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Japanese: The Spoken Language | INTRODUCTION TO JSL

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About This Course

The lessons presented here are adpated from the textbooks by Eleanor Harz Jorden with the help of Mari
Noda. Called JSL for short, this course has been used since its introduction in the late 1980’s in many
universities accross America, and was in turn based on earlier textbooks (Beginning Japanese) which were
retired at that time. Although its use has declined recently, I believe it remains one of the most effective
ways to build a solid foundation in Japanese for adult learners. The large amount of media and drills, as
well as the focus on in-depth grammatical explanations and conversation-level learning, emphasizing use of
the language in context, provide us with an excellent way to learn to SPEAK quickly and effectively. I have
prepared this material to be as easily accessible as possible, and along with the integrated links to YouTube,
I believe it is eaiser than ever to study using this method. All of the fundamental building blocks of the
language have been neatly arranged and distilled into an efficient and effective order so it’s important not
to skip chapters so as not to miss any of the terminology or grammatical explainations.

Where to start? Additional Information

Beginners should start with Lesson 0 to learn In Lesson 0, we learn more about representing
basic pronunication because it is important not to the Japanese written system in our alphabet,
start a new language with bad pronunication using roman letters, which is called romanization
habits that may be hard to break later. Unlike (rōmaji in Japanese, CLICK HERE FOR INFO).
many other systems, proper pronunication and Though romanization is used generally only to
accent is a large part of JSL and teachers trained remind us of the original Japanese sound and is
in this system will put more emphasis on it for a not a replacement for the audio, it can help us
passing grade. For this reason, we need to understand and analyze the grammar faster and
spend some time on the notation system we use can be a great help to "picture" the written
to represent these accents and pay close accents as you learn them.
attention to mimic these patterns when
practicing and memorizing dialogs.
LESSON
STRUCTURE
Each of these 30 lessons have sections A and B which total 60 sections that in a classroom
setting generally take at least 4 to 6 semesters time to complete, but is also suitable for self-
study or in small groups on your own schedule.
Book 1 contains lessons 1-12 Book 2 has 13-24 Book 3 has 25-30.

Each section in a lesson contain several parts:

The basic dialogs, called Core Conversations, which may be single exchanges between two
people or longer conversations, their English Equivalents, Breakdowns with
Supplementary Vocabulary, The Miscellaneous Notes, Structural Patterns, Drills, and
Application Exercises.

At the end of the lesson there are also Utilization and Check-up questions which review the
whole lesson, parts A and B together, along with an Eavesdropping listen and answer section.

Core Conversations
Firstly, the core conversations are to be memorized, using the video and text. Start a new lesson
by viewing the dialog video. You may not understand much of it but try to copy the dialog by ear as
much as possible. Then, study the individual vocabulary, notes and their meanings and try again.
Check the dialog transcription and play it back until you have it memorized, one dialog at a time.
You can recite and act them out alone, with the Role Play videos, or with a partner. By doing this,
you can encounter and acquire new vocabulary and patterns in context with appropriate
pronunciation and intonation. While supplementary vocabulary is included (with the Breakdowns),
even these items should be practiced within a familiar context; they should not only be memorized
as isolated items. At first, you may find it helpful to become familiar with the terms through
flashcards, which you may practice for each lesson found here: Memorize.com.

VOCABULARY AND NOTES

The English Equivalents (glosses) and Breakdowns will assist you in comprehending the dialogs. The
glosses are not meant to be natural English translations, and may sound a bit odd, but they do try to
represent the Japanese used on a structural basis.
The Notes section explains more in-depth and background information around each dialog, as well as
additional phrases and related vocabulary found in the supplemental vocabulary lists. The notes
section will grow larger in later lessons, and is an essential part of each lesson that must not be
neglected.

Structural Patterns
Each lesson breaks down the relevant grammar introduced in the dialogs as SP (Structural Patterns)
which explain what is happening at a syntactical level. As adult learners, this can greatly help us not
only remember how to reproduce the dialog, but to expand the patterns in a great number of ways
to express what we want to say. The Japanese language is unrelated to English in structure and
form, so unless you understand how the language is put together, you will continue to encounter
seemingly baffling examples which actually should not be that surprising. You should understand
each of these points, even if it requires rereading, or asking questions in the comments. As the
lessons progress, this section may also include many extra example sentences. If can be helpful to
learn these examples for extra practice and expressiveness. Though it may not be necessary to
master the patterns completely before moving to the drills, you should at least have a basic grasp of
them. After practicing the drills, you may return to the SP for review before moving on to the
utilization.

