I am looking to join an existing study group or start a new study group in Tokyo.

I find that studying with others helps my motivation and makes it more interesting. If any one knows of the existence of one of these, that would be great. Or if anyone is interested in starting a new one, that would be great too.

I don't think the study group would have to be structured; if people just want to show up and do their own thing, that would be fine. I am posting here because I am interested in studying along side other RTK-ers. It would be nice to talk about the things written in this forum.

So, please post if:
1- You have a group that I and others can join
or
2- You'd like to join a group. I think even just having a group of two (if that even counts as a group) is enough for what I am looking for.

If you prefer to email instead of posting that would be fine too.

What do you mean by study group? Why would someone leave home to go all the way to an unstructured study group where everyone does their own thing?

I think you need a more defined description of what you hope to achieve or build.

In my city, we have a Japanese-English language exchange. We meet weekly for 3 hours, one half in Japanese, one half in English. We form into small groups to chat, but nothing stops people from forming other groups to study or work in a specific issue.

There is a thread about study groups/free lessons in Japan with reviews/experiences posted by a few people (including me).

Generally if you are in Tokyo, have time and no cash to spare its your best bet. No other study group will be better than 1on1 with natives and classes with people whose L2 is Japanese and L1 isn't English.

thurd Wrote:There is a thread about study groups/free lessons in Japan with reviews/experiences posted by a few people (including me).

Perhaps you mean this thread? For the reader's reference, here is the link I gave to the Tokyo Japanese Volunteer network (free or near enough).

AlexandreC Wrote:Why would someone leave home to go all the way to an unstructured study group where everyone does their own thing?

I find that studying with others helps my motivation and makes it more interesting. Specifically regarding leaving home to go to group study; even if it is just by myself, I find getting away from home and studying somewhere else (park, library, cafe) reduces the distractions (internet, internet, internet). If I want to put in a whole day of study, I know I will do better if I spend at least half of it outside.

When there are other people involved it also makes it harder to skip, or to not prepare properly for. If there are other people involved then it is more official. If for example there was a study group I could attend once a week before work, that would be one less day spent sleeping in and one more day studying.

AlexandreC Wrote:What do you mean by study group? ... I think you need a more defined description of what you hope to achieve or build.

I was hesitant to prescribe exactly how I would like to do this thing. But I the main thing is getting the "right" people. It is always going to be hard to gather people of similar Japanese ability, but if we have a similar approach to studying, I think that is the important thing. That is why I posted on this forum.

I said I did not want to describe how I want this thing to pan out, but here is the optimal situation:

Three other people were to be keen to start something, and somehow we manage to balance or schedules. We meet, the rest of the group start calling me "d'Artagnan" (and I am surprised at how other people pronounce it). The staff at the local start referring to us as "The Three Musketeers" and we realise that what we need is a name. So we decide on "The Tokro Miners Club" because it sounds cool and tell the staff so. Athos and Aramis are at a similar level so they often buddy up and study together. They are studying towards N1, but they always say that they don't care because it is just a test. Every now and then we test each other with quick drills (which we call fencing). Most of the rest of the time is spent with self study. Often we will interrupt each other with new words and Kanji.

Along the way, we share study secrets, useful applications and resources. Between us, there are some really good resources. Every once in a while we organise to create something like a new Anki deck for a specific occasion. One day another RKTer want to join with the name of Rochefort. Unfortunately, he can't make it because of his schedule. But this turnes out to be a good thing as the other three did not like him. I stay in touch however and we organise a second study day; it turns out we share a love for cheese.

...