Register now for our 2025 winter term!
- Multiple levels
- Small class size – max. 12 students
- Native-speaking & experienced instructors
- Affordable tuition – $380 per level
- 4 terms per year – each 10 weeks long
- Convenient downtown location or online
Learn Japanese in Washington, DC at the International Language Institute or online
The Japanese Language Program at ILI consists of four 10-week terms throughout the year. We offer 6 different levels from beginner to advanced, plus a newspaper reading class. Our Japanese classes take place once a week in the evenings. Our teachers are all native-speaking and experienced. The Japanese Language Program integrates speaking, listening, reading and writing. We maintain small class sizes to enable adequate time for conversation in every class. To find your level, please refer to the level description or use our self-evaluation guide. If you have further questions, please call Jane Edwards, ILI’s Foreign Language Coordinator, at 202-686-5610 extension 105. Enroll now!
Live, Instructor-led In-Person or Online Japanese Classes
Learn Japanese in person or online from a live instructor using Zoom. All online classes are instructor-led, in real-time, allowing for the same live interaction as our in-person classes. Some of our classes are a combination of in-person and online students. We have 360-degree cameras in the rooms enabling online participants to feel part of the class. This hybrid class environment allows students to engage with each other and the instructor and to practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking the Japanese Language.
Schedule Register Now!
2025 Term: | Session Dates: | Registration Deadline: |
---|---|---|
Winter | Jan. 13-Mar. 22, 2025 | Monday, Dec. 29, 2024 |
Spring | Apr. 7-Jun. 14, 2025 | Monday, Mar. 24, 2025 |
Summer | Jun. 30-Sep. 6, 2025 | Monday, Jun. 16, 2025 |
Fall | Sep. 22-Dec. 6, 2025 | Monday, Sep. 8, 2025 |
Japanese Level Description
Offered on: Thursdays: 6:15 - 8:45 pm. Enroll now!
Objective: Students will learn the basics of Hiragana characters and learn useful daily expressions. The objective is to enable the student to obtain the necessary survival skills in order to communicate in uncomplicated Japanese.
Learning Outcome: Students will obtain a solid foundation on the basics of the Japanese language. They will have been introduced to Hiragana and its syllables. Students will be able to obtain a good grasp of just what kind of language Japanese is while learning the basic conversational patterns.
Topics: Writing, pronunciation, and grammar are introduced through exercises and dialogues on topics involving, introductions, address and telephone numbers, days and times, counting objects, going and coming, taxis, people and things, places and locations, and buying tickets.
Textbook: Japanese for Busy People I, 4th ed., Textbook (Kana version)-$29; Workbook-$23; Kana workbook-$15
Lessons: Textbook: units 1-4; Workbook: lessons 1-9; Kana workbook: pages 1-29
Offered on: Tuesdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!
Objective: To strengthen the pronunciation; to understand stroke order in writing characters; to learn the basic radicals in characters; to recognize 100 new characters.
Learning Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to use more complicated Japanese vocabulary in dialogues and written work. Students will learn the particle usage and sentence structures of Hiragana.
Topics: Writing, pronunciation, and grammar are introduced through exercises and dialogues on topics involving, Hiragana sentence structures, telephoning, baking cakes, Kabuki, giving and receiving, asking preferences, a party, ownership and events, doing this and that, and requests and orders.
Textbook: Japanese for Busy People I, 4th ed., Textbook (Kana version)-$29; Workbook-$23; Kana workbook-$15
Lessons: Textbook, units 5-8; Workbook, lessons 10-17; Kana workbook, pages 30-49.
Offered on: Wednesdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!
Objective: To work toward a higher level of comprehension and speaking with increasingly more complex subject matter and style. To learn the Katakana symbols and its uses and to continue to increase one’s ability to read and write traditional Japanese.
Learning Outcome: Upon completion of this level students will be able to engage in conversations and be involved with reading about a broader range of topics with greater confidence and precision. Students will have acquired a solid foundation of the language and will be ready for intermediate level study.
Topics: Writing, pronunciation, and grammar are introduced through exercises and dialogues on topics involving, having things done, public transportation, asking permission, refusals, present condition, expressing preferences, dinning out, and Katakana basic and modified syllables symbols.
Textbook: Japanese for Busy People I, 4th ed., Textbook (Kana version)-$29; Workbook-$23; Kana workbook-$15
Lessons: Textbook, units 9-11; Workbook, lessons 18-25; Kana workbook, pages 52-84.
Offered on: Mondays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!
Objective: Through more complex vocabulary, grammatical style, and topics, students will work toward a more complete understanding of Japanese. Students will be introduced to the written form of Kanji and will start to recognize its characters in dialogues and readings.
Learning Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to converse more fluently and confidently using more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary, and recognize the written form of Kanji.
Topics: Writing, pronunciation, and grammar are introduced through exercises and dialogues on a wide variety of topics. Some grammatical points will include, comparatives/superlatives degrees, expressing frequency, going somewhere to do something, asking for and offering explanations(n-desu), past experiences, making strong suggestions(ta hoga ii), to become(ku/ni naru), te miru, using adverbial forms of adjectives to modify, using direct and indirect quotations, etc.
Textbook: Japanese for Busy People II, 4th ed., Textbook $31, Workbook $27
Lessons: Textbook-lessons, 1-9
Offered on: Tuesdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!
Objective: Through more complex vocabulary, grammatical style and topics, students will work toward a more complete understanding of Japanese and continue to acquire a higher level of understanding of Kanji.
Learning Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course students will continue to converse more and more fluently and confidently using more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary, and continue to increase their knowledge and recognition of Kanji.
Topics: Writing, pronunciation, and grammar are introduced through exercises and dialogues on a wide variety of topics. Some grammatical points will include, relative clauses, nominalizing sentences, expressing potentiality and volition, expressing uncertainty (kamo shirenai), indirect questions(ka/ka doka), natural or habitual results, conditional forms, expressing necessity(nakereba naranai), etc.
Textbook: Japanese for Busy People II, 4th ed., Textbook $31, Workbook $27
Lessons: Textbook-lessons, 10-17
Offered on: Wednesdays: 6:15 – 8:45 pm. Enroll now!
Objective: This course is constructed so as to improve conversational skills, relying less and less on mental translations, and to also raise the overall level of the student’s linguistic ability. Students will become more familiar with written Kanji.
Learning Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course students will continue to converse more and more fluently and confidently using more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary, and continue to increase their knowledge and recognition of Kanji.
Topics: Writing, pronunciation, and grammar are introduced through exercises and readings on a wide variety of topics. Some grammatical points will include, expressions of impressions (yo, mitai,so,rashii), actions to be done in preparation for the future (te oku), hazu, despite(noni), describing changes(yo ni naru, te iku), nominalizing sentences, expressing purpose, expressing completions of past, present and future(te iru/te ita), stating decisions(kotoni naru/suru),action of giving/receiving services(te morau,te kureru), expressing intention, passive structures, etc.
Textbook: Japanese for Busy People II, 4th ed., Textbook $31, Workbook $27
Lessons: Textbook-lessons, 18-24
Objective: Learning Outcome: TBA
Topics: TBA
Textbook: TBA
Lessons: Textbook-lessons TBA
Program Details
We do not offer placement tests.
ILI is closed for the following holidays: Martin Luther King Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day. Group classes will not meet on these holidays and the missed class(es) will be made up at the end of the term.