How to speak Japanese like a young girl, an old man or a bossy mother were some of the topics covered in the summer course of the Japan Foundation’s Talking Contemporary Japan course for advanced Japanese learners, which ended on June 23^rd.

Running twice a week for four weeks, the course used the Japanese movie Happy Family Plan as a learning tool to introduce the various styles in which Japanese is spoken.  While following the story of the trials and tribulations of life in a Japanese family, participants learned about how Japanese can reflect one’s personality, age, social status and gender, according to the vocabulary and manner used in speech.  The course was lead by the Japan Foundation’s Chief Language Advisor, Seiji Fukushima, who guided participants in analysing and interpreting the speech of the characters in the movie.

One of our regular participants, Darcy, commented:

“I enjoy these courses and always learn something about Japanese language usage and culture that often isn’t explained in textbooks.”

We’d like to thank all participants for taking part in Talking Contemporary Japan, really hope to see even more participants at our next course!

To learn more about Talking Contemporary Japan, please click here.