I’m looking into attending a Japanese Language School in early 2025. I went to japan late last year, loved it, and would like to go for 3-6 months to get a feel of studying Japanese and living in Tokyo while I build an art portfolio. Any insight you have on these schools would be of a great help to me, or if you have recommendations that you think are better options in Tokyo based on what I have to say.
I like that Genki has smaller more intimate classes, with an option to study on a working holiday visa, and a discounted option to extend your study for 3 more months. I’ve heard that the constantly rotating class schedule can be a pain to manage though.
I like that ISI is very structured, and they’ve been great at communicating/answering some questions over the past few days. But I’ve heard that the larger class sizes combined with a more rigorous curriculum can be harder to keep up with. Also I’ve heard that they have a larger Asian demographic which can make falling behind on kanji easier as they tend to teach it in a different way.
I like that Shibuya Gaigo has a good amount of westerners in their demographic, and they are very competitively priced (about half the price of attending either Genki or ISI) but I can’t find as much information about the school and type of curriculum as the other two. Also I would have to learn hiragana + katakana before attending, which seems a little daunting. Is that possible to do in the year timeframe I’ve set?
If anyone can elaborate on or debunk anything you’d be a huge help in my decision. Also just sharing your personal experiences if you’ve attended these schools would be amazing.