DRILLS (DAILY PRACTICE)

After memorizing and rehearsing the dialog and understanding the grammatical points, drills are the
most important thing you can do daily to improve your ability. How to practice the drills is something
that must be considered thoughtfully and carefully. They can only be practiced with the media in the
audio or video links. Your performance in these drills must not be considered satisfactory until you
can participate promptly and accurately according to the models, without reference to the text. It is
best to learn one drill before moving on to the next one. This means you may have to break up a
section into parts as you may only have time to master a few drills in a day. Each time, go back and
review the ones you have previously learned and aim for total fluency. For each stimulus in these
drills, there is only one correct answer, which follows the model of the first one or two examples of
the drill. For example, one drill may require you to answer every stimulus question in the negative
[Stimulus: ‘Are you hungry?’ Response: ‘No, I’m not very hungry.’] regardless of your actual
condition or preference which may require some imagination on your part. All the drills are response
drills, which means that each stimulus and response can be thought of as a very short conversation,
or part of one.
Of course, you must not simply repeat after the responses as you hear them; these are not
‘shadowing exercises’ (though I do have many shadowing videos that you may find useful). You
should pause after each cue and consider what was said until you understand each question, and can
picture the situation and formulate your response. Eventually, and with practice, you should be able
to respond just before or at least simultaneously with the audio response and without hesitation. As
the situations become more and more complex, this will indeed require more practice, but the ability
to hold several bits of Japanese information in your head while automatically forming a response
using the drill patterns forces you to ‘think’ in Japanese and bypass the ‘English’ part of your brain,
which leads to improving your Japanese considerably.

Do not underestimate the importance of these drills! You are training not only how to respond in
various conversational situations, but you are training your brain and mouth physically to be able to
pronounce Japanese smoothly and accurately. The long and rapid sequential consonants in the
Japanese language often can make one tongue-tied unless many hours of been spent practicing
these drills aloud and with confidence. Slowly but surely! When practicing the drills, dialogs, or
anything else in this text, the goal is to not only to speak at a natural speed, but to speak naturally;
that is, without fumbles and pauses. Of course, you will not be able to do this at first, but rather
than try to match the model speed with improper pronunciation, you must slow down the speed to a
regular, relaxed rhythm. You must slow down the response until you can say it clearly, without
stuttering or pausing, yet with consistent pacing and proper accent throughout. Then gradually you
may increase the speed a bit at a time until you eventually can match the model responses.

APPLICATION
The Application Exercises come after each section and present some situations that can be completed
with what you have learned so far. They may be variations on the main dialogs or interactive
activities which require you to use reality—provided by either visual aids or your general knowledge—
as the basis for correct responses. They are meant for classroom or group work but some can be
adapted for self-study as well. A common application exercise among every lesson is simply to
perform the core dialogs while introducing various changes in vocabulary, time, number, and
especially register, and then have each party match and deal with these changes in context. Register
refers to changing the relative status of the speakers: one may be a student, the other a teacher or
perhaps both are on intimate terms. This changes the way the dialogs are spoken considerably.
Where possible, props, pictures, or other media can be used as cues. This may be easier of the drills
have been well practiced since they also often take parts of the dialogs with substitutions.
SECTION C
After Sections A and B, there are three final exercises in section C that comprehensively cover
everything from parts A and B together.

UTILIZATION
This exercise presents typical situations in which the Japanese you have learned might be utilized. A
situational orientation of this kind is intended to emphasize the importance of speaking a foreign
language according to what is grammatically and culturally appropriate in a given setting, rather
than through direct translation of what would be appropriate in your native language in a similar
setting. Again, the ease with which you produce accurate answers will be a clear signal of the
degree to which you have mastered the material. Slow, hesitant, mistake-ridden answers, produced
only after constant checking back to earlier explanatory material—clearly signal the need for further
study and practice before moving to the next lesson.

Remember that each lesson presupposes good control of everything that has already been
introduced. And remember too that the acquisition of a skill like speaking takes time and practice. If
the foundation is weak, ultimate collapse becomes a worrisome possibility; but if each lesson is
systematically mastered, increment by increment, a solid proficiency can be acquired.

