ISI Language College — Local services in Tokyo

I spent a year at ISI Ikebukuro studying Japanese. My personal experience was not a positive one which is reflected in my 2 star rating. To be clear, this is just my own personal experience and many of my fellow students seemed to have had a very positive experience, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

First of all, I have to say that I think most of the teachers were genuinely doing their best to make the classes as useful and interesting as possible. There were one or two who consistently were either under-prepared or seemed disinterested in giving the lesson, but I think these teachers were an exception. So, the problems I had with the school were not, for the most part, related to the teachers.

The biggest problems were the mind-numbingly tedious syllabus and the way we were constantly threatened with having our visa taken away if we didn't meet attendance requirements. To be fair, I suspect the blame for both of these things lies with Japan's immigration department and not with the school itself. However, even if this is true, it wouldn't change my experience of attending the school. If Japan's immigration department is exerting it's influence over the school then I have to consider that part of the experience and so I still couldn't in all honesty give the school a positive review.

In regards to the syllabus, 90% of what you will do (at least in the first year) we be the same multiple choice, fill in the blank, or rearrange the word type questions. These will consist almost entirely of isolated sentences with no context or, frankly, anything interesting about them.

We did follow various textbooks (which I was forced to buy even though I already had a copy of some of them) but often we would jump back and forth between parts of the textbooks, even skipping some chapters. For some of the textbooks we only seemed to make use of about 50% of it, completely ignoring sections in favour of materials provided by the school which, as far as I'm concerned, were of no material difference to what we were skipping in the textbook. Why force us to buy a textbook that we will hardly even use? And why make things more complicated by jumping around the parts of the textbook that we do use instead of following that material as it is presented? These things I just couldn't understand.

I also found the high schoolesque atmosphere quite patronising. None of us were children and yet at times that is exactly how it felt like we were being treated. Having to explain yourself when you turned up late, or having the teacher walk around the classroom to make sure everyone had done their homework gave a sense of general mistrust of the students. Again, this could be the influence of the immigration department but that doesn't change anything as far as the experience goes.

I think in the end I could never recommend this school, but I don't expect I would have had a different experience at any language school in Tokyo (maybe even anywhere in Japan). ISI is probably as good as any other language school but personally, and rather ironically, I just don't think that language schools are the place to learn a foreign language. I think anyone would be better off learning on their own or with a private teacher and making use of the internet and their local library or bookshop. As far as language learning is concerned, there is nothing you will get at a language school that you couldn't get on your own except stress, a big hole in your pocket, and a whole lot of time wasted.

On the other hand, if you are looking for the experience of going to a language school, making friends, and experiencing another culture, ISI is probably as good a place as any.

I hope this honest review will help others make a more...

terrible experience, from start to finish! let's start from the beginning. I arrived in Tokyo on April 2, 2022 to attend this school, but they immediately turned out to be thieves, who only think about money! I had to do the quarantine, but they forced me to do it where they told them, in an expensive and meaningless hotel, because no one brought me food, so I was forced to leave the room every day to go to the first floor to buy my food. food. they forced me for no reason, even after I showed them that the law clearly said that I could do the forty wherever I wanted. school begins and I immediately understand that the teachers are not real teachers, but incompetent people who have never taught in their lives! I start from beginner level, the teachers don't even speak a word of English, how do you plan to teach me a difficult language like Japanese if you can't explain yourself so that everyone understands? completely useless! the lessons proceed very very quickly, there is no possibility of slowing down, the classes are very large (20/23 students), so they leave you to your own devices, they don't care if you don't learn, the teachers have to get on with the lessons and they give no explanation and no help. used books are outdated and very old, with dozens of new and innovative books still using old and outdated stuff. the lessons are monotonous and boring, there is no real teaching, they just read the book, there is no practice, nothing at all. absurd and senseless school rules, where they force you to do things that go against Japanese laws. I asked several times if it was possible to have a class with slower lessons, there were many students who complained about the speed of the lessons and didn't understand anything, but the answer was negative... all this makes no sense, every class of 20 people has at least 7/8 people complaining about the lessons and the school does nothing. like I said, they only care about money, they don't care if students are uncomfortable and don't learn anything. at the end of the school year with them, I said that I wanted to change schools, but they started to say that it was very difficult, almost impossible, to change visa sponsors, but in reality they didn't want me to leave, because I would take money away from them to them, no longer paying school fees. I had to threaten them by saying that I had contacted a lawyer, to make them stop talking nonsense and in the end I managed to change school, a very simple procedure, because the school I decided to attend takes care of the transfer, they did everything in just a few days. so, if you want to change schools, do it immediately, it's not a problem, it's all very simple and quick! I repeat, terrible experience in this school of inept people, incompetent teachers, obsolete lessons, very old books, meaningless rules, they always ask for money, they are...

An incredibly traumatizing experience - DO NOT ENROLL in this school - would give negative stars if I could

Deeply misleading advertising and fooled into enrolling by GoGoNihon as intermediaries.

I came to ISI Language School hoping for, expecting support, structure, and to actually learn Japanese. Instead, what I experienced was emotional neglect, administrative cruelty, and a complete lack of care — an experience that severely affected my mental health. Plus they refuse refunds after enrollment for any reason not including poor instruction quality for which I and many of my classmates and seemingly many other students have left the school for - other language schools have a grace period for refunds I have heard.

And because of this, I found myself out of more than $1600 USD. On top of the initial bank transfer for payment, I was told to pay an additional 2000 yen in cash because of being inexplicably "short" - what a scam.

After struggling with placement and requesting a class change, I was stonewalled, gaslit, and pressured into attending multiple in-person meetings that only heightened my distress. Despite clearly communicating my struggles (in both English and basic Japanese), I was met with coldness and indifference. Staff minimized my concerns, deflected responsibility, and ignored the emotional impact of their actions. Not once did they ask if I was okay.

In hindsight, I now understand that my experience was not an isolated incident. After speaking with other students and reading hundreds of reviews across ISI’s Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka campuses, I discovered a clear pattern of:

Misleading advertising (especially regarding career and visa support)

Arbitrary campus reassignments and punitive policies

Poor quality teaching with no real academic or emotional support

Disregard for students' well-being and mental health

A disturbing culture of gaslighting masked by fake politeness

And of course, doctored fake positive reviews taken from class excursion feed back forms out of context to paste as "reviews" - hence the pattern of five star reviews with little to no detail or explanation at all.

The school responds to complaints with robotic, formulaic emails in stiff Japanese — even when they know the student doesn’t read it. They twist words and avoid accountability, using bureaucracy as a shield. I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone.

Please, if you are considering studying Japanese in Japan, research thoroughly and think twice. This school thrives on international students not knowing better.

If you are vulnerable, struggling, or simply want a supportive and honest environment — stay away from ISI.

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