User:Retropunk/Japanese Curriculum/Outline/Using This Book

Lessons
Each level has a given set of grammar points and vocabulary chosen for it. In rare exceptions an advanced grammar point may be introduced at the lower levels where unavoidable or appropriate. Each lesson will cover a small set of grammar points and vocabulary (including expressions and kanji). The prerequisites for each lesson are clearly stated with links to material that covers it. Review sections have links to the lessons they cover.

We suggest you follow these rough guide when progressing through the lessons:
 * 1) Make sure you fulfill the requirements.
 * 2) Complete the lesson and read through it again if something was unclear. Contact us on the talk page if you still have problems.
 * 3) Complete any excercises or recommended material which the page links to, such as that at the Wikiversity Japanese portal.
 * 4) Add the new vocabulary, kanji or grammar rules to any memorization application you may use and drill yourself on these.

For more suggestions on language study specific to Japanese, please refer to Japanese/Study methods.

Reading
To understand and become acquainted with a language, you'll need to read any and all material. The material in this lesson shall be low enough such that you'll understand the material without having to constantly revert to a dictionary, an assisted reading tool (e.g., Rikaichan), or relying on the reading lesson. Most of the reading material will be children stories for new learners to masterpieces for advanced students. If you have problems with the grammar, try reviewing the grammar categories linked within the reading lesson. If you have problems with the vocabulary, review the vocabulary section or use Rikaichan (Firefox only) to read the vocabulary.

Contributing
This book is an open-project. Anyone may contribute to this book as they see fit, whether the contributions are for new lessons or adding to lessons. Here are a few guidelines for contributors.


 * Grammar: Introduce only a few grammar points per lesson. If you need to do so, split the grammar points to several lessons.
 * Vocabulary: Try to keep the introduced vocabulary to under 10 words.
 * Topics: Pick topics based on your day-to-day activities (e.g., buying stamps at the post office), a recent event (either in your life, the world, or anywhere else), or a stereotypical event.
 * Reading: Natural text is great for language learning. Please only submit public-domain material.  Be mindful of the material (i.e., grammar, kanji and vocabulary) and your target audience.

This is the recommended layout:

Lessons
 * 1) Dialogue (by posters, conversations, or whatever.)
 * 2) Discussion of Vocabulary in Dialogue
 * 3) * Discuss various uses of vocabulary if necessary (e.g., politeness)
 * 4) * Optional links to dialogues for previously learned vocabulary
 * 5) Grammar
 * 6) * Discuss grammar points, giving more examples if necessary.
 * 7) * Link to previous grammar points (maybe by categories)
 * 8) Optional Quick Review
 * 9) Optional link to Wikiversity for practice work.

Reading Material
 * 1) Reading material (can be a sign, menu, a story, or anything with text)
 * 2) Translated reading material
 * 3) * If you're going to use literal translations, try to explain this and the approximated English translation.
 * 4) Vocabulary
 * 5) * Note peculiar vocabulary (obsolete kanji, readings, and etc.)
 * 6) * May link to wiktionary
 * 7) * Use templates.
 * 8) Link to appropriate lessons with the grammar using the category.
 * 9) * If the grammar point category does not exist, make a new one.
 * 10) * Do not worry if no lessons exist for the grammar point. You could make a lesson, or wait for someone else to do so.

See more at Japanese/Contributor's Guide.