Belt ranking system
The purpose of our belt system is to group students of similar skill level in each class so that beginner students are not overwhelmed and discouraged, and more advanced students are not bored and demotivated. It is important that students do not compare themselves to others and instead solely focus on making individual progress compared to oneself. Students should not a pursue belt rank upgrade for its own sake; it is merely a tool to help the teachers in classroom management!
White belt 白帯
A white belt is a brand new student. No prior Japanese study is expected. The most important asset is a good attitude. A white belt is expected to download Discord and the Japanese romaji input keyboard on iPhone before the first class. White belt classes start with learning a self-introduction. We begin with kanji, hiragana, and katakana from the very first day! The available technology makes this much easier than using paper dictionaries as in the past. A white belt is learning hiragana and katakana outside of class via rigorous self-study using multiple different resources including Duolingo and YouTube videos. Students can expect to study at the white belt level for 1-3 months depending on effort.
Blue belt 青帯
A blue belt has mastered hiragana and katakana completely. A blue belt can easily verbalize and type a full self-introduction including name, nationality, place of residence and a hobby/interest. A blue belt can politely apologize using several different sentences. A blue belt knows numbers up to 99,999. Students can expect to study at the blue belt level for 6 months up to a year depending on individual effort. A blue belt level of kanji knowledge is increasing from 30 kanji to over 100 kanji. Blue belts are learning Japanese surnames, major Japanese cities and Tokyo neighborhoods.
Purple belt 紫帯
A purple belt is well on the way to self-sufficiency. A purple belt has a firm grasp of past tense and present/future tense. Kanji ability has increased to several hundred. Purple belts know all major Japanese cities and Tokyo neighborhoods.
Brown belt 茶帯
A brown belt is nearing true fluency, and can recognize all kanji in simple, daily communications, over 500 kanji. A brown belt can type in Japanese on a smartphone as quickly as in English. In spoken Japanese a brown belt has little difficulty
Black belt 黒帯
A black belt has acquired the reading, text-input, speaking and listening skills to comfortably communicate in Japan without difficulty. A black belt is not perfect, and realizes that the study of Japanese could easily fill several human lifetimes. A black belt has done the work and is in a position to teach others. Despite the total knowledge acquired, a black belt is humbled by the near-infinite amount there is to learn. Having enjoyed the support of the community, a black belt is expected to give back and raise up the next generation of learners.
