Yoon, Jae-Sook & Lee, Han-Seop. 2013. Japanese Vocabulary Education for Effective Understanding of Japanese Culture. Language Information. Volume 17. 73-92. This paper analyzes the differences in basic vocabulary for Japanese and foreigners as an attempt to effectively understand Japanese culture through Japanese vocabulary education. Suggestions are made for the development of Japanese vocabulary education to enable effective understanding of Japanese culture based on an analysis of differences by target learners. The data presented in this paper are collected from vocabulary educations for Japanese native speakersand learners of Japanese Section 1 introduces the topic and Section 2 outlines basic vocabularies for Japanese native speakers and those for learners of Japanese. Section 3 first classifies basic vocabularies according to their characteristics and then, analyzes each subcategory. The order of the analysis is as follows: common vocabularies, vocabularies included only for Japanese native speakers, vocabularies included only for learners of Japanese. Section 4 examines their semantic characteristics based on buruigiihyou and summarizes differences. In section 5, it proposes new direction for vocabulary eduction for learners of Japanese. Section 6 concludes the paper and argues for need for change from Kango-centered vocabulary education to Wago-centered vocabulary education for learners of Japanese. This study found that vocabulary education for Japanese learners emphasized wako predicates, whereas that for foreigners focused more on kango nouns. It is important to teach both kango and wako as vocabulary for foreigners, so as to enhance their understanding of Japan and Japanese culture.
Consistent efforts to include wako predicates in vocabulary education will not only lead to a better grasp of practical Japanese, but also contribute to an effective understanding of Japanese culture.
Key words: Japanese language education, basic vocabularies, Vocabulary education Language culture, First language, Foreign language, wago, kango, gairaigo.