最終プロジェクト：自立した日本語Final B1 Project: Independent Japanese
Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Review and use, in one connected project, the major grammar systems developed across Volume II, including obligation, giving and receiving, explanatory んです, conditionals, and reported and secondhand speech.
- Read and write mixed-script Japanese that combines Volume II kanji with appropriately reduced furigana.
- Interview, narrate, explain, give an opinion, and report within a single organized project.
- Manage topic reference across a longer piece of connected discourse without unnatural repetition.
- Distinguish polite and plain style and apply register consistently across a spoken and a written task.
- Complete a multi-part final performance task that draws on listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
- Identify which Volume II systems feel secure and which require further practice before beginning Volume III.
Communication Scenario
The neighborhood newsletter article from Chapter 19 was a success, and the neighborhood association has asked Emma and Yuki to put together one larger feature: a short profile of a person in the community, including their recent life, an experience they are proud of, a problem they solved, an opinion they hold about the area, and a plan for the future. To do this, Emma and Yuki must draw on everything from this volume — introducing themselves and updating others on their lives, describing routines and relationships, stating obligations, solving a practical problem, explaining a process, forming and supporting an opinion, narrating experience, discussing community and conditions, and finally reporting what they learned in one connected account. This chapter's Final Capstone Performance Task asks you to do the same for a person of your choice.
- The writer reviews and reuses vocabulary and grammar from across Volume II.
- The writer interviews someone, narrates an experience, explains a process, and gives a supported opinion.
- The writer organizes everything into one clear, connected profile with correct polite or plain style throughout.
Cumulative Vocabulary Review
This chapter does not introduce new vocabulary. Instead, it draws together productive vocabulary from across all four units of Volume II. The table below samples one representative item from each unit as a review anchor; it is not a complete list, and all vocabulary taught in Chapters 1 through 19 remains active and available.
| Japanese | Reading | English meaning | Unit of origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 最近 | さいきん | recently | Unit I — 生活を整える |
| もらう | もらう | to receive | Unit I — 生活を整える |
| 確認する | かくにんする | to confirm | Unit II — 実用問題を解決する |
| 予約 | よやく | reservation | Unit II — 実用問題を解決する |
| 意見 | いけん | opinion | Unit III — つながった説明 |
| まず／次に／最後に | まず／つぎに／さいごに | first / next / finally | Unit III — つながった説明 |
| 経験 | けいけん | experience | Unit IV — 自立した日本語 |
| まとめる | まとめる | to put together; to organize | Unit IV — 自立した日本語 |
Before continuing, look back at the Core Vocabulary sections of Chapters 1 through 19 and note any words you no longer recognize immediately; these are good candidates for extra review before this chapter's capstone task.
れんしゅう — Practice: Choose one word from each unit in the table above and write one sentence for each, drawing on a different Volume II grammar pattern in each sentence.
Script and Kanji Review
This chapter reviews and consolidates kanji introduced across Volume II. Following this volume's furigana policy, kanji from Chapters 1 through 17 now appear with reduced or no furigana, kanji from Chapters 18 and 19 continue to receive furigana at first appearance, and any name, rare reading, or unscheduled character continues to receive furigana throughout, as required by the Japanese master instructions.
As furigana is reduced across Volume II, you are still responsible for reading and, where scheduled, writing the underlying kanji. If a consolidated kanji from an earlier chapter, such as 生活 or 意見, is no longer clear to you without furigana, treat that as a signal to review the relevant earlier chapter before attempting this chapter's capstone task, rather than relying on guesswork from context alone.
れんしゅう — Practice: Without looking back at earlier chapters, write the readings for 生活, 予約, 意見, 経験, 条件, 取材, 報告, and 記憶. Check your answers against the kanji cards above, and review any chapter where a reading did not come easily.
Pronunciation Review
As your spoken output grows longer in this chapter's capstone task, mora timing, vowel length, gemination, and moraic ん can slip, particularly across sentence boundaries when you are focused on content rather than form. Before recording or presenting your final project, review the following pairs, all drawn from earlier Volume II vocabulary:
- 予約 (よやく) versus a shortened, incorrect よやく without the long vowel in よう being fully absent here — the key contrast to check is 報告 (ほうこく) against an under-lengthened ほこく.
