New Distance Education Course Opens Window on Japanese Language

Released by: Dr. David Petersen

Lang-arts.com has released a new distance education course focusing on written Japanese

Email: japanarts@lang-arts.com

Keywords: Japanese, distance education, courses, kanji

Update Date: 10/13/2005 7:32:45 PM

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Descrption:
Tokyo, Japan - October 7, 2004 Lang-arts has announced the launch of Extensions, its third distance education course for students of the Japanese language. The self-paced lessons cover basic grammar points and include help with pronunciation and reading.

The idea for Extensions came from frustration with the lack of systematic Japanese language lessons online, recalls Dr. David Petersen, the founder of www.lang-arts.com. “Online material tends to be awfully piecemeal – some kanji (ideograms) at one site, a bit of grammar at another. It’s very hard to find courses online that give absolute beginners the necessary skills base to make real progress.”

But why written Japanese? “Because literacy is the key to maximizing the potential of the language,” say Dr. Petersen. I've met many people who have passable speaking skills, but remain basically illiterate, even after years of exposure to Japanese. Tackling the symbol systems and ideograms is the path that opens the door to the culture, and to real opportunities in finance and other business fields.”

Extensions is the third in a series of skills-building courses from www.lang-arts.com. The Foundations course takes a multimedia approach to mastering hiragana and katakana, the entry point to the language, while Simply Kanji helps students build up a vocabulary of 100 core kanji and 500 keywords. More courses are scheduled for completion in the months ahead.