I have been thinking about spending a summer break in Japan to study at a language school for years but only recently managed to save enough money to do so.
Unfortunately, though, choosing the school is proving to be more difficult than I expected: options abound and browsing their websites isn't helping. With the notable exception of Yamasa, which seems to be the best by far but has very limited places available, I can't form an opinion on any of them.
To further complicate matters, I don't know what course level I should be applying for, as I have studied Japanese on my own so far: I finished "Japanese for Everyone: A Functional Approach" as well as completing RTK 1 but know very few kanji compounds (when trying to read I can often understand the way the sentence is structured as well as remembering the keywords associated to the kanji present while still being clueless about the meaning).
Any suggestion about good language schools, what to look for when choosing them or even about the opportunity of the whole idea given my current Japanese knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

I went to this school last summer for a 4 week intensive course:
http://www.silnihongo.com/homeeng.html

You had 4 hours of instruction a day plus homework (which was about as much as your brain could take). It's up in Sapporo and, in my opinion, that's the place to be in summer because places like Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima (well most places not in Hokkaido) are super hot.

The school also offers housing help. You can choose from either a small private furnished apartment or do a homestay with a japanese family.

Class sizes vary based on the number of students who sign up. Last year my classes had about 4 people. I think one of the other classes had up to 8. (They divided us up into about 3 or 4 levels).

Overall I had a good experience at the school. There are 4 or 5 teachers and they rotate between the classes. Some were great and a couple were just so-so, but nobody was really bad.

Anyway, check it out and see what you think.
-Andy

You might want to check out Senshu University. http://www.senshu-u.ac.jp/koho/Welcome.html

They have a summer program. It uses a placement test, so you'll get put in the appropiate level.

My classmate who was in first year University Japanese last spring with me did the fall program, came back for our winter term, and at our school's placement test he passed into fourth year (and has been doing well in it I think). He took a lot of effort not to use English while in Japan, but still it must be a pretty good program.

You may want to check out some of the suggestions in this thread:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=1006

I went to KICL in Kyoto. Was pretty good. There were 10 different levels and everyone takes the same placement test. The test questions just go from easy to hard as well as 5 essay questions where you're just supposed to write. So you don't place yourself, they put you somewhere. However, many people moved themselves up or down depending on how the first few days went.

Overall, the price was reasonable and the classes were good. I'd go again if I didn't already make other plans for the summer.

My background in Japanese-- 6 semesters in grad school, 3 years removed. (So I had forgotten a lot.) I was around the 1000 mark in RTK1 when I went there.

I did 2 weeks at Yamasa this past fall. They did a good job of testing me to find my level of proficiency, and asked me what I wanted the most from my 2 weeks there. I emphasized speaking, since I can do reading/writing in the U.S.

I spent about 3 hours a day in class. 1 hour in a lesson (since it was just me, I always had to answer the questions ), then 2 hours in CALL. During the CALL sessions, I'd have to go up and answer some questions verbally for about 15 minutes every hour, so I spent about 1.5 hours talking, and 1.5 hours on the computer doing everything else each day. The CALL computers are a little slow, but you get used to it. Real JP keyboards, though. I waaaant one now.

Homework wasn't too bad. Some of it was stuff I already knew, but needed to review, some of it was stuff I didn't know. Nice mix, and it didn't take more than an hour or two to finish. Again, I was there more as a tourist than as a student.

I worked with 2 teachers there, and both were very nice. Very different personalities, too.

If you're going there for 4 weeks, I'd recommend going into one of the groups, and not doing it alone. While I learned a lot, I felt kind of isolated being the only person in my class. The minimum stay to get put in a group is 4 weeks, so with only 2 weeks for me, I did private lessons.

For me, and the purpose of my trip, those 2 weeks were great. It gave me a chance to brush the rust off of my Japanese, and it gave me a sort of "soft landing" in Japan. I needed the time to get over the jet lag, get used to things there, and just sort of un-disorient myself.

After I finished at Yamasa, I spent the next 3 weeks traveling all over the country. I went to: Nagoya, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, back up to Osaka, then Nagano, Sendai, and finally a week in Tokyo. (I went to Nagoya while at Yamasa... something to do on the weekends.)

Yes, it was awesome. And exhausting, but I got 90,000 yen worth of travel out of my 50,000 yen rail pass. But I digress.

I was comfortable enough after staying in Yamasa to not feel very stressed about traveling all over the place. Man, I love the JP rail system. I really miss it. ;_; I had enough language tools to get things done, and I could even carry on basic conversations... so long as my hotel room didn't have any English-language TV.

Okazaki is... well... to put it nicely... dull. Rent a bicycle when you get there. It adds to the fun, because you can get to places of less dullness a little faster. And make sure you get a decent bicycle. Nagoya is 26 minutes by special/limited express, and only 610 yen to get there. It's a nice escape on the weekends.

Your main issue is probably going to be housing, due to high demand, but even in the dorms, they have A/C in each room. (Fun with kanji- learn how to decipher the remote controls for the A/C!) There are some hidden costs-- futon rental is one of them. You can either buy or rent. I rented, because it turned out to be cheaper than buying. But the futons weren't all that comfortable. They have wooden platforms you put your futon on, and then you sleep on that. Kind of brutal on my back at first, but you get used to it.

The common kitchens in the student village didn't do much for me. I'm a clean freak, I guess, and I haven't lived in a dorm since undergrad many moons ago, so my tolerance is a little low. The conbini next door has cheap food that won't kill you. (But the food at the Denny's in Okazaki will. *shudder*)

There's also a coin laundry right next to the conbini, which is great, too. The machines even have detergent built in. No need to add your own. The dorms have their own machines, but they're tiny and slow, and kind of old. They're okay as a last resort.

I'm making it sound like the dorms are bad, but they're not. It's the nature of dorms. I would have preferred an apartment, but they were booked up.

The dorms wound up costing me ~40000 yen for 2 weeks total, which was fine with me. Tuition was ~$600 US. I probably could have saved a lot more money if I had stayed longer, but it couldn't be helped. I had a limited amount of time.

And of course, ZigZag is the place to go. (On-campus bar.) Nice bar, nice food, good people, big TV, and the cheapest Guinness in Japan. It's a good place to meet up with all kinds of people-- students and locals.

Oh, and if you go, bring slippers.

EDIT: Sorry-- didn't mean to write a novel. One other thing-- you get access to the online CALL classes for a year after you go. If you're looking for sentences to mine for AJATT, this is a Good Thing.

sutebun Wrote:You might want to check out Senshu University. http://www.senshu-u.ac.jp/koho/Welcome.html

They have a summer program. It uses a placement test, so you'll get put in the appropiate level.

My classmate who was in first year University Japanese last spring with me did the fall program, came back for our winter term, and at our school's placement test he passed into fourth year (and has been doing well in it I think). He took a lot of effort not to use English while in Japan, but still it must be a pretty good program.

I'll second Senshu. I did their fall exchange program while I was in Uni, and had a blast! Their summer program is good as well, the area is nice, and the students at the university do a really good job with inviting you out and showing you around.