Japanese Program

See photos from the Japanese and Chinese Open House

The Japanese program at Irvine Valley College has been approved by California Community Colleges Chancellor in May, 2006, as one of the foreign language majors in AA degree.  Currently, we offer two levels of classes, Beginning Japanese (JA1 and JA2), Intermediate Japanese (JA3 and JA4), and beginning and intermediate Japanese conversational classes (JA250A/250B and JA10).

In addition to language classes, we offer culture class, "Introduction to Japanese Culture" (JA21) which is conducted in English and explores various cultural aspects of Japan. This class has been very popular since its introduction and students are encouraged to sign up early.

The five adjunct instructors use communicative methods and students who seek for Japanese major in AA degree can complete all required courses at Irvine Valley College in two years. Our beginning-level classes offer fun and spirited interactive Japanese learning experience and we try to make the learning process easy and enjoyable.

The language classes are conducted in Japanese, and students learn the Japanese writing and reading system in the first few weeks of the course. However, our emphasis is on speaking and understanding the Japanese spoken by the native speakers. We encourage students to speak to native speakers even though their grammar is not perfect. To enhance and widen the opportunity to speak to and hear the native Japanese speakers, the instructors enlist Japanese students to participate and assist the classroom activities.  We also incorporate 'chat sessions' with the native speakers either before or after the class. 

The understanding of culture is another important factor of language acquisition. During the class, students will also learn different cultural aspects that are closely related to language.