when we talk about studying in japan going to a language school i have to tell you the truth
it's just like not the complete opposite of relaxed
when i was studying in tokyo it was not fun
most of you are going to hate it
they'll walk around and you know what is this person doing what
are you all doing and watch you we got scolded quite a lot because they notice
everything you've been here for two weeks you should have a red pen now yeah i got a pencil
in my head it's like what does it matter but no that was the first
mistake going against orders so the teacher tells you to do something whether
you think it's necessary or not you need to do it i took a sip of water yeah you can't be drinking
water in the classroom that is not japanese style that's rude in japan but I was thirsty
if you're thirsty you better wait an hour and a half and then you can get a drink in the hallway
I was paying them to basically um well to put it simply treat me like a child i
went to tokyo which was the other mistake if you have the chance to go out to the
countryside like tohoku up here in the north in akita it's a totally different experience
this building is an old elementary school but they don't treat you like an elementary school student
this is the classroom scary teacher
i couldn't have any kind of like friendship with my teacher let alone like really hanging out with
your teacher they're not allowed to hang out with you after class it's a school rule that's not
allowed but even above that they would switch teachers every day for five days a week and i
never agreed with the tokyo school about that like i want to get to know tanaka sensei i want
to get to know kato sensei but you can't because you only see them once a week it's unfortunate
but not here you really get to know who your teacher is and i just wish i had this chance
no good
Oh yeah, that shoe flavor on there
from when he dropped it perfect seasoning it's a completely different atmosphere you might get
the wrong impression of japan if you only see big cities like tokyo and osaka or fukuoka you might
get the feeling that nobody wants to talk to you you're bothersome everyone's just you know looking
straight tunnel vision not concerned about what's going on don't bother me don't talk to me i'm busy
but if you go to basically anywhere else in japan it's a totally different country
you're still in japan but it feels completely different you come out here to somewhere like
akita in the in the middle of nowhere with these akita dogs
it's not working
Akita style
I'm the master.
generally you get this one-size-fits-all okay this is nihongogako this is japanese school
they packed too many people into that school too many students because it's tokyo they got
to make a profit and then we just didn't have a chance to talk there would be people there
that were in that language school for a year and they could answer questions
on the japanese language proficiency test but they couldn't actually form coherent sentences
after a year living in japan and taking classes five days a week you should be able to hold a
basic conversation but it's just like you get this rare opportunity and you can't talk or
somebody comes up to you on the street wants to talk to you you just ah the barrier is there you
should be watching videos you should be listening to audio lessons i've recommended that pimsleur
many many times not only because i've used it but i'm also i've given it to my mom to use
i'm so confident in their ability to help you remember they like play tricks with your mind
you think you've memorized something i got this word down then you go to say it and it's like
you just can't recall it so that's why pimsleur is really good now this school here and akita
has a really awesome video program where you can watch these videos and there are
actually local places if you're ever interested in coming here and i highly recommend it you'll
already know a lot about it and you'll learn some basic japanese so you can get around here
and they're selling it really really reasonably it's really great it's
it's going to get you started and there's the students yeah these are all our students from
the past lots of aussies americans over there lots of people from europe
i think in people's minds they imagine you know oh i'm studying japanese with a bunch of people from
other countries like in europe or or maybe north america no it's almost all people from neighboring
asian countries and their reasons for coming to japan are very different from western people's
reasons i think western people want to have that experience and they really value speaking more
than anything else but the other students yeah this might be the once in the lifetime chance
for them to come to japan and a lot of them are coming here because they want to work here
or they want to get into some trade school over here so their priorities are different from you
they might be working until midnight every night at their part-time job they come in they're
sleeping like this because the class is boring and they're tired so they're sleeping like this
every day and the teacher's getting angry and i don't blame the teacher for getting angry but you
know the students were disappointed though so they're in a bad mood we're in a bad mood and
it just it was unfortunate and some of them were really good teachers too but just they
had to fit inside this box which i think is is unfortunate but not here
the teacher used to sit in front of the classroom and we would um answer questions from a recording
and she would just press press the play button like just beep okay and then it starts asking
us questions we write abc it's like i could have done this at home wait wait wait why did i come
to japan for this so you're gonna be disappointed in most of the schools in the big cities i lasted
about six months i gave it a good six months and i i started looking at all these different schools
and they were all the same and when i went to wasada university after the language school i
got along with all the teachers and never had a single problem but that language school man
sitting in a classroom and and practicing multiple choice questions on a test because that's actually
what you're gonna get if you're in tokyo and that's what i got i didn't care so much about
the touristy areas i wanted to hang out with real people and see how japanese people really live
it's just the greatest feeling in the world when you have that back and forth and you're laughing
you started a fire
why is it always you someone set up against me
i've never seen anything like this before learn something on your own do self studying
you'll already have a foundation before you even get here you'll be like ready to start
get on the ground hit the ground running and you won't have the experience i did where you
couldn't talk to anyone and you got lost and it wasn't all that fun the first time in tokyo
and why go to tokyo or why stop there go see the rest of japan there's much more interesting places
than tokyo and much friendlier people trust me even if you just want to be a tourist over here
getting started with some japanese and understanding the locations where you could go
would help you so much it's gonna make your experience a lot better
so i hope that you can enjoy it too and and get studying start self studying with some lessons
audio lessons or some video lessons like here and be prepared when you come over or when you have a
chance to talk to japanese people in your own community it will also help you interact better