- 経験 (けいけん): keep the long vowel in けい distinct from a plain け, and keep moraic ん fully timed before け in けん.
- 連絡 (れんらく): moraic ん before ら, without inserting a vowel between them.
Maintain phrase-level rhythm through longer connected sentences that combine と言っていました, そうです, and connective phrases such as ので or ために, rather than rushing toward the end of a long sentence.
Grammar Review
This chapter reviews and integrates the major grammar systems developed across Volume II rather than introducing new ones. The table below summarizes the systems this chapter's capstone task requires, organized by the unit in which each was introduced.
| System | Introduced | Function in this chapter's project |
|---|---|---|
| なければなりません／なくてもいい | Ch. 4 | describing obligations or requirements connected to the profile subject's life |
| あげる／くれる／もらう | Ch. 3 | describing help, favors, or gifts exchanged with others |
| んです（explanatory）／てしまいました | Ch. 6 | explaining a problem the profile subject faced and how it was resolved |
| なら／場合／ことができます | Ch. 7 | describing conditions, options, or possibilities |
| まず／次に／最後に、ために、ように | Ch. 14 | explaining a process or sequence of steps |
| と思います／から・ので／かもしれません | Ch. 13 | presenting a supported opinion with a reason |
| ことがある／ようになった | Ch. 16 | narrating past experience and change over time |
| たら／なら／かどうか | Ch. 18 | describing future conditions and choices |
| と言っていました／そうです／らしい（receptive） | Ch. 19 | reporting what the profile subject said and passing along additional information |
This table reviews representative systems rather than every grammar point taught in Volume II. Consult individual chapters for full explanations if a pattern feels unfamiliar.
Topic management across a long text
Purpose: to keep a single profile subject clear as the topic across many connected sentences covering different time periods and grammar systems, as first developed in Chapter 19.
- 田中さんは、この地域に二十年住んでいます。最近、新しいボランティア活動を始めました。前は忙しくてできなかったそうですが、去年、仕事の状況が変わってから、時間ができたと言っていました。Tanaka-san has lived in this area for twenty years. Recently, they started a new volunteer activity. They said that before, they were too busy to do it, but after their work situation changed last year, they got some time.topic established once; carried through obligation, change, and reported speech
Notice that the topic 田中さん is stated once and then tracked through several different grammar systems — duration, recent change, obligation-like circumstance, and reported speech — without being repeated in every sentence.
Polite and plain style consistency
Purpose: to maintain one consistent style, usually polite です／ます style for a public-facing profile, while quoting or reporting a subject's own plain-form words when appropriate, as modeled throughout this volume.
- 田中さんは、「もっと早く始めればよかった」と言っていました。Tanaka-san said, "I wish I had started earlier."polite narration frame; plain-form quoted content
A profile written mainly in polite style may still quote a subject's exact plain-form words inside 「 」, since a direct quotation preserves what the person actually said; the surrounding narration should remain consistently polite unless the whole project is intentionally written in plain style throughout.
Grammar Review Practice
- Write one sentence using an obligation or permission pattern from Chapter 4.
- Write one sentence using あげる, くれる, or もらう from Chapter 3.
- Write one sentence explaining a problem using explanatory んです from Chapter 6.
- Write one sentence using a conditional pattern from Chapter 7 or Chapter 18.
- Write one sentence explaining a step-by-step process using まず／次に／最後に from Chapter 14.
- Write one sentence giving a supported opinion using と思います and から or ので from Chapter 13.
- Write one sentence narrating a past experience using ことがある or ようになった from Chapter 16.
- Write one sentence reporting what someone said using と言っていました or そうです from Chapter 19.
Model Dialogue
Setting: Emma and Yuki plan their community profile project together, reviewing which Volume II systems they will use.
ないようりかい — Comprehension questions:
- Who does Emma suggest writing about, and why?
- What two additional topics does Yuki say they need to ask about in more detail?
- How does Emma suggest explaining the activity's process, and what does Yuki say they will do at the end?
