Don't be fooled by the unit name "beginners japanese". This unit is extremely fast paced and if you don't have prior japanese knowledge you will most likely struggle. You are expected to pick up 3 different scripts very quickly and be able to read them efficiently and fluently after a week or two of learning them. There is also a partner speaking assessment which is marked insanely harshly and subjectively, with very little feedback. There are no actual lectures, the "lectures" consist of various youtube links of some random American guy who has zero association with UWA, and the in person classes were not useful. If you are looking for an easy HD and have quite a bit of prior japanese knowledge, then this unit would be good for you. However, if you do not have any prior knowledge I would not recommend doing this unit in the slightest. The end of semester exam was 20% beginner japanese, and 80% things we were never even taught. We were expected to read and answer paragraphs that contained characters which we were never introduced to. The exam was open book, but it somehow didn't make it any easier since a lot of the content in the exam wasn't even in our textbook or class notes! 10/10 would NOT recommend.

Very fast-paced for people with prior Japanese knowledge, its very hard to catch back up if you end up falling behind.

This unit is very fast paced for someone with absolutely no experience of Japanese. Learning hiragana and katakana is a must before starting this unit as you will probably be expected to remember all of the alphabets by the first two weeks. Even though you will be learning the hiragana and katakana the first two weeks, the tutorials already introduce greetings and expressions with full hiragana and supporting romaji which is a bit too much at first. The online tests are structured quite awkwardly and will most likely confuse you. Especially with reading comprehension questions, your hiragana/katakana reading skills really need to be up to par to answer under time pressure. There are four tests in total (including final exam) and an individual recorded speaking assignment. Best part of the unit are the short lectures, especially because Reto is very clear with his explanations.

This course is deceptive when it says it is for people with no prior knowledge of Japanese. Reto sensei is not a bad teacher, but this course moves very fast for someone with no previous knowledge of Japanese. I recommend learning hiragana and katakana before learning this course so you don’t feel so behind, or feel like giving up. It’s a lot of homework but don’t be discouraged because it’s totally doable if you truly want to learn Japanese!

Excellent unit, well-organized content, and outstanding unit coordinator - Romit sensei! If you like Japanese cultures, you’d love this unit!

This was a very enjoyable unit! Both Romit sensei and Kaori sensei are great teachers. It's saddening that Romit sensei won't be able to teach Japanese further. He was so helpful. I think the only advice I would give is to keep up with the workload. Cramming doesn't suit language learning so make sure you nail hiragana and katakana and don't leave it to "study" at the end. The unit is centred around a textbook, this year it was Nakama. So it's a good idea to focus your study towards the stuff covered in the book. I loved this unit. I hope you do too.

As many would agree, both Romit and Kaori sensei are extremely friendly and helpful! The content isn't too difficult and it's great to go to the tutes to meet new people. There are a tonne of resources available as well.

Great for beginners. Have to really keep on top of the 3 alphabets (mainly hiragana and kanji) and vocab. Constant review is needed. Romit sensei is great!

Japanese 1 is really easy and fun to learn. I'd highly recommend if you're choosing a Category A broadening unit! It might be a little challenging to learn and memorize the Japanese characters at first, but when you get the hang of it, the rest of the unit is really easy, just some introduction of new grammar structures. The lecturer and the language class teachers are very helpful and kind, so you will enjoy learning this unit as much as I did!

Japanese language is a very easy language learn. Read along with the lecturer in the lecture is an essential part for you to get the correct pronunciations of the Japanese language.. A minimum of 3hrs self-study is needed for you to memorize all the new vocab you've learnt in every lessons. がんばて！