3-Month Intensive Schools (Help!)

Hello,

The Japanese language and I have had an off again, on again relationship and I'd like to take our relationship to the next level through an immersion program.

I've searched in the database as well as spent some time with Google and found a few that seem promising. I was wondering if anyone is familiar with these schools or if they have other recommendations.

My aim is a 3-month immersion. I'd prefer to stay near Osaka (1st) and Tokyo (2nd) than in a smaller town.

- ARC Academy (Seems professional, but don't know anyone who's been there)
- Yamasa (heard it recommended on some forum)
- Yoshida Institute

I would rank my self as a "beginning intermediate" as I've taken classes which brought me through the first two genki books.

I really appreciate the guidance, it's proven a bit more challenging than I thought to find reviews on these places.

Please help me become engaged and end this lifelong open relationship!

Sorry, being Japanese I have no experience with Japanese language schools, but have heard that Naganuma and Kai have very good reputation:

The Naganuma School
Japanese courses

If an Intensive course is all you are looking for, I would definitely say Naganuma in Tokyo first (but forget having much free-time as you will have home-works to do).

And maybe Meric in Osaka, also a very fast paced school.

The Yamasa intensive courses used to be aimed at casual learners. Yes, counterintuitive, but a good business decision. They took the students on a lot of tours, and focused on casual conversation. Three months there and you'd work through Minna no Nihongo I & II. Their regular long-term classes are much better, and are conducted separately, usually on student visas. The short termers usually come on tourist visas.

Thank you for the suggestions. Naganuma, Kai, and Meric seem fairly rigorous and much more along the lines what I'm interested in.

Also, thank you very much for the heads up about the Yamasa short-term program I shall remove them from my list. They were also the most expensive of the lot.

Btw, if this forum admins do not mind, I plan to post back my research as things progress so this might hopefully help any folks in my shoes.

Here is my revised list I'm still working to whittle down based on feedback from multiple parties:

- Arc Academy (Osaka / Umeda)
- Meric (Namba, Osaka)
- Yoshida Institute (Shinjuku)
- Naganuma (Shibuya, Tokyo)
- Kai (Shin-Okuba near Shinjuku, Tokyo)

Does anyone know students who attended any of these for a length of time? I'd love to ask them their specific opinions about what they liked/disliked.

JStandard said:

Hello,

The Japanese language and I have had an off again, on again relationship and I'd like to take our relationship to the next level through an immersion program.

I've searched in the database as well as spent some time with Google and found a few that seem promising. I was wondering if anyone is familiar with these schools or if they have other recommendations.

My aim is a 3-month immersion. I'd prefer to stay near Osaka (1st) and Tokyo (2nd) than in a smaller town.

- ARC Academy (Seems professional, but don't know anyone who's been there)
- Yamasa (heard it recommended on some forum)
- Yoshida Institute

I would rank my self as a "beginning intermediate" as I've taken classes which brought me through the first two genki books.

I really appreciate the guidance, it's proven a bit more challenging than I thought to find reviews on these places.

Please help me become engaged and end this lifelong open relationship!

Click to expand...

I run a lanuage learning place in Australia and teach by computer 24 different languages. I am looking for some person in Japan to form groups of six per group to come to Australia to learn any of these different languages. Can you help.
Leonard

Hi Leonard,

I'm afraid I won't be able to be of much help as I'll only be there for a few months to learn Japanese. To give you some honest feedback, I feel it unlikely you would be able to get people to form groups of 6 and come to Australia.

Most folks that I know who have done language immersion programs did so by themselves as it's quite difficult to find 6 (or even just 1) people around you that are also interested in moving to another country for a while to learn a language.

If you are looking to start an international program, you may want to specialize in just 1 or 2 languages and develop a strong immersion program around those languages.

Just a note, I don't mean any offense in this, I'm an entrepreneur as well and hope you might find my unbiased feedback useful.

Best of luck.

I'd also like to include a follow-up as I decided to go with the Naganuma school in Tokyo.

I decided on Tokyo as most of my friends are there, and then narrowed it down further to what the most intensive language school in Tokyo was. From all of my research Naganuma was that school. A few of the key reasons were:

+ They have, on average, have fewer "social outings" or culture activities than other schools. I prefer this as I can do these touristy visits on my own time, with my friends or housemates.
+ They have a diverse set of international students attending. Kai, for example, does not and is around 80% Korean. More international backgrounds can mean more opportunities to communicate in Japanese with fellow students.
+ Their building seems quite nice and well-equipped. They even have a good-sized language lab (LL).
+ Being located in Shibuya they're quite accessible by train + walking. If you need to meet a friend, just look for Hachiko
+ They were very responsive via email, promptly answering all of my questions.

There are some downsides of course:
- Tuition is a bit expensive. (though not the most expensive) Also, since location is Shibuya, either your rent or commute time will be higher, adding additional expense.
- Their curriculum and textbooks are proprietary. It is hard to judge whether this is good or bad yet.

I'll be starting at Naganuma this April and will hopefully remember to update this thread with a review of their 3-month program once I've completed it and tossed my graduation hat into the Tokyo sky.

Thanks a lot for the help everyone, in particular Davide Rossi from GoGo Nihon was very helpful in selecting a school and finding a place to stay. GoGo Nihon is the only company I've seen really making an effort to provide information about schools and guesthouses to foreigners and I recommend contacting them if you're interested in learning language in Japan for any period of time. (Sorry if that sounds like an advertisement, I wish I was getting $$ or sushi for writing that, but the company was quite useful and I need to give them credit)

- Jeff