Guided Practice
タスク１ — Plan your subject. Choose a real or imagined person for your profile and write three sentences about their recent life, using vocabulary and grammar from Unit I.
タスク２ — Plan a problem and a process. Write two sentences about a problem your subject solved, using explanatory んです or a conditional pattern, and two sentences about a step-by-step process connected to your subject, using まず／次に／最後に.
タスク３ — Plan an opinion and an experience. Write one sentence giving a supported opinion your subject holds, and one sentence narrating a past experience of theirs.
タスク４ — Plan your reporting. Write two sentences reporting things your subject said, using と言っていました and そうです, while keeping the topic clear without repeating their name unnecessarily.
Listening Practice
Ask your instructor, a partner, or a text-to-speech tool to read the following passage aloud at a clear, moderate pace.
きくタスク — A finished profile, read aloud
サトウさんは、去年から地域のボランティア活動に参加しています。前は時間がなくてできなかったそうですが、仕事が変わってから、参加できるようになったと言っていました。活動の前は、まず参加者を確認し、次に必要な物を準備し、最後にみんなで作業をします。サトウさんは、この活動のおかげで、地域の人ともっと親しくなれたと思うと言っていました。私も、この経験は素晴らしいと思います。
聞くタスク — Listening task: Identify how long Sato-san has participated in the activity, what changed to make participation possible, the three steps of the activity's process, and what Sato-san's opinion is about the activity's effect.
This script reviews recent-change vocabulary, explanatory んです, sequential process language, opinion patterns, and reported speech together, as expected on this chapter's Final Capstone Performance Task.
Speaking Practice
コントロールされた練習 — Controlled practice: Quick review answers
- 最近、何か新しいことを始めましたか。
- 今までに、どんな問題を解決したことがありますか。
- この一年で、日本語について、どんな経験をしましたか。
コミュニケーションタスク — Full interview for the capstone project
Interview a partner, or your chosen profile subject, using questions that cover recent life, a relationship or favor, an obligation, a problem and its solution, a process, an opinion, a past experience, and a future plan. Take detailed notes, since you will use this interview for the Final Capstone Performance Task.
ひとりでもできる練習 — Solo practice: A rehearsed spoken profile
Using your interview notes, rehearse and record a two-to-three-minute spoken version of your profile, following the Building Block pattern from the Grammar Review section. Listen back and check pronunciation, grammar accuracy, topic management, and register consistency before completing your final written version.
Reading Practice
Read the following short community profile, then answer the questions below.
地域の人 — A Person in the Community
山田さんは、この地域に十年住んでいます。最近、近所の高齢者のために、買い物を手伝う活動を始めました。始めたきっかけは、隣の人に頼まれたことだそうです。活動をする時は、まず必要な物のリストをもらい、次に近くの店で買い物をし、最後に届けます。最初は大変だったと言っていましたが、今は慣れて、それほど時間がかからなくなったそうです。山田さんは、この活動を通して、地域の人ともっと親しくなれたと思うと言っていました。来年は、もっと多くの人に手伝ってもらえるように、活動を広げるつもりだそうです。私は、このような活動が、もっと多くの地域に広がってほしいと思います。
Notice that 生活、意見、経験、and 条件-related vocabulary from earlier units appear here with little or no furigana, following this chapter's reduced support level, while a small number of less familiar words, such as 慣れて and 親しく, retain furigana as needed for clarity.
ないようりかい — Comprehension questions:
- What activity did Yamada-san start, and what was the reason they began it?
- What are the three steps of the activity, in order?
- What does Yamada-san plan to do next year, and what is the writer's own opinion at the end?
Writing Workshop
In this workshop you will draft the written portion of your Final Capstone Performance Task: a community profile that integrates grammar and vocabulary from across Volume II, following the nine-stage Building Block pattern from the Grammar Review section.
- Introduce your subject and their recent life, establishing the topic clearly.
- Describe a relationship, favor, or obligation connected to your subject.
- Narrate a problem your subject faced and how it was solved, using explanatory んです or a conditional pattern.
- Explain a process or sequence connected to your subject's activity, using まず／次に／最後に.
