I will be in Tokyo for about 6 weeks this summer, and among other things I would like to continue formally learning Japanese through use of a tutor. Due to schedule reasons I determined that a private tutor would make more sense to me than signing up for language school/scheduled program, as I felt that a private tutor would give me the flexibility that I need.

That being said, I do not have much experience with getting a private tutor for Japanese, and while Google yielded a large amount of results, I do not have experience with what I should be looking for in a tutor.

I could probably do anything in the Tokyo area, although it would likely be better if it was not in some remote, hard-to-get-to part of town.

In terms of how official it needs to be: it doesn't have to necessarily be an official tutoring service, but I do need to be able to provide a proof of affiliation type of letter from the tutor to my scholarship that is funding my study in Japan. The scholarship said that university professors are also a possibility. Essentially I have to prove that I am actually seriously studying Japanese and not just fooling around and doing nothing productive in terms of language learning.


Essentially I am asking about peoples' past experiences with private tutoring in Japan, particularly in Tokyo, and if anyone had any particular services/people that they would recommend. As I said, I am looking myself online, but as I have little experience with I was hoping people could share their past experiences/advice.

Last December I took lessons at Meguro Language Center: http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/.

I had a fantastic experience and I highly recommend them. You get to have a Skype interview before you take any lessons.

Their course/pricing options are complex - but I think I got a package of three 60-minute lessons a week for two weeks. The lessons were private. I don't remember the exact price now, but I remember thinking that it was totally worth it.

Since you took private lessons at MLC, do you remember how much input you got to have regarding the focus of the lessons? Hypothetically, would you have been able to say that you want to skip reading and writing and only focus on everyday conversation? Or perhaps a specific topic? And do you also mind if I ask what kind of level you were at? Talking about science and politics? Or still learning how to ask for "that one over there" in a shop?

It's looking very likely that I'll be spending next summer (June-September) in Japan. I have been looking at this school but I haven't seen too many people actually comment on the quality of teaching there.

Sure. That's a lot of questions, but I think that I can answer all of them.

My trip to Japan in December had two goals.
1. Give a 30 minute talk in Japanese at a conference on my research
2. Pass the N4

When I had my introductory skype interview with MLC they asked what I wanted to work on and that's pretty much what I told them. They said that was fine. I was in the school for 2 weeks, and thought that it made sense to spend the first week on the JLPT prep and the second week on preparation for the speech. They thought that that was fine and so that's what we did. The teacher was super nice and helpful.

JKS87 Wrote:Since you took private lessons at MLC, do you remember how much input you got to have regarding the focus of the lessons? Hypothetically, would you have been able to say that you want to skip reading and writing and only focus on everyday conversation? Or perhaps a specific topic? And do you also mind if I ask what kind of level you were at? Talking about science and politics? Or still learning how to ask for "that one over there" in a shop?

It's looking very likely that I'll be spending next summer (June-September) in Japan. I have been looking at this school but I haven't seen too many people actually comment on the quality of teaching there.

Thanks! Seems like I'll be able to choose what to focus on then. With around three months to play with I'm hoping I'll see some real benefit.

By the way, I think it's super impressive that you were able to talk for such a long time in Japanese at N4 level. A lot of people would struggle to do that in their native language. Hope it went well!

Thanks dude. It was an insane amount of work for me to prepare for it, but it paid off.

I hope you have a good time in Japan, and that your Japanese improves a lot!