I am a 70+ yr old American male who has been studying Japanese for a year. I’ve completed a level 101 class at a local university and I realize I need to do a Japanese language immersion program in Japan. I would like to hear about others’ experiences with different schools for adults in Japan. Thanks. Steve. (now level 2 Wanikani)
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I studied at KCP International in Shinjuku way back in 2015/16. I took their academic year program, and stayed at the Ikebukuro dorms. I went with only having taken a 101 class at my local college. I was placed into the first level, and felt that the pace of learning was insanely fast. They market their courses as “intense”, and they are totally right about that. I felt like I was behind the rest of the class, but to be fair most of the students were Chinese or Korean so they had some Kanji knowledge.
This school uses the “direct” method of language teaching, meaning they only speak Japanese. You aren’t allowed to speak your native language in class, and can/will be warned if you do. I actually loved this, as it forced me to study my butt off. I would recommend any KCP students to study the material days before class in order to at least know what’s going on. The grammar points and the vocab, that is. I loved the experience, and learned a ton. In just 9 months I’d say I was close to JLPT N3 level, but again I fell behind a lot, so I probably wouldn’t have passed the test (didn’t even try LOL). A lot of students in my class were passing it, and I’d say you definitely could if you’re a better student than me.
I would 100% go again if the circumstances allowed me to. When I went back to my local college I was required to take the 3rd year classes for Japanese, that is, 300 level classes. I took two semesters worth. I was shocked that I knew all of the material we covered in those classes! It was an easy A for my GPA, but I didn’t learn anything in a year taking them. I was honestly disappointed in my college. the students were still learning JLPT N4 material after 3 years?!
Anyways I’ve just started WaniKani as I never continued my Japanese studies after college. I plan to return to Japan in the future and might consider going back to KCP.
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Thanks for the helpful response. S
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If you’re not getting enough answers here, I can also recommend checking out r/learnJapanese on Reddit, their general atmosphere isn’t as nice as here in my opinion, but they’re more people and quite a few of them have experience with language schools in Japan.
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I’ll check it out. Thanks.
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Last summer I spent a month studying at Meiji Academy in Fukuoka. I enjoyed my time there; although there were many university and high school students, there was a wide age range (I was one of two people in our fifties; we seemed to be the oldest, although I didn’t meet everyone). It is a very small school, and seems best suited to beginner-intermediate students (the advanced students I met there seemed to feel the school didn’t have many resources for them). I would highly recommend studying in Fukuoka, as it’s a lovely city; there are a number of other schools there (GenkiJACs is very popular). However, Meiji has a new campus in Sapporo as well, and I may go there next time I take a study trip. I would also recommend doing a homestay; I thought an apartment would be too lonely, but I didn’t really want to stay in a sharehouse with a bunch of young people, and the homestay turned out to be one of the best parts of my experience and the most important part of my language study.
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Thank u Marnie. I have been looking at Meiji. Thinking about Sapporo[quote=“MarnieDEB, post:6, topic:66379, full:true”]
Last summer I spent a month studying at Meiji Academy in Fukuoka. I enjoyed my time there; although there were many university and high school students, there was a wide age range (I was one of two people in our fifties; we seemed to be the oldest, although I didn’t meet everyone). It is a very small school, and seems best suited to beginner-intermediate students (the advanced students I met there seemed to feel the school didn’t have many resources for them). I would highly recommend studying in Fukuoka, as it’s a lovely city; there are a number of other schools there (GenkiJACs is very popular). However, Meiji has a new campus in Sapporo as well, and I may go there next time I take a study trip. I would also recommend doing a homestay; I thought an apartment would be too lonely, but I didn’t really want to stay in a sharehouse with a bunch of young people, and the homestay turned out to be one of the best parts of my experience and the most important part of my language study.
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