Genki Japanese and Culture School Tokyo — Local services in Tokyo

I studied with Genki JACs (Japanese and culture) school for about 3 months in the summer of 2017. I will go in depth about the school, from teachers and staff, classrooms, students, accommodations, and anything else that comes to my mind.

Teachers 9/10 The teachers were absolutely phenomenal, I took to some more than others: but they were all great. I personally liked Sakumi sensei, Tomoe sensei, and Nozomi sensei. The others were great as well. I think from an Americans point of view, they were very good at not speaking English, even when it would be easier. Albeit a bit frustrating, but I completely understood they were trying to stay true to their program, and that is my favorite thing about the teachers and Japansee in general, they are very dedicated to what they are doing. They really care too, I remember I was late to class and Nodoka gave me this speech and I was quite surprised they cared that much. Even if it was acting to get me to come on time I still felt a genuine tone. There was rarely any reprimanding and it was a great way to learn, I think some American teachers and schools could benefit from this approach. They used kindness and the power of love to make students listen and act professional.

Staff 10/10 If you're considering studying here, you've probably already exchanged emails with Oscar. He is great. When emailing I had hundreds of very repetitive (questions I'm sure students ask every day) questions. My parents had twice as many, but I can never say after probably 100 plus emails he only ever gave quality answers and always encouraged me to ask more. There was a time during my stay where I was returning early, and I expected to be met with a 'seriously? ' kind of approach but I was met with no such manner. They were understanding in the utmost and even offered me discounts if I wanted to study in the future. The other Staff I net was Eri, she was actually the first person I met from the school during my stay here and she is kind and very good at her job. I didn't speak with her much but I didn't need to to see her passion for filling students needs.

Classrooms 7/10 The only thing about the school I thought was just okay was the classrooms. They are just very small and in the summer when many students are in the rooms on the 3rd floor it is just too much. Let's not enough talk about the heat , あついですね？？But it wasn't so bad. The 5th floor class rooms are much better than the 3rd floor and I mostly was in the 5th floor.

Students I'm not going to give this a score just talk abit my experience. The thing I think anyone is guaranteed is to see a huge variety In culture! In fact, one of my favorite things about comingv was learning and seeing first hand about all different types of people. From French, German, Austrian, Swiss, Czech, Italian, and so on. It was awesome to meet all these different people and many of the stereotypes are oddly true. Foir example, one of my better friends, Carlos(an Italian), made pasta for us. Haha, it was awesome.

Accommodation 9/10 I stayed in a share house called Clio state house. It was great, the rooms are small but after awhile you stop noticing. They come with a fridge and freezer as well as nice windows and the city around it is very nice too. Lots of beautiful women. A cool side note is the rooms have light switches which come off the wall and work as remotes...how cool is that?!

Overall: I'm the end, I was very pleased with my stay and will happily come again if the opportunity presents itself. I think it's important for all young people to do something like this at least once, the best thing I learned was how much I love the USA(more specifically NC!) Japan is great too. Oh, and if you're like me you'll really not like Japanese food. Luckily, you can live despite this. I highly, highly recommend a fine establishment called Homes Pasta in Shinjuku. It's right near the school and full of good food and better people. Finally I want to thank each and every person that helps make Genki Jacs and programs like it a possibility. It's an amazing...

TL;DR: It's hard to go wrong studying at GenkiJACS. Highly recommended.

I had previously studied at GenkiJACS Fukuoka for about six weeks, which was fantastic, and this time I decided to check out the Tokyo school. I had a wonderful time here as well! The teachers were all quite competent, and most of the time the classes were quite fun, as many are not afraid to let their individual personalities shine while teaching. They even indulged our questions and/or stories about unrelated topics with patience and grace, and they (importantly) always gently provided corrections to our ever-improving Japanese speaking. 😁

I'd like to mention the flexibility offered by the school as an important aspect. You can start studying quite literally just about any week of the year, whether for a couple of weeks or months at a time. (They also have a long-term 18 month student visa program which I highly recommend if your situation allows it!) Even on Japanese holidays, they will usually plan an activity outside of class, or if that is not possible, provide a refund. Combining this with coordinating accommodations in a share house or apartment for stays of four weeks or longer, and all you need to worry about is remembering your passport. I am a serious student, but I'm no spring chicken and uprooting my life and moving to Japan for a student visa course is no longer practical for me; GenkiJACS is an ideal school in that respect, as I feel like I can always return whenever the timing works out for me and still make good progress.

When enrolling, In addition to the online pre-test, a teacher will personally interview you on your first day to make sure you are placed in the appropriate class level. This was important for me, as I have studied a lot on my own, but it had been two years since my last study trip to Japan, so the multiple choice test didn't really reflect my actual knowledge.

