I can't imagine how bored he must have been living in Utah. It's a beautiful state if you're into nature and hiking, but for a not-Mormon Japanophile indoor-kid he was probably going crazy. Maybe he invented AJATT just to kill time.

tokaimoto Wrote:Oh for heaven's sake! I have had enough of this stupid smoke-and-mirror nudge-nudge-wink-wink games.

Here are all the details, knock yourselves out.

This link is crucial, as it gives his real name: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Katyana-Ro...nt-1116749

Once you have this, you can Google the rest. All information is in the public domain.

Khatzumoto, aka Katyana Katesha Rogo-Manduli, gets divorced: http://www.utahsright.com/divorceprofile.php?id=1218557

Khatzumoto's mother is a high-profile Kenyan lady, and his late father was a member of the Zambian royal family: https://www.facebook.com/VoltzMedia/post...6383770994

Momoko, aka Sarah Graham: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgraham5

Yesss, I found all that (except the linkedin page 'cause I just wasn't that concerned about searching her out) awhile ago. I just wonder, w.r.t. the ripoffreport link... is there really such a person as this Naomi Suzuki? Is she or anyone still 'answering the phones' so to speak (or e-mails more realistically) at AJATT? Is the refund process stalled for everyone or just this one complaintant? What about the program for people who -aren't- trying to back out of it and get a refund... are they still receiving the content they payed for?

Honestly, I couldn't care less about Khatz's marital or extra-marital affairs. I am, however, always interested in consumer affairs, -especially- with respect to my own interests such as Japanese studies.

It does -look- like Khatz completely abdicated all responsibility in a way that is likely to be actionable (or would be in the U.S., I don't know about Japan; and, in the U.S. if you took such legal action he could also file for bankruptcy and you wouldn't get much if anything... but again I don't know about Japan. Honestly, it's not even clear to me if the transaction was with 'AJATT' as a corporate entity... was it ever incorporated? Or with Khatz as an individual. Which makes a huge legal difference, at the very least.) It all seems pretty shady... -buuuut- .... it also all seems to be hearsay from one disgruntled individual with no corroboration. So I don't really know what to think.

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:it's not even clear to me if the transaction was with 'AJATT' as a corporate entity... was it ever incorporated? Or with Khatz as an individual. Which makes a huge legal difference, at the very least.) It all seems pretty shady... -buuuut- .... it also all seems to be hearsay from one disgruntled individual with no corroboration. So I don't really know what to think.

Even if AJATT was incorporated he would have had to be diligent about not mixing AJATT funds with personal funds, or an LLC means nothing. But then again, if he were to skip town and move to a different country, it doesn't matter anyway. Actually that's a likely scenerio considering he's gone dark - probably not wanting anyone to be able to track him down and no incentive to show his public face. Not that I think he's some shady con artist, just a well intentioned person that probably didn't know what they were getting into. I am curious about what he's getting into now though.

Sort of related to this thread is Ken Cannon. He is another person who had a "method" that you had to pay for and he also recently vanished. In fact I think I remember Ken and Khattz actually working together on something at one point right before he left.

Khatz never had a "method" you had to pay for. AJATT and the core genius behind everything he did was free. We're all benefiting from what he did.

He did however sell information about MCDs, and his hand-holding program.

kameden Wrote:Sort of related to this thread is Ken Cannon. He is another person who had a "method" that you had to pay for and he also recently vanished. In fact I think I remember Ken and Khattz actually working together on something at one point right before he left.

Apparently, Ken's company has no money left after they got screwed on advertising. I talked to him a few times before and, considering he was setting up another product when he disappeared, I think it's less likely that he left with a significant amount of money like Khatz seems to have.
Of course, that might just be me trying to make myself feel better, 'cause he's one of the reasons I hate spending money on Japanese learning products: they cost too much, and you get next to nothing for it... More value in hiring a tutor and using the internet...

Ken also ripped me off at one point. But whatever, it's in the past.

