3. What Interactive Japanese 1 does not include.
While katakana script is included throughout Interactive Japanese 1 there is no practice section
for learning katakana. We assume that you will first learn hiragana before progressing to
katakana and that katakana study would commence in Lesson 16. However, this does not mean
that your study of katakana cannot begin earlier.
Twenty-four kanji are introduced in the writing practice sections of Interactive Japanese 1 but
these do not appear in dialogues until the lesson in which they are introduced. Lessons 15, 16,
and 17 contain all twenty-four kanji. However, lists of new vocabulary and subsection titles give
words written in both hiragana and kanji in later lessons to provide you with exposure to more
kanji than are required to comprehend the passages in the textbook.
There are no English translations of dialogues or other passages because you are able to work
out the meanings of the Japanese passages by consulting the notes which precede and follow
them. The inclusion of such comprehensive notes makes translations superfluous. Moreover,
translations can have a negative effect by encouraging you to translate everything into English
rather than concentrate on understanding the Japanese directly.
While katakana script is included throughout Interactive Japanese 1 there is no practice section
for learning katakana. We assume that you will first learn hiragana before progressing to
katakana and that katakana study would commence in Lesson 16. However, this does not mean
that your study of katakana cannot begin earlier.
Twenty-four kanji are introduced in the writing practice sections of Interactive Japanese 1 but
these do not appear in dialogues until the lesson in which they are introduced. Lessons 15, 16,
and 17 contain all twenty-four kanji. However, lists of new vocabulary and subsection titles give
words written in both hiragana and kanji in later lessons to provide you with exposure to more
kanji than are required to comprehend the passages in the textbook.
There are no English translations of dialogues or other passages because you are able to work
out the meanings of the Japanese passages by consulting the notes which precede and follow
them. The inclusion of such comprehensive notes makes translations superfluous. Moreover,
translations can have a negative effect by encouraging you to translate everything into English
rather than concentrate on understanding the Japanese directly.