- State a supported opinion your subject holds, with a reason.
- Narrate a past experience and a change over time in your subject's life.
- Describe a future condition or plan connected to your subject.
- Report what your subject said, distinguishing direct statements from secondhand information.
- Close with your own conclusion, and revise using the checklist below.
チェックリスト — Editing checklist:
- My profile introduces the subject and their recent life clearly.
- My profile includes at least one obligation, favor, or giving/receiving expression.
- My profile explains a problem and its solution, or a condition, clearly.
- My profile explains a process using まず／次に／最後に or similar sequencing.
- My profile includes a supported opinion with a reason.
- My profile narrates a past experience or change over time.
- My profile reports what the subject said, distinguishing direct and secondhand information.
- I kept my topic clear across sentences without unnecessary repetition of names.
- I maintained consistent polite or plain style, except inside direct quotations.
- I followed this chapter's furigana reduction policy for earlier and newer kanji.
Culture and Communication
Community profiles like the ones practiced in this chapter reflect a common feature of neighborhood life in many parts of Japan, where long-term residents often take on informal or semi-formal roles supporting neighbors, such as organizing activities, checking on elderly residents, or running small local events. The scale, frequency, and formality of this kind of involvement vary considerably by neighborhood, city size, and region, so profiles like these should be read as examples rather than as a single universal pattern.
Some neighborhoods rely on a formal 自治会 (neighborhood association) to organize activities like those described in this chapter, while others rely more on informal networks among neighbors, community centers, or online groups. Learners preparing an interview-based project should ask their subject directly about how their own community is organized, rather than assuming one pattern applies everywhere.
A community profile intended for a newsletter or public audience is typically written in consistent polite style throughout the narration, even when it quotes a subject's own plain-form words inside direct quotations. Shifting between polite and plain narration without a clear reason, such as a deliberate change in audience or genre, can make a public-facing text feel inconsistent or unfinished.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Error: *山田さんはこの地域に十年住んでいます。最近、活動を始めた。問題があったと言っていました。 mixing です／ます narration with plain-form narration in the same profile.
Correction: 山田さんはこの地域に十年住んでいます。最近、活動を始めました。問題があったと言っていました。 — keep narration consistently polite throughout a public-facing profile, reserving plain forms for direct quotations inside 「 」 or for a deliberately plain-style piece.
Error: *山田さんは、隣の人に頼まれて、大変だったけど、慣れて、来年広げるつもりだと言っていて、いいと思います。 combining giving/receiving, past difficulty, change, future plan, reported speech, and opinion into a single overloaded sentence.
Correction: Separate these ideas into distinct sentences, as the reading passage in this chapter does, so that each grammar system remains clear and the connected account stays readable.
Error: Writing eight or nine disconnected sentences, each demonstrating one grammar point in isolation, without any topic chaining, transitions, or overall structure.
Correction: Use the Building Block pattern from the Grammar Review section to connect each stage smoothly, carrying the topic forward and using appropriate connectors, so that the finished project reads as one coherent profile rather than a checklist.
Chapter Review
Section A — ごい (Vocabulary)
1. Choose one word from each of the four units of Volume II and use each one in a sentence connected to your capstone project's subject.
Section B — もじ (Script)
1. Write the eight kanji reviewed in the Script and Kanji Review section from memory, with their readings, and use each in a short phrase.
Section C — ぶんぽう (Grammar)
1. Complete the eight Grammar Review Practice items in the Grammar Review section above, if you have not already done so.
2. Explain, in your own words, why consistent polite or plain style matters across a longer connected text.
Section D — どっかいりかい (Reading comprehension)
1. Look again at the community profile in the Reading Practice section. Write three sentences summarizing it in your own words, maintaining consistent polite style.
Section E — かくこと (Writing)
1. Complete your written community profile, following the Writing Workshop steps, as part of the Final Capstone Performance Task below.
Section F — はなすこと (Speaking)
1. Present your rehearsed spoken profile to a partner, instructor, or recording, as part of the Final Capstone Performance Task below.