CHECK UP
The Check-up is intended to check your control of the ‘fact’ component of the lesson. We assume
that the foreign language student, as an adult, can learn a foreign language more quickly if the
patterns of the language are explained systematically. While simply learning about a language will
never produce foreign language proficiency unless supplemented by hours of active practice, it can
speed the process by guiding you to accurate, extended usage of the patterns that are being drilled.

The Check-up section can be covered on your own or as homework so sample answers are given in a
separate document. The relevant notes should be carefully checked if there are questions that
present difficulties. The questions themselves serve to emphasize the most important structural
features that have been introduced in each lesson.
EAVESDROPPING
Devoid of any negative connotations, eavesdropping involves listening in on Japanese conversations
and answering questions about their content. This section represents a kind of situation that
commonly occurs in real life: imagine that you are being questioned by an English-speaking friend,
who doesn’t understand Japanese as well as you do, about the meaning of a Japanese conversation
that you have both overheard. This portion of the lesson involves processing from Japanese to
English, a competence distinct from operating within the foreign language alone, but one which is
also important to develop. This may be done after all other practice in the lesson is completed (but
could be done before the check-up), and is a kind of comprehension check to make sure you can
readily recognize the speech, understand the grammatical forms by ear, and keep them in mind long
enough to answer questions about them without replaying the conversation.

I hope you find all the provided links to sample audio and videos helpful. I have also added
additional links throughout to supplemental explanations such as the 'Mr. Learners' notes on
common issues Japanese leaners run into, as well as a TV program that contains interesting skits
and examples where relevant to each lesson, and video lessons on hiragana and katakana.

Criticisms
Are there any critiques to this system? Well, there is always room for
improvement, but it seems that most of the criticims of the text are
misguided or show a lack of understanding about what the system is
about or how it works. For example, romanization and romaji itself is
often criticized from people who believe all Japanese should be taught
in Japanese script from day one. These lessons focus exclusively on
the spoken language, and JSL classes are taught entirely in Japanese
with no English speaking allowed. The written language instruction is normally started within
the first 3 or 4 weeks and is carried out simutaniously, sometimes in the same class or in
additional classes. This is topic with its own learning methods that tends to confuse things when
trying to include all in the same book. There is a companion series: “Japanese: The Written
Language” and its predessor: “Reading Japanese”, but, there are many sources available, so
you can find the best approach for you. At an advanced level, Japanese instruction can be
written entirely in Japanese, but for beginner students, writing everything in hiragana or simple
kanji comes at the expense of being able to analyze the grammatical structures effectively and
quickly. Because these textbooks focus on the spoken language, it concentrates on the concept
of unique ‘mora’, or the sounds of the language. In this way of thinking, the Japanese writing
system has no relevance in the spoken language texts.
More on Romaji
Language learning should be done with your ears and mouth, and always within the proper
context, rather than simply reading and learning isolated vocabulary. It's also true that a child
does not need to know kanji, or the alphabet, as the case may be, before he can begin speaking
to, or understanding his parents. However, as adults, we should not ignore our ability to read
and think logically to aid in our study. Studying the grammar and knowing how to talk ‘about’
the language is not a substitute for speaking, but it can greatly enhance and speed up the
learning process when done together, and romaji can help facilitate that.

Of course the Japanese don’t use romaji normally, but they do postpone using their
written code until they have already learned to speak to a certain extent. For
foreigners who are interested in learning to read Japanese, it is most efficient to
study the special written symbols after acquiring at least some familiarity with the
material being read. In other words, if you are told that a particular symbol stands
for X at the time when you also have to be instructed as to what X means, ‘reading’
in its usual sense is impossible; you will undoubtedly being to decode, to move
directly from Japanese symbols to your own native language, bypassing the
Japanese language completely. To avoid this, it is recommended that beginning
readers start out by reading only material in which they have already acquired oral
competence.

Do we need to know all this polite language?

Some people also dislike learning what they think of as “too much polite language”.
It may be difficult to understand coming from a language such as English which
does not have politeness levels built into the grammar, just how important this is.
In order to fit into Japanese society and form relationships of any kind, not to
mention to understand those around you, having a good grasp on the various
registers and honorific systems used in Japanese is essential. The reality for a
fully-grown adult speaking Japanese is complex and nuanced. We will not just be
learning a new language, but a whole new cultural context in which that language
functions. For a foreigner, it can be difficult to learn to use correctly unless it is
considered early and practiced often. It is important to understand in-group, out-
group relationships and to always be thinking of your role in this hierarchy as you
speak. The words you use when talking to your best friend is not at all how you
would address your boss, teacher, or people in other formal situations.

