types of Japanese courses

[IsaacMahogany]

I want that somebody of you help me out with this doubt:I want to do a japanese course but I don't know if studying japanese online(skype) make a diference from learning in a classroom.Will I learn well the language?

 

[wizcoder]

I'm currently learning online such as I learned the Hiragana and Katakana charts from textfugu and that took 2 weeks. I dedicated 1 week for each to make sure I can call it write it out perfectly, recongize it, play games and pretty much know what which word and character is.

You can of course learn it online if you want, I'm only doing it online cause I don't have a choice.... although I'm thinking of taking the college course for japanese since I found out its there.

If you have the choice, I'd definitly choose a class in a heartbeat.

 

[WonkoTheSane]

Depends on the teacher, student, goals and methods.

Everything worked well for me learning Chinese over Skype, because it was set up well and I was motivated.

For Japanese, not so much. My teacher was not solid on a method and her ability to make good use of the technology was limited. My motivation also was not as high since I was working 10 hour days.

In short, a great teacher and student will do well in any setting, Skype or otherwise. Poor ones will do badly in any setting.

 

[IsaacMahogany]

can another person give me his point of view?

 

[SusuKacangSoya]

I'd say it should be better to take a physical class. Although a great teacher can set up a great course on Skype, I believe that until online courses are kicked off a bit more, you should trust physical classes more. They are more professional in a way. And besides, it'd be reliable since you won't have random disconnections.

*EDIT* TL;DR It's possible that it won't make a difference, or the difference would be a positive one, but chances are the physical class will be better than a class than Skype. Just to be safe, avoid it for now; maybe consider it when courses over Skype are more popular.

 

[Mike Cash]

You've taken Japanese lessons both in a class and via Skype, Susu?

 

[WonkoTheSane]

I'd say it should be better to take a physical class. Although a great teacher can set up a great course on Skype, I believe that until online courses are kicked off a bit more, you should trust physical classes more. They are more professional in a way. And besides, it'd be reliable since you won't have random disconnections.

*EDIT* TL;DR It's possible that it won't make a difference, or the difference would be a positive one, but chances are the physical class will be better than a class than Skype. Just to be safe, avoid it for now; maybe consider it when courses over Skype are more popular.

Let me just clear up a couple of misconceptions here.

First, as to professionalism, online lessons got me access to a great teacher with a PhD in linguistics, over 30 years of experience teaching Chinese and absolutely a master of her chosen teaching paradigm. Expensive but worth it. Also far better than anything I could have found locally where I was.

Second, my teacher had no disconnections during any of my lessons because she used a professional level video conferencing service.

Third, in my profession, there's over 25 years of research showing telepractice to be as efficacious a treatment delivery method as delivery in person. Granted, I'm not a teacher, but as an allied health professional the similarities are quite apparent.

Whether it is the best choice for OP has a lot to do with the OP and the teacher, not as much to do with the delivery method. I don't mean to discourage you, Susu, I just haven't found that any of the issues you raised were valid in my experience.

 

[davidannis]

I have taken lessons via Skype, in a college classroom, and from a tutor. My son has also done all three and had lessons via Skype as part of an online University course. I found that for us the University courses were more effective whether they were online or in person. I believe that was because they had a set syllabus, regular testing, and review of learned material. The tutor and the online lessons that were drop in were less well structured. So, my advice is focus less on how the information is delivered and more on what information is delivered, how it is structured, and how progress is assessed.

 

[Kraise]

It really depends on two things in my point of view.

1 - Which class will let you get in touch with more japanese people, or, Which one is being taught by a japanese native.

2 - Are you ready to diligently follow a "study" schedule, independent of your classes?