Marugoto: Japanese Language and Culture Starter

"The Japan Foundation is an independent nonprofit organisation, but it used to be a government body, so it is a reliable and well-established organisation. The main purpose of the Japan Foundation is to promote Japanese culture and cultural activities, including Japanese language, all over the world. The Japan Foundation took the initiative to invent their own language standard based on the CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. It is called the JF standard, and is very clear and theoretically structured. This textbook is also their initiative. It emphasises the learner’s interaction and cultural understanding, which is integrated with language skills. It is the first in a series, starting from beginner, A1. You can study continuously using the same series of textbooks until intermediate level. The next book is A2, and the A books are both considered as a beginner’s elementary level. B1 is intermediate and B2 is higher intermediate. There is a complementary book called Marugoto: Japanese Language and Culture Starter A1 Coursebook for Communicative Language Activities , which is more activity-based and less about understanding structures, giving flexibility depending on learner goals. With this series, students can see exactly what they will be able to do by mastering each particular textbook, so it’s ideal in terms of aims and objectives and progress. That’s something I highly recommend."