OK, this is the place to decide when and how to organise the class! It means, it’s not open so far, we must discuss about it!

First things first
With “Japanese Together” I had some problems to organise the material for the lessons, and to decide topics, because I always based on the feedback, but sometimes it wasn’t very compatible with my way of teaching, so I wasn’t able to implement it.
So this time I will try to stick to a program… many things will be improvised, due to the flow of the class(es), because your cooperation will be as always significant.

Time Schedule
I can teach on Sunday afternoon or evening, CEST time.
And either on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday evening at 10PM CEST time.
If there are enough people showing interest, I can make one class or even two twin classes to satisfy the needs of more people.

Japanese Together
It means that everybody has got to do something. I work hard to find materials, to prepare them, to give them a form. Even you must work hard. So, what you have to do is:
1. be there in time
2. make a bit of homework
3. study the lesson before, and ask for questions about it in the following lesson. It’s better to understand things in the right way as soon as you learn them
4. write me your ideas, after the lesson. I won’t probably be able to implement them as soon as you suggest them, but I will consider them and one day or another I will understand how I can use them

The Syllabus So Far
The order of the topics can be changed and more than one could be covered during a lesson, depending on the level of the attendants and on the discussions held in class! But these topics will be definitely covered, first or then!
1. Pleased to meet you!
Related grammar: Particles HA and NO, Copula.
Some advices about DOUZO and DOUMO. Nationalities.
2. There’s a pen.
Related grammar: Particles GA and NI, Verbs IRU and ARU.
Some nouns for things.
3. I’ll go to the station.
Related grammar: Still particle NI, Verbs IKU, KURU, KAERU
Some nouns for places.
4. I eat apples. I like dogs.
Related grammar: Particle WO
Some verbs
5. Is this his book?
Related grammar: Particle KA, KORE, SORE, ARE.
Something about personal pronouns.
6. This one, please!
Related grammar: KONO, SONO, ANO.
SUMIMASEN, KUDASAI
For the future… Adjectives, other particles, conjugations for verbs, if the experiment runs well! And I have some original material about these topics, after “Japanese Together” classes held previously!

Start learning hiragana
You should be quite familiar with it for the third lesson (if you don’t remember 3 or 4 of the symbols at first glance no problem, but you should grasp it). I will give you all the links to sites to learn how to draw and to remember the hiragana. Remember to write the symbols on paper, it can help a lot!
Same goes for katakana, you should be quite familiar with it for the fifth lesson.

Make Mistakes
We learn a lot from mistakes. So try to make sentences, to apply the discussed thing, to use the mic.

Show Interest!
If you want to attend this free class made by a student like you, that maybe cannot master the topic but knows exactly how you can feel frustrated when you don’t understand something, please reply here or send me a direct message. No interest, no class!

Monday and Tuesday nights are free for me (although it is 11 PM for me – I can stay up for a little while). Sundays are bad. Arigatou Marziasan!

Sundays will probably be more workable for me. Your 10pm (CEST) = 3pm where I am so I’m still at work during that time on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The class sounds great so I’ll keep following this forum to see how things shape up.

@Lauren… 10PM for me is 11PM for you? Are you sure? I thought you lived in America and I lived in Germany…. So…. 4PM more or less in your part of the world…. Are you free anyway?

Hey Marzia!
CEST – Central European Summer Time? My timezone (US EST) is 6 hours behind this. So when it’s 10pm for you it’s 4pm for me ~ I really want to attend this class! But I usually don’t get home from work until 6pm. Midnight your time T-T On Sundays, my job is closed so I’m COMPLETELY happy =) if you could however start after or at 3pm your time that would be great so that it’s not TOO early for me. I’m basing this on my time schedule…. so that would be even earlier for people who live in Pacific, Mountain, or Central US time.
I think your syllabus looks great (if I come up with anything to add or that I’d like to go over I will definitely write again) I’ll try really hard to come up with some ideas for you by tomorrow night, because I know you want input. ^-

Don’t worry Mia, for the moment it’s enough input! If something will pop up in your mind, please inform me, that’s all!
I will need more suggestions when the class will be started!

It seems we will have a class on Sunday, but let’s wait a bit!
It would be nice to make it around 6PM or so, so I can have dinner with friends after or go to the park before! (I cannot live only studying Japanese!)

At six pm your time? I think that sounds good. I completely understand the need to live your life~ lol, definitely don’t put your social life on hold!

Yes…. 6PM CEST! OK, I never go to bed, but I have dinner like the most of people I know between 8 and 10 PM! :D
Between 4 and 10 PM actually… my former landlady once invited me to dinner at 4:30, it was a shock!

Oops yeah I was thinking about that on the way home :)
So Mondays and Thursdays are the only days I could possibly be home at 4PM, and some days I would have to skip because we have after school meetings sometimes. So do what ever is convenient for you and others, and if I can come, I will!

Lauren…. let’s wait for other responses. If there will be some European people who can make the course only during the week (it means, the people who attended “Japanese Together”), I could organise two twin courses, as I wrote. Nothing is set so far…. :)

The syllabus looks good. I live in India and it would be midnight over here. I would have attended if the classes were early

@Mahesh…. I don’t know if we can move the classes earlier…. probably the most of people who will attend are in America. And people like to sleep a bit on Sunday morning…. If you find some people from your time zone who want to attend the course, we can consider to make the class a couple of hours before…. even if I would definitely prefer to make it at 6PM for personal reasons! :)

By my side, I have attended many courses after midnight…. For me it’s not such a problem! I am used to go to bed quite late! But around 2AM I cannot understand as much as I would if the courses were held a couple of hours before.

