Chinese characters are used in both Chinese and Japanese writing systems. When literate speakers of either language experience problems in finding or understanding words, they often resort to using Chinese characters or "kanji" (i.e., Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) in their talk, a practice known as "brush talk" ("bitan" in Chinese,…

The framework presented here is intended to provide general guidance in the design of curricula for teaching introductory Japanese to English-speaking students at the high school and college levels. It is not a course syllabus or statement of specific instructional outcomes. It has three purposes: (1) to assist Japanese language teachers in…