Part 1

- Beginner's Edition 1 (News 1-20)
- Beginner's Edition 2 (News 1-26)

Part 2

- Intermediate (News 1-43)

Part 3

- Advanced (1-35) Final Review

(Appendix 1) - Scenes 1 through 40 of the film Paradise Lost
(Appendix 2) - Scenes 1 to 40 of the movie "Snow Country"

Download the MP3 file containing the original sound (http://jhpress.co.kr/book/jhpress/001_nhk)

The most difficult part of learning a foreign language is probably listening.
Not only because the weight of listening has been significantly increased in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test since July 2010, but I think everyone agrees that listening is the most important thing for actually speaking Japanese fluently.
Listening skills can never be improved in a short period of time.
But I think we can learn more efficiently.
To do that, it will be important to know what kind of listening materials you use and how you learn.


The material selected for this textbook is NHK News. As everyone knows, NHK is Japan's public broadcaster and a dream stage for all aspiring announcers in Japan.
We are confident that this will be more suitable for learners than any other Japanese listening resource, as the announcers, selected through such a difficult hurdle and through constant practice, cover a wide range of news from around the world with clear voices and refined, accurate pronunciation.
Furthermore, it cannot be overlooked that news articles provide information on current domestic and international situations in Japan, as well as terminology and current background information related to various fields.

I think the most effective way to learn listening is to listen intently and write down everything you hear.
But if you try to do it this way from the beginning, you'll quickly give up.
In that sense, this textbook is designed to help you develop more solid listening skills through a step-by-step training process.


In Part 1, Beginner Level 1, you practice reading along while looking at the script while listening to the article divided into paragraphs. In Beginner Level 2, blank spaces are added between paragraphs to help you listen with more focus.
Additionally, Japanese explanations have been added to vocabulary explanations, allowing for more in-depth word explanations and simple reading practice.


In the intermediate version of 〈Part 2〉, the original text of the article is included, and more blank spaces are provided than in Beginner 2 to allow for more advanced practice.
After completing the intermediate level, we completed the listening study by practicing dictation of the entire original article in the final advanced level, Part 3.
As with other areas, listening in particular requires a lot of repetition and effort.
If you practice repeatedly in order, step by step, you will soon feel that your listening skills have greatly improved.

Lastly, I included scripts for the movies Paradise Lost and Snow Country in the appendix, with the intention of providing a different Japanese language from the news and a brief break during your studies.
Paradise Lost is a novel written by Junichi Watanabe, which was made into a drama and movie.
The novel was published in the Japanese economic newspaper from 1995 to the following year.
It was a hot topic from the time it was serialized, including a sexually explicit story that was unusual for a general newspaper serial on the subject of adultery.


Snow Country is also a medium-length novel written over 13 years by Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972), Japan's first Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
The Snow Country, which is the author's most cherished work, depicts a woman of pure beauty in a landscape so beautiful that it could almost be called fantastical, with a delicate and sensuous touch.

For reference, due to the nature of the work, Snow Country has some differences in grammar, tone, and expressions from the film in order to preserve the setting of the time. However, for readers who wish to gain a broader and deeper understanding of Japanese, it would be worth comparing and savoring it as it contrasts well with the modern-day situation in Paradise Lost.
I hope this book will be of great help to readers in developing a high level of Japanese language skills.