This course is the first of a two-semester sequence of Beginning Japanese; it is for students who have no previous knowledge of Japanese. It aims to begin the development of communication skills in Japanese from True Beginner to the Novice Mid or Novice High level of the guidelines set by ACTFL. We will work on the four basic skills of language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) as well as culture-specific skills (do's and don'ts). It is expected that, by the end of this semester, students will have basic conversation skills, as well as rudimentary literacy in Japanese. Two types of Japanese characters (hiragana and katakana), as well as about 60 Chinese characters (kanji) will be learned.