The school will do its best to help you achieve whatever your goals are, but I feel like GenkiJAC's strength is really more toward developing functional Japanese in all areas of life, rather than passing JLPT or university entrance exams. (Don't get me wrong, I was able to pass a JLPT L4 practice test comfortably and am well on my way to L3.) There is plenty of speaking practice, which I very much appreciated because I don't have much opportunity to practice when studying at home. Combined with actually spending six weeks in Japan, I really started to feel confident in my ability to communicate verbally in everyday life, whether it was shopping, eating out, or even dating. All of this contributes to your ability to enjoy your time in Japan much more than practicing multiple-choice test questions or memorizing endless amounts of kanji ever could. (Honestly, you don't need classes to memorize kanji and vocab; there are plenty of tools out there.)

The Minna-no-Nihongo book 2 level class I was in felt very productive for the most part, as there were never more than six students, and often just four of us. Additionally, three of us were together the entire time, so we really got a chance to get to know each other. In my experience, the added opportunities to practice and interact with the teachers afforded by the small class sizes make a huge difference and in my opinion are one of the highlights of studying at GenkiJACS.

If there were anything I could think of to mention to watch out for, it would be that in the very beginner levels you might have to persevere through some difficulty and/or disruption, as not only are the classes generally a bit more full (never more than 8 or 9 students), but like any other place there are always a few students that are just there to party and aren't taking the classes seriously. However, this is a minor issue, and you should stick with it, as it will be well worth the effort once you move on to the upper-beginner level and beyond.

If you're on the fence, I say go for it, even if just for a couple of weeks! It's a worthy use of your time in Japan and an experience you can't get...

First of I would like to clarify that I am an assistant professor, and that I have been studying Japanese on and off for the past 3 years. I'd finished 4 levels of Japanese before enrolling in Genki JACS. I enrolled in Genki school for a 3 week course+ pop culture class (which was later changed by the school to conversation class for some reason). My experience was subpar and I would never go back to this school.

From the get go, I was given a placement test followed by an interview with a faculty member. The test wasn't the problem, but the interview was enough to make me want to quit classes at that moment. The interviewer asked a few questions in Japanese, I answered to the best of my knowledge not knowing what exactly she was looking for in the answers. I can write and read hiragana/katakana without trouble, and know a few Kanji, but I didn't have experience in carrying a conversation, so my speech doesn't reflect my knowledge when it comes to Japanese. after exactly two questions, the teacher, who was very irritated from the number of interviews, she had to carry immediately decides to place me in an advanced beginner class because, and I quote "your grammar is bad and your vocabulary is bad". Although I was disheartened, I agreed to the level she'd placed me in although I wanted to quit the program there and then. The interviewer's attitude was very un-Japanese, meaning I've never met a Japanese person who was this rude, ever! She was much younger than I was, and showed no respect towards the age difference between us! I was basically treated like a high school student!

My class was fine and consisted of classmates closer to my age, who were very friendly and supportive and it is thanks to them that I decided to continue with classes. The teachers were mostly ok, although the syllabus was chaotic and all over the place. I learned a few things in class, but nothing spectacular unfortunately. One day it'd be grammar, then maybe some reading, some random questions, and a ton of homework. The teachers were usually very friendly and made classes fun.

Every Friday is graduation day, and students graduating are required to read out a speech to the entire school and faculty, so I spent an entire week working on my speech which was a page long. I'd participated before in speech contests and my writing is good, good enough to win me second place in one contest against students who were my seniors in Japanese. I took my speech to the same interviewer who had interviewed me on my first day and asked her for feedback and corrections. She read it, corrected a few things, and then looked at me and ask "who wrote this?" I'm a teacher, and I know what this question implies. I answered that I did, she said that she thought it was really good and asked me "who helped you write it? a friend?"I had no Japanese friends and I'd googled a couple of verbs to use in my speech so I answered "I used google to check on these two verbs" and showed her which verbs I'd meant. She said it was good and added her comments.

On the day of graduation, I read my speech, thanked my teachers and my colleagues and after the ceremony I went to my teachers to say thank you and bid them farewell and one of the teachers said, in English, that she liked my speech so much and that it was so good. At that exact moment, the interviewer/teacher was passing by and says in Japanese "He didn't write it, he cheated, it was all from google!" thinking that I wouldn't understand her if she spoke quickly! I basically ignored her, thanked everyone, and left. I have never been treated so rudely in an academic environment, as I always did my best as a student and have never in my life been accused of cheating!

I became so discouraged that I have decided to stop learning Japanese altogether! I used to love the language so much, but thanks to Genki JACS and that angry teacher, I now hate it! I didn't even email the school for my pictures with everyone. I just want to forget all about...