot of hours of devoted study.  I’ll write about the course curriculum a little bit later.

Guide to the books mentioned in this article:
J Bridge to Intermediate Japanese (Bonjinsha) ISBN 978-4-89358-497-7 (2002 ed)
中級から学ぶ日本語 (Kenkyusha) ISBN 978-4-327-38443-2 (2003 Ed.)
中級から学ぶ日本語ワークブック (Kenkyusha) ISBN 978-4-327-38445-6 (2004 Ed.)