Was definitely my "spend your money wisely" wake up call in youth though.

tokaimoto Wrote:Oh for heaven's sake! I have had enough of this stupid smoke-and-mirror nudge-nudge-wink-wink games.

tokaimoto
New member
Registered: 2013-11-28
Posts: 1

I admire that you stayed in the shadows for almost two years until this thread got you so fed up that you broke your silence. I've got mad respect for you, you are an excellent creeper.

[ファブリス]

To be exhaustive, this forum used to have a registration that was linked to the main site, Kanji Koohii. Creating an account at Kanji Koohii automatically signed up the person on the forum. The sign in, and sign out was linked too. This is no longer the case.

This change to account creation was 3 years ago according to my Git repo. So that means tokaimoto did in fact register on the forum by himself.

Working on creeper status :p

ps: I think the term on forums is "lurker" though?

ファブリス Wrote:ps: I think the term on forums is "lurker" though?

You're right, I think lurker is the more appropriate term. However, I'm biased to the less popular, slightly out of context creeper.

This channel has some "new" videos =
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPICZj5...O4BgEB5RhQ

znebr47625 Wrote:This channel has some "new" videos =
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPICZj5...O4BgEB5RhQ

This looks like gold-- it even has the QRG video! Though it's not run by him though, as the description says:

Quote:his channel is run by Khatz's biggest fan, without his permission

Any former/current AJATTeers that are interested in this sort of thing should probably give it a watch sooner rather than later. I'm sure this will be taken down once it hits his radar.

EDIT: I've watched these videos...they're not nearly as interesting as I hoped.

Especially the QRG video. People paid over $40 for that? I watched the first 20 mins of it and it's just Khatz meandering through AJATT concepts in a minimally prepared way. Worst of all, the background music is slightly too loud, so when he mumbles (which is often) I can't make out what he's saying.

TkyoSam's videos with Khatz are far more interesting, insightful, and full of nostalgia.

I don't mean to rip too hard on the QRG video, it's just there was a time when I really wanted it and almost bought it on several occasions.

His rhinospike page with his own recordings and chinese requests =
https://rhinospike.com/profiles/profile/khatzumoto/

znebr47625 Wrote:His rhinospike page with his own recordings and chinese requests =
https://rhinospike.com/profiles/profile/khatzumoto/

Japanese listed as a native language, lol

ryuudou Wrote:Khatz never had a "method" you had to pay for. AJATT and the core genius behind everything he did was free. We're all benefiting from what he did.

He did however sell information about MCDs, and his hand-holding program.

Yah, totally agree. I never bought any of his shizzle (I think?) but successfully applied a lot of his ideas learning Chinese. Obsessiveness will get you an awful long way.

I know the conversation has kind of moved on a little, but I only just saw here the link to whoever complained about his refund process and want to add a little... I spent a long time teaching English in China, and as someone who's into process optimization, I love the idea of being able to automate language simultaneously for lots of motivated learners, so I can certainly see value in his various Silverspoon programs. I took more money off of certain individual students than Khaztumoto is charging (even for his most expensive programs) over a comparable period of time - and I provided neither guarantee of the kids learning anything, nor refunds. I did not go out of my way to make my full English name available, either. I was certainly not the only one in this type of L2 education racket, either.

I think the way in which he handles refunds, or does business in general, should therefore be taken in context. No need to knock on Khatz, nor to further pry into his private life, nor to post links to what should be paid-for content (i.e. those Youtube videos - last time I checked, I was under the impression that such links would be removed from these forums).

On a positive note: I think his post on listening is what I got the most from. So many hours were productively spent on cutting audio

http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blo...prehension

[Zgarbas]

If Katz had simply asked people money for his services, then that would not be ethically questionable. Paying for services is common, and there is no guarantee if a service will benefit you or not until you've tried it; people who would not become fluent thanks to it would simply shrug it off as a poor decision.

