The summer vacation period in Japan is generally four-to-six weeks from mid-July to the end of August. This “summer holiday” was officially established in the Elementary School Teaching Guidelines in 1881.
The idea of giving students summer vacation is commonly believed to be inspired by western countries. In Europe and the U.S., they believed students and teachers should be given time off during the hot summer months. Since the new school years start in September, summers are suitable for long vacations. At the time, Japan adopted the western education system and decided to incorporate such vacations during the season.
However, teachers assign a lot of homework during the summer period because the new school term in Japan starts in April. On top of that, the vacation period is shorter compared to the U.S. and other western countries. In the U.S., summer vacations are about three months long. Therefore, students may forget some of what they learned from their classes the year prior. In Japan, this problem doesn’t occur as often because they assign homework and the period is shorter.
Since 1996, Japanese-Online has been provided as a free service from PSPinc with the purpose of providing resources to individuals interested in learning about the Japanese Language and culture.
Japanese-Online has content suited to varying levels of study, including lessons for beginners as well as lessons tailored for those who need grammar and writing resources. Lessons are best suited to those who have basic understanding of hiragana and katakana alphabets before moving on to the more advanced grammar and particle lessons. Grammar lessons focus on learning about writing and creating more complex sentences and most lessons will not use romaji (Japanese sounds written with roman letters). Kanji is used in the lessons with hiragana and English translations provided.