Is been I think almost more than 1/2 year now I started learning Japanese since Singapore started with the Circuit Breaker Measures(stay at home, work from home). And I’ve been planning to enroll myself to Nihongo class and pursuit JLPT. However, when I started to look into the course fee, kinda have 2nd thought.
The Basic course has 6 terms x 10 lessons.
Class duration is 2 hours x 1 lesson/week.
Course duration is 60 weeks(1 year 1-2 months)
Course fees: SGD$390/term. In order to complete the basic course, I would need to pay a SGD$2340 for just a basic course.
What do you think of the course fee? And perhaps you might have other suggestions?
The bottom link is the course outline. From there you might able to justify the course fee.
If you wanted to take private lessons on italki it’d cost from 12-15 usd per hour. So it’s roughly the same price-wise. But I’d say getting private tutoring can be more effective than group classes.
Btw, I looked at the course outline. The first 10 weeks are way too stretched out IMO. I’d recommend learning that stuff on your own using LingoDeer and doing private lessons when you already know the fundamentals.
Seems quite expensive to me, since it only covers JLPT N5 material (which is okay for a basic course but paying over $2000 for that?). It also seems weird to me how the basic course is said to “Improve student’s listening speed from a basic level to that of a native”. How are you supposed to be able to listen at a native speaker’s speed when a lot of the things you’re listening to don’t even make sense yet? I mean, sure, somebody could say これはペンです really fast and you’d catch it but I feel like they wrote that sentence specifically to create a different kind of association - that you’d understand native speakers speaking normally, which is not going to be the case after only that basic course
That is insane! Even if those prices are justified by those teachers being world-class experts on the Japanese language, it’s not like a beginner who struggles with basic things any Japanese teacher could explain would profit from that that much
Thanks for suggestion. I will look into Lingodeer. I think the primary reason that i wanted to enroll to a class is so I am able to converse and socialize in nihongo.
Probably one of marketing strategy? Or maybe they are trying to emphasis that compared to other institutes, they are focusing on speaking/listening more than writing n reading? Probably.
I will say that for me personally, Japanese classes have helped immensely. You can learn a lot by self-studying, but I found that my listening and speaking skills were severely lacking. Having a teacher who forces you to do speaking and listening exercises and gives instant feedback is awesome in that regard.
That being said, the course you posted seems massively overpriced. I paid 190 EUR for an entire year of 3,5 hour classes per week (although that is probably on the cheaper end of things even where I live).
I echo the sentiment to maybe look into other private tutoring options such as iTalki. I really think having a teacher or private tutor is worth it.
Thanks for your opinions Primary reason for me to enroll in one is so that i can social and converse in nihongo like you mentioned with your case.
And yes, is true that singapore expenses are quite costly. Among all the institutes that i looked into this one is definitely costly but comes with high reviews than the other institutes.
I’m not sure chatting with other beginners will help you out much. It’s better to try find natives who would be willing to do language exchange.
I don’t know of course but I’d expect that you should be able to find Japanese people willing to hang out in Singapore, maybe exchange students? Search for language cafes or Japanese meetup groups or something like this. Also try online language exchange on apps like HelloTalk.
こんにちは、Cans101さん！If you’re looking for a place you can learn Japanese from a native speaker without burning a hole in your pocket, you can try coming by to a free online weekly class that I’ve been attending in Second Life. Every Saturday at 9 PM Singapore time (it will go back to 10 PM after Daylight Saving Time changes again for other countries), we are learning Japanese via Genki 1 Second Edition textbook that’s available from Internet Archive.
There are more details in the link above on how to get to the online class. Unfortunately, as I have stated in the thread, the learning curve of using the Second Life viewer is not too user-friendly when compared to VR Chat, in my opinion. And most of us are already in Chapter 10 at the moment, however, we do have a new classmate who is catching up starting from reading Hiragana and Japanese greetings. The volunteer teacher was happy to drill the rest of the class with the basics again as we’re still clunky with our Japanese conversational skills.
Since you have been learning Japanese for more than half a year, I think you’ll do so much better than our new classmate and probably could catch up with the rest of us Beginners because Genki 1 Chapter 10 is still about halfway or less than halfway through the N5 Grammar, if I’m not mistaken.
Other than that, I think other people’s suggestion above about taking other lessons for a similar or cheaper price is definitely a better option than the original course offered to you. @d-hermit’s suggestions above are very helpful too for having conversations in Japanese, if the social aspect is what you are looking for as well. Good luck in your search!
Interesting concept you have there. The last online “dating” game I played was IMVU. Kinda remind me of that. Not to mention Second life also reminded me of those anime with “Re:” title to it. Hahahah! I’ll be sure to check out your recommendation =D
Echoing the italki option. I like the classroom setting more than studying online but language schools are pretty expensive and can be less flexible. Studying online offers the option to do more at a time convenient to you
One of the tutors I chose was about mid-high (depending on one’s pocket lol). For JLPT, 1hr x 2 lessons/week; about 51SGD
For a month, 204SGD?
Another tutor that worked with me cost nearly half that sum and there are those that charge less as well. Some tutors have 30min lessons and 45min lessons as well.
The thing about Italki though is that you have to look beyond the label of ‘professional’ because many of them have 5 stars rating. But unlike schools, you have more freedom to pick and choose as you please until you find one that you can enjoy learning with and save yourself from certain expenses. You could have twice the amount of classes at a fraction of the cost of a language school I can’t do Math well but haha
Mine is around there as well, since is $39 per week. So roughly a month is $156-$195, depending on weeks in a month. Just that it expands to 13-14months. Which seems like quite a high cost.
Honestly ah? Not worth la bro. Unless you get a 1 on 1 private teacher on iTalki, group classes will never be as efficient as you’d like because students learn at different pace. I recommend just self studying at home with the Genki textbooks and the Dictionary of Beginner Japanese Grammar and immersifying yourself with natives via HelloTalk or Tandem. That’s what I’ve been doing in the past ten months thanks to the government’s circuit breaker and it has worked out extremely well for me. I can now hold my own in a basic N3 level conversation with Japanese people. Just need the 自粛、 that’s all.
Primary reason for me to enroll in one is so that i can social and converse in nihongo like you mentioned with your case.
