What is the Optional Subject Curriculum?

To satisfy various international students with different outlooks and needs with any one standard class schedule is a difficult task. In order to solve this problem, we offer Optional Subject Curriculum. With the Optional Subject Curriculum, the 1st and 2nd period of your academic day are focused on the required study for each level, but the 3rd and 4th period is open to the study of subjects of your choice.

Studying the subjects which interest you, which will help to overcome your weaknesses, or which help to attain your goal will enable each student to get the most out of his or her precious time in Japan.

How do I choose the subjects?

Every term (3 months) we select subjects (from over 90 subjects available) according to students’ requests. We create the terms’ schedule and offer up to 50 subjects which are in most demand. Student can register for one subject for each day of the week and total of five subjects a week,to create his/her own schedule.

What types of subjects are available?

The curriculum provides a wide range of subjects which covers business, culture, media, examinations, practical applications, as well as those which are focused on improving your skills in reading, listening, conversation, writing, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. The table below is an example of subjects available.

Do you have a course which helps to prepare for entrance examinations for universities and gradute schools?

Special Preparatory class prepares you for admissions to distinguished universities. In this class, you are required to work much harder so that you progress rapidly. In the 3rd and 4th period, you will be taking subjects which strengthen your skills for examinations such as interview practice, essay writing, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension for examinations. Other students may join the 3 rd and 4 th lessons, instead of taking the Optional subjects.

Examples of subjects

Reading comprehension

Reading newspapers
Reading magazine articles or essays
Reading the works of Yasunari Kawabata, the Nobel Prize winner

Conversation

Discussion, free conversation for advanced students
Conversation through dramatic role playing
Improve your conversational skill
Introduction to intermediate conversation for studentsw with weak
conversational skills

Listening

Listening comprehension of narration, drama, and recitations
Basic listening practice for intermediate learners

Business Japanese

Business Japanese—Working with Japanese co-workers
Basic Business Japanese—from greetings to telephone conversations

Culture

Traditional Japanese culture
Making your own guidebook

Media

Learning Japanese through TV dramas
Learning Japanese through Animation : Hayao Miyazaki’s works

Practical use

Learning Japanese through cooking
Learning Japanese through sports
First step of teaching Japanese
Mastering keigo
Basic pronunciation-learn to pronounce correctly
Brushing up on your pronunciation
Katakana vocabulary for design & computer science

Sample class schedule with optional subjects

*The table below is an example of a schedule with Optional Subects. We provide more subjects than the ones shown in the schedule below.