However, if you offer a money-back guarantee and do not actually go through with it, or take a dodgy approach to it, then it is lying to your customer (and illegal). The money-back guarantee is there to encourage consumers to purchase the service by offering them the possibility to recover their money in case of failure; as such, people who would otherwise not purchase it will do so thanks to the extra security.

Zgarbas Wrote:If Katz had simply asked people money for his services, then that would not be ethically questionable. Paying for services is common, and there is no guarantee if a service will benefit you or not until you've tried it; people who would not become fluent thanks to it would simply shrug it off as a poor decision.

However, if you offer a money-back guarantee and do not actually go through with it, or take a dodgy approach to it, then it is lying to your customer (and illegal). The money-back guarantee is there to encourage consumers to purchase the service by offering them the possibility to recover their money in case of failure; as such, people who would otherwise not purchase it will do so thanks to the extra security.

Yes, I think we can probably all agree that the money-back guarantee was not the best idea. Can any subscribers say if it came with explicit legalese describing how refunds would be handled?

I imagine he probably read some statistic about how few people get a free refund for something that costs $10 and applied it to something that costs $1000+. Not a good idea.

znebr47625 Wrote:His rhinospike page with his own recordings and chinese requests =
https://rhinospike.com/profiles/profile/khatzumoto/

I doubt this is him.

CreepyAF Wrote:Especially the QRG video. People paid over $40 for that? I watched the first 20 mins of it and it's just Khatz meandering through AJATT concepts in a minimally prepared way. Worst of all, the background music is slightly too loud, so when he mumbles (which is often) I can't make out what he's saying.
.

The mumbling and all of that was mentioned on the post for it. He emphasized that he mumbled for half of it and wasn't prepared. It's not like he said it was professionally done and then delivered something else.

I bought the QRG video when it was new. A lot of us told him the music was too loud, so he actually sent out a second download link to a version without music, which was great. Unfortunately he has since taken down all links to the videos, so even though I paid for it I can't access it (my computer has been formatted since I originally downloaded it). I'm glad someone put it on YouTube, I just wish they had put up the better version.

ryuudou Wrote:

znebr47625 Wrote:His rhinospike page with his own recordings and chinese requests =
https://rhinospike.com/profiles/profile/khatzumoto/

I doubt this is him.

If you listen to the recordings he made it clearly is him:

https://rhinospike.com/recordings/khatzumoto/

ryuudou Wrote:

CreepyAF Wrote:Especially the QRG video. People paid over $40 for that? I watched the first 20 mins of it and it's just Khatz meandering through AJATT concepts in a minimally prepared way. Worst of all, the background music is slightly too loud, so when he mumbles (which is often) I can't make out what he's saying.
.

The mumbling and all of that was mentioned on the post for it. He emphasized that he mumbled for half of it and wasn't prepared. It's not like he said it was professionally done and then delivered something else.

You're right, in his "Fo' Shizzle" way, he mentions that he mumbles in a list of reasons why people shouldn't buy the product. However, when it comes to my comment on his meandering through AJATT concepts in a minimally prepared way, he doesn't actually mention that he was unprepared, rather he says, "All the points in the QRG are covered with sparkling wit and verve."

mattimus Wrote:I bought the QRG video when it was new. A lot of us told him the music was too loud, so he actually sent out a second download link to a version without music, which was great. Unfortunately he has since taken down all links to the videos, so even though I paid for it I can't access it (my computer has been formatted since I originally downloaded it). I'm glad someone put it on YouTube, I just wish they had put up the better version.

I bet the version without the music would have been a lot better.

That's odd that the download links have been taken down, especially since he's still selling the product. Maybe there are new download links for new customers.

Yeah it's weird that he's still selling it; if he still stands by the video then I don't know why he doesn't list it on the AJATT "products I've purchased" page for re-download. Whatevs, I guess I wasn't going to watch it again anyway.

Fairly amusing to see applemilk there too