The University of Hawaiʻi Outreach College offers non-credit low-cost Conversational Japanese Classes via Zoom. The best part about the classes is that it has one hour of conversation practice time with Japanese speakers during the last hour of the class. When the classes were in person, Japanese people in Hawaii were volunteering, but with the move to Zoom we now have mostly volunteers from Japan.
Each term is 10-weeks with three terms a year (fall, spring, summer) and classes are on Saturdays from 9am-11:45am HST. The Fall 2024 term will be from September 28th to December 7th (no class Thanksgiving weekend, 11/30). Early bird registration, which ends on 8/23, is $25 off the regular tuition price, and even at the regular price tuition comes out to about $8 an hour. There is a late fee of $25 that will be applied from 9/20 to 9/26.
There are 8 classes/levels to choose from and students can change levels if the one they chose was too easy/advanced for them, up until the 3rd week of class. The Elementary classes focus more on speaking instead of reading hiragana/katakana/kanji, but they are introduced. Hiragana/katakana knowledge is highly recommended for the Intermediate levels since the textbook that the course (loosely) follows does not have romaji at that level. There is no textbook for the Advanced level, and it’s mostly focused on topics and grammar that comes up in JLPT N1/N2. In terms of JLPT level, while we do not teach to the test, the Elementary 1~Intermediate 1 levels cover N5 content, Intermediate 2 covers N5/N4 content, Intermediate 3 covers N4/N3 content, High Intermediate is aimed at those who have N3 level knowledge, and Advanced covers N1/N2 content.
Link to the classes with additional details are here. Feel free to message me or comment if you have any questions.
Additionally we are offering two 6-week classes starting in the middle of this month until the week before the Conversational Japanese classes start.
First, we have a 6-week "Intro to Kanji" class starting August 17th (next, next Saturday), aimed at those who do not have any kanji knowledge or who are intimidated by kanji. The class will be focusing on kanji that is useful for travel. If you already know kanji, this class may not be of interest.
Next, we have a 6-week "Master Hiragana and Katakana" class, also starting August 17th, aimed at those who would like to start learning their hiragana and katakana, or who have found it challenging to learn hiragana and katakana and would like a more structured approach with kana introduced alongside more context.
Please feel free to check out the website and either message me or comment if you have any questions. You can also use the "contact us" link at the bottom of the linked pages to ask any questions directly.
by Cyglml