Isn’t it out of date compared to other books?

Another issue that gets mentioned sometimes, is that the material is 'out-of-date'.
Actually the language and fundamental points used here have not changed and is
just as valid now is it has ever been. I have fixed the few minor issues in this text
by adding notes where appropriate for the things that have changed such as the
 Ministery of Education. On the issue of vocabulary, there are
examples using such things as 'word processors', 'typewriters',
etc., but these are simply nouns that can easily be changed
to whatever you are practicing with in the classroom or at
home and does not affect the grammar used. The videos,
recorded in the 80's seem quaint today but no less effective in
illustrating the dialogs. Fortunately all of the audio has been
rerecorded digitally to replace the older recordings and these
are what I have provided for the drills and exercises here.

Vocabulary
I have seen reviews comment on the lack of vocabulary but this seems like another odd
complaint. There are 3500 to 4000 terms that cover most vocabulary found on JLPT N5
and N4 exams, but long lists of vocabulary are avoided in JSL as each lesson focuses only
on those words necessary to enable internalization of the grammar introduced and practiced
through the drills and core conversation dialogs. Teachers and students often supplement the
lessons with their own vocabulary and lessons using other resources, and introduce whatever
terms are needed for the moment. Adding more vocabulary in the text would not be useful and
would be too difficult to practice effectively using the drills, but you are free to learn or use as
many words as you like. Vocabulary is important, and will be an ever expanding and never
ending challenge as you learn a language. Memorizing long lists of words out of context
however, is rarely helpful.

Grammatical Explanations
The one thing I would say is a valid criticism, really depends on your point of view. The
explanations and grammatical analysis, though no where at the level of an actual linguistic
textbook, is still a bit above what a typical language textbook provides today. It was written at a
college level for adult learners and may not be appropriate for younger or casual learners. Some
people may appreciate this added level of instruction, and others may not, so this depends on
the student. Yet, this too has a reason. The fact is, that knowing the underlying patterns will
help expand your ability to express yourself and make sense of new material quicker. The
grammar here also makes clear many things other systems often obfuscate, or just get wrong,
and on the contrary, that is what can confuse the learner. The terms used may also differ
somewhat from other texts, but I think you will find in your Japanese language journey, that
there are many ways to approach grammar, and each have their own terminology. The one
used in this text makes sense and will lay a solid foundation for all your studies to come. You
will no doubt learn to use various terms or ideas on how to analyze the same Japanese
structures in time. This does not necessarily invalidate one or the other as each serves its
purpose.
 The Importance of Context
We primarily learn language through personal interaction and dialog. Words, and even sentences, out of
context, or on their own, lose much of their meaning or at the very least, can become incomprehensibly
vague.

The dialogs presented in these lessons are primarily functional and

situational based at the conversation level. You will likely find yourself in
these same situations, so it makes a good starting point for using your
language. Memorizing, rehearsing, and performing the dialogs in each
lesson is essential and core to this learning method. After you have
internalized a particular dialog, you could begin to substitute vocabulary
items and slight variations into the pattern exercises, but JSL does not
have you memorize long lists of vocabulary. In some cases, this cannot
be avoided such as when it comes to days of the week, months, clothing, etc., but we always do so with
sufficient oral practice using drills.

Picture the situations from the videos, or a situation of your devising, as you practice. These lessons, and
in fact language learning in general, rely on this context for meaning and the accompanying videos give
you the framework on which you can expand. The drills then allow your responses to become automatic,
so that you no longer have to consciously think about the details or have English thoughts get in the way.
Translating English in your head before you can speak is not a way to have a conversation with anyone,
never mind the fact that directly translated English thoughts will more
than likely only cause confusion or at best, misunderstanding.

Ready to start learning?

Where to start?

At the top of this document you will find links to the Table of Contents
as well as the homepage on YouTube. There you will also find links to
these documents and playlists of all the videos. Each text lesson is in
PDF format and contains links to all the videos and audio samples. Every vocabulary term and example
sentence in each lesson is linked to a recording by a native speaker to demonstrate how it should sound.
Lesson 0 has text and video versions which provide some background in pronunciation and some basic
greetings and instructions before starting the first day of class. I appreciate any questions or comments
you may have. Feel free to drop comments on any of the videos and I will answer any questions you may
have.

Thank you for your interest and I wish you luck.

Ganbatte Kudasai!