Futaba Language School provides Japanese language classes to nonnative Japanese speakers.
If you wish to be fluent in Japanese, wouldn’t it be great if you could make the right word choices that are best fitting to your intentions, your feelings and your sense of values? You might have noticed that native Japanese speakers can recognize a
speaker or writer’s intentions, feelings and even sense of value as they listen to or read their words. If you want to improve your Japanese so that native speakers can understand your true feelings in your conversations or in your writing, you are in
the right place. We are here to help you out.
What we are talking about is Gokan (語感). These are the nuances of a speaker or writer’s impressions, feelings and senses
of values. All of us have different perspectives and we are not supposed to feel the same way.
We would like to show you an example of Gokan(語感) in written Japanese. As you may know, there are 3 forms of Japanese letters. … “Hiragana”, “Katakana” and “Kanji”. If native Japanese speakers would like to give soft/light/delicate
impressions in their written texts visually, they are most likely to choose the form of Hiragana, and if they would like to give
hard/heavy/formal impressions, they would choose the form of Kanji. They would choose the form of Katakana to describe
feelings of hardness that are in between Hiragana and Kanji, yet Katakana is basically used to describe words of foreign origin.
They are careful about choosing sentences that show the right nuances in letters, emails, business documents,
advertisements and other media.
You can also recognize different nuances in different expressions and sentences. Let us share an example. Please have a look
at the following picture. – It shows that there is a beer.
A.ここに ビールが 1ぱい あります。
B.ここに ビールが 1ぱいだけ あります。 Just one glass of beer. (Statement)
C.ここに ビールが 1ぱいしか ありません。 We’ve got only one glass of beer.
Among the 3 choices, which sentence would you choose? If you are a beer lover, you should have chosen C. The sentence,
「しか~ありません(ない)。」 contains a personal feeling of disappointment. (Suppose you are a beer lover and wanted to
have lots of beers but there is only one glass available.) But if you do not drink beers at all, then there is no way you would
feel disappointed for not having lots of beer. You will only recognize the fact that you see a glass of beer. So you would be
more likely to use a statement rather than a expression. Also if you want to know the difference between A and B, ask us!)
We will train you closely in our classes so that you will be able to understand Japanese people’s sense of values that are
expressed in words. You will be one step closer to speaking like a native Japanese speaker.
How to Apply
step 1 Complete the contact form
Please complete our online trial lesson application form or contact us by telephone. TEL:06-6244-2528
step 2 Level check test
Come to the school for a free level check.
step 3 Counseling
Discuss your results and make a learning plan with one of our teachers.
step 4 The application of a lesson
Your teacher will propose a suitable lesson and come to the lesson.
step 5 Start your lessons
Please check the starting day of your lesson and come to the lesson.