I am currently in high school but I wanna do a gap year and stay with my sister and her family who live in Tokyo. I want to attend a Japanese language school while I’m there.
The thing is, I really learn best in an environment that is most like a regular school: sitting in a classroom for 8 hours a day for 5 days a week and learning from a teacher who’s in front of the classroom. Is there a language school like this?
4 comments
No language school is going to teach you for 8 hours a day. Even if you found one that tried, you literally ***cannot*** learn a language (or any other single subject) at that level of intensity. Your brain will basically start rejecting input after 5-6 hours.
As for the rest of it… Pretty much every school has teachers and classrooms. It’s not going to be pure lectures though, because again: That’s not an effective way to learn a language.
My language school offers 4hrs/day Mon-Fri. I do agree with what the the person above me said. After 4hrs of institutional level of learning – everything else gets boring and learning effectiveness takes a nosedive.
I suggest doing something else more immersive (like going out there, networking, meeting new people and heck even working a part time job). Learning a language is totally different to actually using it in society.
There are no language schools that teach 8-hour lessons unless you’re at a school that has Japanese language as part of the course.
The longest full-time course I’ve seen 4.5 hours/day Mon-Fri. Human Academy in Takadanobaba (Tokyo) is the one I went to 9 – 1 when I was a student there. That was the “theory” part of my learning. A Familymart part-time job was my “practice”.
Typically language schools are 3-4 hours a day and then you will have about 1 hour a day of homework and then will probably spend 1 hour a day studying. Serious students will also spend time time watching things in Japanese, reading Japanese and getting conversation practice. Some schools offer additional classes you can pay for, like conversation classes, cultural classes, business classes or JLPT classes OR 1-on-1 private tutoring lessons. Some students work part-time to help pay for the costs and in some cases the work helps them learn the language by using it at work.
US schools are typically 7 hours, with an hour for lunch and switching classrooms, so 6 hours of classtime. I’m not sure if it’s longer in other countries. If you go to a school that’s 4 hours a day and sign up for the additional class that’s 5 hours a day, so it’s pretty close. Schools will have activities and there are language exchange events through meetup or other places that can fill up the rest of the time. Although you could pay for 1-on-1 classes if you really want hit 6 hours or even 8 hours.
I don’t know the name of any schools that have classes for 8 hours a day. As others said it becomes hard to focus on one subject for more than 4-5 hours at a time. Also if you’ll only be in Japan for a year then you’ll want to make the most of your time and enjoy exploring around Japan. Honestly you can study Japanese from anywhere with a stable internet connection, but experiencing life in Japan is not as easy to replicate.
Also, if you don’t have Japanese citizenship then you will need to get a student visa if you want to stay for a year (or if you are from a country that has working holiday visa you could do that, the US doesn’t have this visa). You should also consider where exactly your sister lives and consider schools based on proximity. Some people say they live in “Tokyo” when they are really closer to Yokohama or in Saitama or Chiba. Likewise schools that say they are in “Tokyo” can sometimes be in the outskirt areas too. You can just use google maps to tell the distance between schools are your sister’s home.
I hope this helps you. I wish you the best of luck and seems like a good opportunity if you can stay with your sister.