I’ve been recently going to a Japanese language school and the classes are so boring. All they do is teach out of a book and make us repeat everything they’re saying. I could honestly just get the same book they have and YouTube everything at home. One girl says that she’s switching school but was told she should expect the same thing. I don’t get it, Japan has the resources and so does the school but it feels like I’ve just time traveled 40 years back.
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Japan is controlled by 3 groups: the keidanren, the academia and the bureaucrats. All 3 of these have the same mindset: old fashioned, traditional, elitist and nationalistic. They’re also all completely out of touch with the real world and their average age is probably in the 60’s and above. The country is basically guided by geriatrics who were already “old” in their outlook on society when they were in their 20’s. They set the standards and have no desire to change.
I think Japan’s pretty much a “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” country, but they don’t really understand that staying the same for far too long essentially is the same thing as being broken because it hasn’t kept up with changing times, whatever “it” may be, like the fax machine BS for example.
Same deal with school, imo. My daughter is 6 and is in elementary school, but it’s just like when I went to elementary when I was a kid in Japan. Hasn’t changed at all. Only difference was that the room had an AC unit, which was honestly a big surprise for me. I was like, “progress!!” But at this point they’re so far back any tiny step forward can’t even be considered progress.
I imagine they replicate the way they were taught English in school and use the same method to teach Japanese.
Which is exactly why you should get the same book and Youtube everything.
Sounds like a shitty school?
There are two types of Japanese language schools:
A) Basically visa farms, teach out of a book, no real emphasis on learning
B) Intensive classes but with an emphasis on speaking and writing.
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The way you differentiate the two is by what programs they offer. If their goal is to get their students into a university, they are usually the “B” type. If they have a lot of students from certain Asian countries, it hurts to say, but they are more than likely “A” and are run as a 株式会社 and not a 学校法人.
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There are variations of both A and B, and immigration knows which schools are which. Schools with a 優良校 designation are the good type of “B”, since it means that 95% or higher of their students go on to university or trade school and they have 0.00% students who “escape” or work illegally, etc.
Language schools in general seem “old school” to begin with. If you’re capable of reading through a textbook and youtubing additional resources yourself, you probably don’t need a school.
They’re more helpful for people who have trouble learning without outside encouragement/deadlines. If you need conversation practice, get a conversation partner.
Also, looking at some statistics by MEXT, the majority of Japanese language school students seem to be of asian origin (30.1% Chinese, 22.5% Vietnamese, 5.5% Nepalese, 4.2% Korean, 3.8% Filipino, every other country 33.9%). Assuming you’re a westerner, these courses are probably just not made to cater to your needs to begin with.
> Japan has the resources
What resources are you referring to?
I mean, education (and especially language education) is decades behind actual pedagogy and academic research. We’ve been trying to push for better “less traditional” ways to study (again, especially languages) for over half a century and the school industry (especially public school) simply won’t budge. This is not something unique to Japan.
If anything, there’s a few people in Japan in particular that are doing some really amazing language teaching research (see for example [Beniko Mason](http://beniko-mason.net/about/)) although most of that goes from JP to EN. JP schools themselves are probably a lost cause. Still, it’s really nothing unique to Japan.
Japan is a little old fashioned, but maybe it’s the language school?
I went to an intensive program in Osaka for a year and while we learned from textbooks it was very interactive, we were having conversations, writing on board, being corrected etc, could choose electives for three days a week, and each class even did a 15 minute play at the end of the year.
Because that is all students know and expect – look at the schooling system, it’s mostly about memorization.
Wax on… wax off. Repeat 200 times young Daniel
Sorry to hear that. I love my school because they concentrate on conversation skills.
Japanese language schools aren’t created equal.
A lot of them are bad, as you’re possibly now experiencing. Although, if you’re in an elementary 101 class then, yeah, you’re going to be repeating a lot of things regardless of the school. That’s how they correct your pronunciation so you don’t sound like you’re FOB 2 years into your studies lol.
Teaching material should be supplemented by exercise sheets and such.
A tell-tale sign of a bad school is, as another poster said, if 90% of the students are from east-Asian countries. Also if their levels are divided up into a bunch of incremental sub-levels. There should be 2-3 sub-levels; lower, intermediate, upper/advanced. If there’s like 5 beginner classes then you know.
> All they do is teach out of a book and make us repeat everything they’re saying.
To be fair, I don’t think the skill of ‘learning a language’ has changed in the last 40 years. There’s no shortcuts when it comes to learning sounds, vocab, grammar and thousands of kanji (after you’ve already learned a fuck load of hiragana / katakana and are thinking ‘whooo I’m getting close!’ noooo no no… you haven’t even started buddy). Call me whatever but I find mastering languages a VERY boring process as an adult as it’s all rote learning.
All anecdotes from here (give or take) but best Japanese speakers I know who weren’t raised by Japnese parents have either:
– Worked in Japan for 30+ years in a Japanese speaking environment (I know welders, musicians, gym instructors, konbini owners…etc who are amazing).
– Forget the name, but done this scholarship program where you go out for ~5 years fully paid, do 1 year of intensive Japanese and then do a full economics degree in Japanese. I know some guys in the M&A space (bankers) who did this and they’re fucking good! Dunno how they did it but they all went from zero to university grade Japanese in a single year. I guess they just HAD to.
– People in the diplomatic service who just absorb languages. Before their posting in Tokyo they spend about a year attending daily (free) conversation classes at work. During the day they just absorb languages (they speak 10+ and have got the knack of it… guess they just know all the tricks as that’s their expertise). Kudos to them. Although, myself and others find they’re often flawed when it comes to speaking casual Japanese. I remember attending one of these colleges for diplomats and some dude would give a perfect, ~20 minute speech about lotsa complex, geopolitical stuff using very formal Japanese. I’d then ask them a few basic questions in casual Japanese and they had nothing.
As others have said, they vary. The school I attended did teach out of a series of books, but classes involved lots of discussion and varied exercises along with the books. I could not possibly have YouTubed everything at home.
Japan has the resources? What do you mean by that? That’s a private enterprise. Surely you get what you’re paid for. And if not you should seek something else or not use it.
As far as I know, Japanese ‘language schools’ are just visa farms, are they not?
At the beginning is “boring” but when you catch up start to be interesting…i’ve been at Japanese language School in Tokyo 2011(a school exist since 1948) and only thing i complaint was “why are we still using video tapes or tape recorders?” beside that have great memories from the school…but as some said “if still work why need to change it?” i believe in some point some areas(about language education)will have a update. For now enjoy living here and do your 宿題！
The language schools definitely do vary. Personally, the one I went to in Kyoto was a blast. Studied there for 18 months and loved all the teachers there. Didn’t find it boring at all.
So true