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+--- Thread: Good Language School in Japan- Isi, Yamasa (/thread-12489.html)
Good Language School in Japan- Isi, Yamasa - Muffles - 2015-01-25
Hey everyone! Well I'm seriously considering going to Japan this summer to study at a summer school for about 8 weeks. I'm not a complete newbie to Japanese, I've passed JLPT N4 and I'm working towards N3 now. I want a school that's going to give me a little boost in regards to that area.
I've been doing some research and from the reviews it seems like Isi and Yamasa are regarded quite highly as being good language schools. The information I can find about them is quite old though, so I was just wondering if anyone could give me a more up-to-date opinion on them? Which is better?
Thanks in advance!
Good Language School in Japan- Isi, Yamasa - rich_f - 2015-01-25
I wrote about my experiences at Yamasa on my travel blog, http://www.stupidamericantourist.com/
Click the Japan2011 tag, or the Yamasa tag.
The TL;DR version: if you can handle living in Aichi Prefecture, and you really want to ramp up your spoken Japanese, Yamasa is a good experience. You'll be forced to use Japanese whenever you head out the door, in class, on campus, and if you go shopping around Okazaki or Nagoya. There are fewer English speakers in the region compared to Tokyo, so your Japanese will get a thorough workout.
Yamasa does a great job of looking after its students. There's a big support staff that will help you with stuff like paying bills, etc. They do a good job of making you feel welcome. Since it's a non-profit, you don't get the run-around, either. They're straightforward about how much things cost. (It's not like it's particularly cheap, but the money goes back into the school.)
Good Language School in Japan- Isi, Yamasa - Muffles - 2015-01-26
rich_f Wrote:I wrote about my experiences at Yamasa on my travel blog, http://www.stupidamericantourist.com/Thanks for the reply! I lived in the inaka in Hokkaido for a few years, so being somewhere remote doesn't really scare me. I've heard that isi is pretty intense which I liked the sound of, did you find that Yamasa was quite intense and pushed you a lot as well? Also do they try and teach you according to the JLPT? I'm really looking for something that will give me a boost into learning a lot more of N3.
Click the Japan2011 tag, or the Yamasa tag.
The TL;DR version: if you can handle living in Aichi Prefecture, and you really want to ramp up your spoken Japanese, Yamasa is a good experience. You'll be forced to use Japanese whenever you head out the door, in class, on campus, and if you go shopping around Okazaki or Nagoya. There are fewer English speakers in the region compared to Tokyo, so your Japanese will get a thorough workout.
Yamasa does a great job of looking after its students. There's a big support staff that will help you with stuff like paying bills, etc. They do a good job of making you feel welcome. Since it's a non-profit, you don't get the run-around, either. They're straightforward about how much things cost. (It's not like it's particularly cheap, but the money goes back into the school.)
(Sorry, it's morning and rushing for work so I haven't been able to read all your blog yet. Sorry if anything I've asked is covered there).
Good Language School in Japan- Isi, Yamasa - rich_f - 2015-01-26
Yamasa is as intense as you want it to be. I did a semester of AIJP, the accelerated intermediate Japanese program there. Classes went from 9-12, then 1-2, then 2-4 were electives. For me, it was business Japanese (4-5 days a week for an hour or so), JLPT1 grammar, and JLPT2 grammar (both grammar classes only met once a week for an hour or so.)
During lunch, it was a time to socialize, mostly in Japanese. Then it was time to go shopping, make dinner, study, and repeat. I'd say classes required at least an hour a day of studying at night to do the bare minimum work, but if you want to get ahead, do extra work.
Text-wise, they use Minna no Nihongo for the lower levels, up to N3, then they used New Approach for N3+. Grammar is pretty intense there. They focus a lot on grammar and writing. We also had tests on making presentations, speaking, and conversation. And we even had classes on reading comp. They try to round out all of your skills, so about an hour or so of class on each set of skills per day. There are usually 2 midterm tests and a final, all of which are pretty thorough IMO.