Final Capstone Performance Task
さいしゅうパフォーマンスタスク
自立した日本語 — A community profile
Choose a real or imagined person to profile, real interview subject preferred where possible. Complete all four components below, drawing on grammar and vocabulary from across Volume II.
- Written profile: Write a connected account of at least twelve sentences that follows the nine-stage Building Block pattern from the Grammar Review section: recent life, a relationship or obligation, a problem and its solution, a process, a supported opinion, a past experience and change over time, a future condition or plan, reported and secondhand speech, and your own conclusion. Maintain consistent polite style in the narration, keep the topic clear without unnecessary repetition, and follow this chapter's furigana reduction policy.
- Spoken presentation: With a partner, instructor, or recording, present your profile aloud in two to three minutes, as though introducing this person to a new member of the community.
- Listening check: Listen to a partner's or instructor's profile presentation and correctly identify the subject's recent life, the problem and solution described, the opinion given, and which information was reported directly versus secondhand.
- Reading check: Read a classmate's or instructor's written profile and summarize its content in your own words, using consistent polite style.
Assessment focus: accurate and natural integration of Volume II grammar systems, including obligation, giving and receiving, explanatory んです, conditionals, process sequencing, opinion and reason, experience and change, and reported and secondhand speech; correct recognition and production of Volume II kanji with appropriate furigana reduction; clear topic management across a longer connected text; consistent register; and comprehensible pronunciation with attention to mora timing, vowel length, gemination, moraic ん, and phrase rhythm across an extended spoken performance.
Answer Key
Grammar Review Practice
Open-ended; models should follow the patterns shown in the Grammar Review section and the individual chapters referenced there (Chapters 3, 4, 6, 7, 13, 14, 16, 18, and 19). Check that each sentence uses the target system accurately and that plain-form and polite-form choices are appropriate to context.
Model Dialogue — Comprehension
- Emma suggests writing about Tanaka-san because they have already interviewed them several times and know about their recent situation.
- Yuki says they need to ask about experience and opinion in more detail.
- Emma suggests explaining the activity's process using まず、次に、最後に; Yuki says they will summarize what Tanaka-san said and add their own opinion at the end.
Listening task — Model summary
Sato-san has participated in the activity since last year. They said that after their job changed, they had time to participate, whereas before they were too busy. The three steps are: confirm participants, prepare necessary items, and do the work together. Sato-san's opinion is that the activity has helped them become closer with people in the community.
Reading — Comprehension
- Yamada-san started an activity helping elderly neighbors with shopping; they began it because a neighbor asked them to.
- The three steps are: receive a list of needed items, shop at a nearby store, and deliver the items.
- Yamada-san plans to expand the activity next year so more people can help; the writer expresses hope that this kind of activity spreads to more communities.
Chapter Review — Sections A and B
Open-ended; check against the Cumulative Vocabulary Review and Script and Kanji Review sections above.
Chapter Review — Section C
Open-ended for item 1; see Grammar Review Practice guidance above. For item 2, a correct explanation notes that consistent register helps a public-facing text read as coherent and appropriately formal, while quoted plain-form speech is understood as reflecting the subject's exact words rather than a break in the writer's own style.
Chapter Review — Section D
Model answer: 山田さんは、隣の人に頼まれて、高齢者のために買い物を手伝う活動を始めました。最初は大変でしたが、今は慣れたそうです。来年は、活動をもっと広げるつもりだと言っていました。 (Other accurate answers accepted.)
Chapter Review — Section E and F, and Final Capstone Performance Task
These are open-ended production tasks. Evaluate the written profile against the Writing Workshop checklist above, and evaluate the spoken presentation, listening check, and reading check against the assessment focus listed under the Final Capstone Performance Task.
Looking Ahead
いまできること — What you can do now
You can produce a connected, organized profile of a real or imagined person that draws together recent life, relationships and obligations, problem-solving, process explanation, supported opinion, past experience, future conditions, and reported and secondhand speech. You can manage topic reference across a longer text, maintain consistent register, and read and write mixed-script Japanese with appropriately reduced furigana. This completes Volume II: Everyday Independence and Connected Communication, and marks your arrival at practical B1 independence in Japanese.