CLAIR Jet Programme Japanese language course

[Sam]

I'm currently doing the CLAIR Jet Programme Japanese language course, and I have come suggestions and comments about how they could make it better, and I was wondering where I could send these to?

One of the PCs might be best at answering this?

[shanePC]

Please, go for it. Here is fine too.

If you are taking the beginners or advanced however, they are being completely rewritten this year so comments about those may be irrelevent - depending on what you are talking about.

If you're taking the intermediate though, that is brand new this year, and any suggestions you have we would love to hear. (next year all 3 courses will be the new versions and linked together. We did intermediate first, a year earlier, because it was deemed the worst of the old 3 by survey).

If they happen to be about the many typos in the intermediate (it is brand new and we are limited in editors)... please send us them so we can fix them. There are many though, so you may want to send us them in a document rather than post. you can send them to jetmail: jet[a]clair.or.jp

Thank you!

[Sam]

I'm taking the intermediate course and I understand its new, so there are bound to be improvements that can be made, so I'd be happy to air them here and maybe some other people can help me out and comment as well.

[shanePC]

Definitely!

Go for eeeeeeeeet! I'm the chief CLAIR editor, so bring it on! (they are outsourced though, so don't lay it all on me...we only have so much time to devote to them).

[Sam]

Ok my first suggestion, as I sit here trying to do book 5's test......

Having the test in the back of the book makes it very difficult to flip back through the book and compare the test to the examples.

Book 1 came with it as lose photocopied page which made it awesomely easy to complete, I thought the rest would come like this but they didn't .

So in the remainder of the books I've resorted to carefully removing the pages from the books and doing it this way, but trust me its easier said than done!

This might just be my personal opinion, but I've also spoken to ALTS who think the same.

[shanePC]

I'll see what I can do.

[Sam]

Thanks,

Sorry I hope I'm not coming across as a whining ALT that's not thankful for all the work that's been put in my the authors, because I don't mean to be...!

[shanePC]

Not at all. Bring on more criticism. The course is after all, for you.

[GunmaBrentPA]

One thing I've always thought strange about the books is the kanji section that is usually after the new words. While I like the idea of showing other words that use the kanji from the lesson, sometimes the words are either very technical or otherwise have limited usage. Also, when the number tops twenty of thirty it becomes a bit too much to effectively study.

Of course, that is just my opinion and it is always possible that I'm not using the kanji list in the way it was intended. Or I'm just a lazy student

Either way, like Sam, I appreciate the effort everyone has put into making the books and in making them available.

[NatalieHiroshimaPA]

the kanji from the lesson, sometimes the words are either very technical or otherwise have limited usage.
.

I used to agree with this till I watched the news one day and noticed a lot of my Advanced kanji popping up. I felt so proud I knew what they meant.

My major problem with the CLAIR course is that I know after the third book that I have failed So staying motivated sucks. I wish we could average out the score or something. Blah! I will just have to take Advanced again next year

[Islandlife]

I chose the intermediate course for review, and I have to admit, I really didn't like the way the grammar was set up. There was usually no explanation of how it was used or how to set it up beyond a direct translation and a series of examples. The fact that I didn't agree with all of the direct translations as 100% helpful is another issue since that's just something where my teachers at Doshisha explained it differently.

The sense I got was that the Intermediate level was more aimed at people coming in pretty clean in terms of prior Japanese knowledge due to the "oh, you want to say X? Here's the phrase you use directly translated" style without in depth or Japanese explanation. Did anyone else get that feeling? It just seemed a lot more "guidebook Japanese" to me than the advanced books that I stole from my fellow ALT when she was done with them.

Personally I work a lot better when I have an explanation rather than just a handy direct translation. Does anyone know if the reworked advanced books are going to go this route, too?

[Sam]

I chose the intermediate course for review, and I have to admit, I really didn't like the way the grammar was set up. There was usually no explanation of how it was used or how to set it up beyond a direct translation and a series of examples. The fact that I didn't agree with all of the direct translations as 100% helpful is another issue

+1

[gentlecuriosity]

Hi there. I just wanted to ask about submitting the tests... I'm really behind as I find it difficult to complete the books and tests on time with school, travel etc. The language course guidebook says we need to complete six tests and send in four on time to receive a certificate, but I've heard that all six completed tests can be sent in before the test six deadline for the certificate. Is this true?

I just wanted to check as I'm still making my way through book 4

Also, I'm doing the beginner's course and really getting a lot out of it. Thank you for providing this course!!

[m_schunemann]

my predecessor left books for the beginner's level and judging by those, i chose to do the intermediate level since I felt fairly comfortable with most of the material in those books.

however, i struggled with the intermediate books. I think there is too large a gap between beginner and intermediate. i was unable to do them alone and had to have my JTE help me with it through the whole lesson. I fell behind and wasn't able to catch up. I tried earlier to switch to beginner, but wasn't able to. I ended up giving up. I continue to study Japanese, but I use other books.

Will the intermediate books be the same as the ones this year? If not, maybe after a year in Japan, I'll be able to do them a little easier, or would you suggest I try the beginner books? I like the concept of daily lessons and graded tests, I just need to find the level that is most suited to my level of Japanese.

[AmyKyotoPA]

Here's the JET Programme webpage on the Language Courses. It has a placement test as well:

http://www.jetprogramme.org/e/course/je ... index.html