Economics of Japanese 101 vs Self-Study

6 comments

1. This is honestly more of a personal finance question. If you will have 0 dollars left, probably better not to do it. Otherwise, the class is infinitely better

2. If you know how to self study and are thinking of taking japanese just for fun, self study is the best thing to do.

   I studied for about 2 months, took japanese 1 for fun and learned nothing from the class, although i picked up a few pragmatic things from the professor.

   If you invest the time which would be spent daily class into japanese in your free time, i think you will advance much faster (I think) and it will save you a lot of money. A grammar dictionary or two, and a textbook or two will run you an absolute max of $200. Everything else is free and available online or through a chat-app like italkie (for example).

   Worst case is you take something else instead of japanese, and if you feel you want a classroom environment, try to go back for japanese 101 or try to test out into the next level. Also, engage with the japanese club if your university has one

3. Do both.

4. That’s a lot of private lessons on iTalki. If you can get the basics of grammar/vocabulary yourself, I think I’d put it towards that.

5. Basic Japanese is easy enough to breeze by without lessons. Only at the internediate level would I think instruction is absolutely necessary.

6. BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS! You can easily get to Japanese 301 way faster and way better with books and apps and youtube etc.!

   Classes are way too slow imo