They do NOT force JLPT-style learning on you, which in my case I found to be a good thing. Their thinking is that if you want to pass the JLPT, they can help you with that, but it shouldn't be the focus of your Japanese language education. They're coming at it from a "have a well-balanced set of language skills" approach, instead of the JLPT, which focuses only on passive skills. So rather than learning how to spot grammar points for a test, they want you to master them and use them on a daily basis.
So you won't study a ton of different grammar, instead you'll focus on a smaller amount of grammar, and get to know it really well.
Compared to Hokkaido, it's the opposite of the inaka. It's kind of like northern NJ, or any other sprawly large suburban city area. It's only a 15 minute train ride from Toyota, and 30 minutes to Nagoya. Okazaki is a medium-sized city itself. But for those who crave a Tokyo experience, it's not Tokyo. Okazaki has the castle, a museum, some malls, and that's about it. But the people I've met were really nice-- a lot warmer and friendlier than my Tokyo experiences. (I may be biased!) And I had a lot of fun in Nagoya, too. The port area is worth stopping by, as is Sakae, the castle, and JR Nagoya is pretty impressive on its own. (Climb to the top of the Midtown tower. It has some great views.) From Nagoya it's only a 45 minute shinkansen ride to Kyoto, if you're interested. Reserve well in advance for Kyoto.
There's also Toyohashi to the east, and that's a nice day-trip, too. About 30 minutes on the Tokaido line. If you're into calligraphy, Toyohashi has some great fude (brush) shops. The calligraphy teacher at Yamsa can introduce you. There's also a good calligraphy shop in Anjo, near the Meitetsu station there. Nice folks.
Good Language School in Japan- Isi, Yamasa - Muffles - 2015-01-28
Thank you so much for your help rich_f! I think I am probably going to go with Yamasa as they offer two more lessons a day compared to Isi. Just debating about the course to take-originally I was looking at ACCP for 8 weeks, but I'm wondering if it might be too fast paced. Do you know anybody who did that course and how they generally found it?
Good Language School in Japan- Isi, Yamasa - rich_f - 2015-01-28
I don't think they had the ACCP in place when I was a student there. It looks like it would be close to 30 hours/week compared to the 26-27 hours/week I did in AIJP+JBBP+electives.
I would expect to do a lot of work and make a lot of progress. Probably 1-3 hours of homework a night. The teachers aren't super picky about whether you do homework or not, but if you don't do it, they can't grade it, so you won't know if you're doing it right or not. Not doing homework only cheats you of the education you're paying for. So do as much of it as you can.
My biggest problem was dealing with a blizzard of printouts the size of placemats. The best way I found to handle them was to buy a 2-hole punch, a 2-hole binder, and some dividers at the office supply store on 248 (the main road). Kurita, I think it was called?
Fold the printouts roughly in half (more like 60/40), so that you leave about a 2cm strip along the left edge. Punch 2 holes in that left edge, and store the printouts folded over in the binder. Use dividers to separate by class or chapter, or just file them by date. That way, the printouts fold in to store, and you can fold them out to read them. Some people cut them in half and put them in clear sheet binders, too, but they're expensive and it's slightly more time-consuming.
Yeah, that sounds really freaking trivial, but if I had known this going in, it would have saved me a ton of frustration. I didn't get them sorted out until I was 4 weeks into the program, and not having them sorted out made things harder than they needed to be.
If you can't do futons (I can't-- they kill my back), make sure you let the housing staff know well before you leave for Japan (let them know when you sign up online). Most of the accommodations are futons on wooden platforms. A small number have western-style beds.
You can rent a mamachari from the school. It's amazingly useful in Okazaki.
One final thing: make sure you have a plan for continuing your study when you get back home, if you don't plan on going back for a while. That's often the hardest part. "Wow, my spoken Japanese is great? Uh... now what?" Find local conversation partners, or online tutors, or use something like iTalki, but make sure you keep talking on a regular basis, so you don't lose everything you went to all that trouble to build up.
Good Language School in Japan- Isi, Yamasa - Likurichi - 2015-03-01
Hi Muffles,
I'm currently studying in JCLI Japanese Language School in Tokyo, Shinjuku.
I'm very happy with it, I have almost 1 year studying with them.
Please have a look:
http://en.jclischool.com/
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