Anyway, I plan to give reports after every lesson…. I think I will continue to make lists on smart.fm with the vocabulary covered, and to drop somewhere files with the notes from the lesson with translations and explanations implemented.
In my old “Japanese together” page there are a bunch of links to the things we made in the previous course. Here is the link: http://edufire.com/classes/1991
Feel free to check all the material I will prepare and to give me suggestions to improve!

Hello Marzia.
I’m in Brasil in america and and 10PM(CET) is 6PM.
6PM(CET) is 02PM. In both times I’m at work, so I could only attend classes at sundays.

I could only attend if it was 11PM (7PM for me) and 5PM(1 PM for me).

Hi Marzia!

I’m liking your gradual grammar focus – that’s where I’m particularly weak (learning set phrases and vocab lists does not fill that gap at all).

To guarantee that I’d be participating each week: Sunday, Monday or Tuesday evenings work for me – it’ll be 9pm my time, and makes a nice change from the awkward/impossible class times built around other time zones.

ありがとうマージアさん！

So far we have 3 requests for Sunday and 2 for the evening. Just spread the word. If I get requests from 5 people for each class, I can assume they will be committed and I am willing to devote a lot of my time to start two twin courses!
Or I could make only one class on Sunday evening. Let me know what do you think about it! :)
Let’s see what other people say! :)
By the way, I would suggest you to prepare for a class on Sunday, even if the time scheduled is still not fixed.

@Michelle The idea of my classes is to grasp the grammar together. Especially, making mistakes. I won’t have always the right answer at the right moment (I am studying Japanese, too) but I am a bit more advanced than a beginner. And I have a lot of friends to ask to, as I know some Japanese-Italian translators.
If you want to study a bit on your own before the beginning of the class, I wrote an article about Japanese resources online, if you want to give a check to it…. http://edufire.com/content/articles/130

A big thanks to all of you for your kind participation to the thread! I really appreciate it! :)

Will you have any intermediate level courses?
今年の８月に日本語の二年生になるから beginning Japaneseはもうできました。それから、日本語を勉強したいと思っています。Intermediate level を教えてくださいませんか？

- Sarah Cho

@Sarah….
No, sorry, I cannot afford it. It’s a bit too difficult and I am probably not able to hold two classes that are so different in the same period, as I must be prepared on the topics.
I reply in English because the most of the people here are beginners, and I want them to understand what I am saying.
I didn’t read that you were going to enter your second year of Japanese studies, sorry.
Probably your Japanese level is even higher than mine.
Sorry to bother, and if you are willing to help in the class with your knowledge, you will be always welcome to join.

Hi Marzia
I would be honored to take you class ,I agree with Michelle that learning set phrases and vocab lists does not fill in the gaps. That’s where I am weak at, also.

@Samantha
I think you know more or less my approach to grammar! To try, to make mistakes, to find the right way. The vocabulary is something that comes on its own, and that can be studied without the help of a teacher or a group.
Which time is better for you for the class? If everybody agrees, we could make only one class on Sunday evening (for me) around 10PM CEST. But I still wait for some feedback from other people…. Maybe there’s the sisterhood class from Jamila at that time and some people want to go there…. let’s see…. Hopefully someone else who attended “Japanese together” will post here!

Hi, I was leery about chiming in, since i’ve only attended “free” classes, but Sunday evening works for me (US, Central Time). Will this be a free class? Arigatou Gozaimasu.

@Sami….
the class is for free, as “Japanese together”, where you registered but didn’t attend regularly. It would be nice to see you in class more often.
Sunday evening US Central time is impossible for me. Your 9PM is my 6AM, and I wouldn’t be able to teach a class at that time of the morning.
I am no pro teacher, I don’t ask for money, but I ask for commitment. I think it’s quite a good deal.

Hi Marzia,
I just started using edufire, but I’m liking it so far. I’m finding it to be a great value in addition to my other sources of Japanese language learning. Right now I’m competing with “someone else” (aka, daughter) who uses the one laptop at around the same time I’m trying to get on edufire. But I’m on the lookout for a second computer. I guess I have to be more responsible and only sign up for classes that I know I will be able to attend regularly and on-time.

@Sami….
sometimes I can be a bit too harsh, sorry.
I hope you will manage a way to use the computer when you need it! :)

So, as I read no further feedback, I will right now open a class for Sunday, 6 PM CEST, 11 AM US EST (I think, I always make confusion with the time zones), as it is the most comfortable time for me and some of you can attend. If there are many people interested in making another class during the week at 10PM CEST (3PM US EST), I can open it later.

I will make a set of 4 lessons, so we will see how the class goes, and we will be able to reschedule the timing at the end of the set.

Be active learning!

This thing really sounds cool, and i would take the class as soon as you start;P
The day’s are fine with me too as long as it is on 10PM,
even though I’m still new to edufire and I don’t know how everything works completely, and I have no mic. but i’ll do my best^^ ;P