AJALT - Japanese for Professionals

For this revised edition, you will start your learning by listening to the Sample Dialogue included in the audio files, which can be downloaded from Kodansha USAs website. Japanese for Professionals Revised edition is intended for learners to improve their Japanese communication skills for business situations. The Japanese proficiency level that corresponds to the lessons in this textbook is as follows. When beginning study, this textbook will benefit learners who have business skills and are proficient at the level that is equivalent to passing Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) N3 or above, or learners who are unfamiliar with business situations but are proficient at the level equivalent to passing JLPT N2. For learners who have completed Japanese for Busy People III compiled by AJALT, and have business experience, Lesson 1 to Lesson 3 can be used as bridging materials from Japanese for Busy People III level. From Lesson 4, the learner will concentrate on observing and understanding model dialogues in Part 1, and try to do some practice in Part 2, using expressions to be employed under the business situation they are more likely to encounter.

The learner in general should become able to perform B2 level tasks of JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education / CEFR: Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. In Sample Speech 1-1 of Lesson 1 Introductions, you will listen to and analyze the sample speech about self-introduction and prepare for making your self-introduction. The Sample Dialogue 1-2 of Lesson 1 and the whole part of the following lessons have Part 1 Sample Dialogues and Part 2 Practice. In each lesson, your learning path will follow four STEPs. In the end of Part 1, expressions introduced in Sample Dialogues are taken up and explained as USEFUL EXPRESSIONS. In Part 1, you will identify the situation where the conversation takes place and the roles of the participants in the conversation (the characters), and ensure the understanding of the contents from STEP 1 to STEP 3.

And STEP 4 will encourage you to find the expressions actually used around you. Tasks that we set for each step are as follows. STEP 1: Identify the characters and the situation where the conversation is taking place, listen to Sample Dialogues and consider the questions related to the content of the dialogue. STEP 2: Note the role of each character using the task sheet and write down the expressions you have an interest in. STEP 3: List your comments and impressions on the questions in STEP 1. Consider the speakers intention to employ the expressions you wrote down in STEP 2.

STEP 4: Compare and contrast the expressions used in the Sample Dialogues with those actually used around you. Part 2 provides practices which will enable you to use what you have learned. Tasks that we set for each step are as follows. STEP 1: Learn how to use USEFUL EXPRESSIONS in the practice dialogue. STEP 2: Identify the characters and the situation and infer how the conversation would proceed. STEP 3: Set the characters and the situation for the conversation that may actually happen for your own and prepare a list of expressions.

STEP 4: Use the expressions you prepared in STEP 3 for your own case. JFP98 consists of 17 lessons, while the revised edition consists of 8 lessons. Based on the experience in AJALT class lessons and personalized lessons, we selected Sample Dialogues from Lesson 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 14 of JFP98 and reprinted them for the revised edition. Furthermore, we reorganized several contents to enable you to learn interactive expressions, for instance, the Lesson 3 Giving Instructions of JFP98 into Giving Instructions / Receiving Instructions of the revised edition. Sample Dialogues in this textbook were prepared using recorded role-playing conversations by the selected AJALT instructors as primary sources. This method follows that of JFP98. The scripts of the Sample Dialogues, the English translation of Sample Dialogue 1, the vocabulary lists of Sample Dialogues, Practice Sample Expressions, the blank sheet, the list of Useful Expressions, the Japanese-English Glossary, and the English-Japanese Glossary are provided at the end of this textbook.

Hiragana syllables are added to Kanji characters that exceed N3 equivalent level. You can check out the reading of the Sample Dialogue scripts by listening to the audio materials. JFP98 was written by the following five AJALT instructors: Fujimoto Akira, Utsumi Miyako, Amada Makoto, Shiraishi Katsuhiko, and Kimura Hiroyuki. This revised edition was written by the following seven AJALT instructors who have practical work experience in various industries and teaching experience for businesspeople: Utsumi Miyako, Sawane Reiko, Edamatsu Daisuke, Kotani Sawako, Matsuda Yumiko, Yamaguchi Mamiko, and Fujioka Yoshie. The authors would like to thank Aoyama Mika and Nagata Toshinobu. In addition to the above editorial staff, a lot of other AJALT instructors assisted in the compilation of this revised edition, and provided advice for the trial version, audio recording, translation, and manuscript editing.

Preparation of this textbook was made possible by a grant from Ishibashi Foundation.