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Does anyone here attend Japanese language lessons? I really want to improve my Japanese and am wondering if it would be worth the outlay to take some lessons.

We're not rolling in cash, so have to consider the cost and all, anyone have any good ideas or recommendations that might help us make the decision.

 

Thanks

Kev

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Looks like not many people can help you out here. I can't really either. Learning from books and friends. Badly. So maybe it is a good idea to go to class.

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Looks like no-ones interested in studying Japanese?! I would love to get better at Japanese (hardly any chance of getting worse) and it would be good to know if there were any good places to learn.

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Here is a list of schools to get you started if you are interested in an intensive Japanese summer course...

 

Some of this info could be outdated, so check out the details before you make plans!

 

- KAI Japanese Language School TOKYO (tel 03-3205-1356 fax 03-3207-4651e-mail: kaij@ca.mbn.or.jp) 3 week intensive course in August

 

- ALPHA Language School TOKYO (03-3504-8080) OSAKA (06-4796-6411) Summer Intensive

 

- AMICA Japanese Language School TOKYO (tel 03-5484-0963 fax 03-5444-2938 e-mail: amica@twics.com) Summer Intensive

 

- KYOTO Japanese Language School (tel 075-414-0449 fax 075-441-9055) 4 week intensive from mid-July to mid-Aug

 

- KYOTO Int'l Center of Language (tel 075-722-5066 fax 075-722-5067) Summer Intensive late-July to late-Aug

 

- OSAKA YWCA College (tel 06-361-2955 fax 06-361-2997 e-mail: ywca_osk@jca.ax.apc.org) Summer intensive from late-July to early Aug

 

- AKITA Summer Japanese Program w/Minnesota State (tel 018-886-5350 fax 018-886-3400 e-mail: lee@msua.ac.jp) July 30 to Aug 10; various levels; AKITA Prefecture

 

Good luck and happy studying,

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Nope, I just copied the list from an email i receieved recently.

 

surely, you can do an equivelent course closer to your home, in my small city there are tons of placing that teach japanese.

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I did a six-month course at Osaka YWCA back in 1993 when it was housed in a separate building behind Ogimachi Museum Square.

 

I'd been studying beforehand and had the Level 2 Noryoku Shiken before I started. I got in the Advanced class and studied alongside mainly Koreans. One American guy came once a week, and a half Japanese-half Swiss guy joined the second half of the course, but otherwise there were no English speakers. It was a Mon to Fri, fours hours a day program. It cost something like 300,000, which worked out at around 1,000 per hour. Thanks to the course, I got a six-month student visa.

 

The course ran from late September to March, with the Level 1 Nouryoku Shiken in December in between. It was very hard work and there were tests of kanji every day, which is something you want to think about if you intend to work part-time.

 

Thankfully, I managed to get through the test fairly comfortably. After the test, the pressure eased off, and some of the activities (watching videos etc.) seemed like a waste of time.

 

Since then, some of my friends have got through the Level 1 test with really high scores by focusing on exam technique (past papers) only. If you're thinking of doing the test, that's probably the best way to go. The kind of course I did will give you a more rounded knowledge and will improve other stuff like your pronunciation, but of course that's not on the test.

 

At lower levels, there were many Westerners in the classes, though the instruction is still entirely in Japanese, or so I was told. The teachers were all really nice and would help you outside the class. I bumped into one of them after seven years in a tea shop in Shanghai, would you believe, but she still remembered my name.

 

The school gets the thumbs up from me!

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I've heard good things about Kai. I went to ECC, but they don't do Japanese lessons anymore.

 

The more intensive/longer term a course you do, the cheaper it is. And the better you get. OK, so that's obvious. What I really want to say is that MY JAPANESE IS REALLY FREAKIN' GOOD CUZ I STUDIED MY BRAINS OUT. I'm a lot happier for it, and I can't recommend enough taking an intensive daily course for 6 months or more with a bunch of non-English speakers.

 

Ganbare!!!

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