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There have been a lot of changes at GenkiJACS this year: converted to an NPO, almost tripled the size of the school, found perhaps the coolest thing in the world to greet visitors, and more. However, there is one change that we haven’t publicized as much as we should have. In June of this year, we completed the creation of our new comprehensive syllabus and curriculum, for all levels of study from complete beginner to advanced. This syllabus is the cornerstone of our lessons now, and enables us to provide an even better course of study for our students. We’re very proud of it, and hope to be able to publish at least some of it on this website in the near future, so that students will be able to see what they will likely study before they arrive.
To make this new curriculum possible, we had to make some changes to the structure of our courses. Here’s a comparison of the old and new course structures for each of our major courses:
Conversational Japanese Course
Old: 20 Japanese lessons per week
New: 10 grammar lessons and 10 conversation lessons
Japanese and Traditional Culture
Old: 10 Japanese lessons and 5 culture classes per week
New: 10 grammar lessons, 10 conversation lessons, and 3 culture classes
Japanese Through Pop Culture
Old: 10 Japanese lessons and 10 pop culture classes per week
New: 10 grammar lessons, 10 conversation lessons, and 5 pop culture classes
Japanese for Exams
Old: 10 Japanese lessons and 10 exam skills classes per week
New: 10 grammar lessons, 10 conversation lessons, and 5 exam skills classes per week
As you can see, all the courses now have the same core 20 hours per week of classes, divided into grammar and conversation. This was done because we felt that the old course system did not give a full rounded Japanese education to the students on the Pop Culture, Traditional Culture and Exams courses. The new courses are much more academically sound, and should ensure that all students progress much better in the full four skills.
We’ve also introduced one new course, the Intensive Conversation Course. This has the same basic 20 classes per week as the other courses, plus five additional hours of conversational Japanese per week. Since its introduction, this has been one of our most popular courses.
