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 Japanese Plus course for advanced Japanese learners, which ended on June 26th.

Running for four weeks and attended by 30 participants, 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, Dr. Seiji Fukushima, who guided participants in analysing and interpreting the speech of the characters in the movie. All participants also received a copy of the Happy Family Plan DVD to keep and enjoy.

One of the participants, Cheryl, commented, “Excellent course – very enjoyable.”

Another participant said:

“I really like the format of learning from a film. Analysing the characters and their spoken Japanese is really useful and something I can hopefully continue on my own after the course.”

We’d like to thank all participants for taking part in Japanese Plus, and really hope to see even more participants at our next course!

To learn more about Japanese Plus, please click here.