HomeMoving to JapanI was looking into go go nihon does anyone have other recommendations? Since I’m not fortunate with money or getting help from my parents do any language schools offer like financial aid ?
I was looking into go go nihon does anyone have other recommendations? Since I’m not fortunate with money or getting help from my parents do any language schools offer like financial aid ?
I was looking into go go nihon does anyone have other recommendations? Since I’m not fortunate with money or getting help from my parents do any language schools offer like financial aid ?
I went with them, but I did a study trip centered around otaku culture so probably not so helpful but I had accommodation at a dormitory which was very cheap and went to Akamonkai in Nippori which i believe is one of the cheaper schools but is very intensive.
Go go are quite supportive from what I experienced so I’d email them directly and ask, I think the shortest you can go is 6 months.
i believe gaijinpot has language schools with potential scholarships, but i’m not 100% sure
I went with GoGoNihon myself, and am currently in Japan. I know a lot of people recommend going directly through schools to apply, but it can be difficult if you don’t already know some of the language or have a resource to help you through the process. Honestly, my biggest expenses has been housing, food and transportation. The schooling itself was probably only 25% of my expected expenses.
You may look into schools directly and avoid the middle men altogether. Otherwise, you can do what I did, and just save a bunch of money until you can afford it. In the meantime, learn as much Japanese as you can. Memorize all the hiragana and katakana. Watch videos, read books, etc. That way when you do go, you can potentially test out of the early classes and potentially study for a shorter time saving you money in the long run. I really really really recommend learning as much as you can while you figure it out though. Spending even 15 minutes a day watching videos will give you an advantage once you do study in Japan. My classmates that didn’t even know hiragana and katakana when they arrived struggled to keep up, take notes, and were essentially illiterate.
There definitely are some scholarships available through my school now, but only available to me personally after I started attending. Not before.
No matter what happens, good luck. Keep in mind if you can’t do it now, you can always do it later. Plenty of people in these classes are older and middle aged.
they seem like a pointless middle man to be honest.
[deleted]
Normally language schools won’t have anything like scholarships or financial aid because it doesn’t benefit them at all. There only reason colleges do it, is because having successful alumni is better for their business.
None of the schools offer financial aid unfortunately and also keep in mind that for your student visa you’ll need to show that you have at least ¥2million in your bank account.
You’ll need to be able to show Japanese immigration that you have enough funds to live in Japan while you go to school.
Reality: they aren’t good. They have a very professional website to reel people in, but once you start the application things get really slow and sloppy. I am in Japan and I used them, and while they don’t usually absolutely hinder you, **all** of their services can be done faster, and probably more accurately, directly via the school you want to go to.
I have a list from another post explaining how I came to realize they really were suboptimal:
* It on average took them 4 days to respond to me. I learned later if you reach out my school directly, it only takes them a few hours to respond. * They claimed to be translating stuff from my school. In reality, they were communicating with my school in English (**99% of language schools have english speaking staff. You do not need to worry about translation when applying directly**). So, they were holding onto information for days at a time for literally no reason (maybe to give the illusion they were translating, I’m not sure) * At Go Go Nihon’s request, I ended up wire transfering my rent and tuition separately when I was supposed to do it together, a mistake on their part which costed me an extra $130 in fees * I paid the entrance fee ($200) twice (since they make you do it via paypal once, they then forgot to subtract that amount from my first tuition payment). It took a month after I got to Japan for them to fix it. * I had to ask the move in date for my dormitory 5 seperate times over the course of 45 days to *finally* get a response from them. They only tried to get an answer when I more or less yelled at them over email. I ended up having to book a hotel for a week because I had to book my flight before I knew the move in date, and the hotel shorted me $350. * Sometimes when I asked questions, they told me to contact the school myself (the whole point of gogo is that they do this for you, but they get busy and sometimes make you reach out yourself anyway). But when it was taking them too long to reply to a simple question about billing and I said I was going to reach out to the school, they essentially flipped and told me that I could NOT contact the school under any circumstance, as they needed to give me the ‘best service possible’ and provide their ‘translator services’ (which I now know they were never doing). So when it was regular information, I should get it myself. But anything about billing, I couldn’t talk to the school about. Super shady
So, from my experience, they pretty much sucked.
You should not be afraid to reach out to the school directly. They have staff that will help you.
Well, given your financial situation, the first hurdle is the certificate of eligibility (CoE) from immigration , not the school itself.
You need around 2 million jpy equivalent in the bank which looks untouched for a while. If you do, then proceed to apply. I would do a direct contact instead of using the middle man.
Go go nihon did mess me up once a few years back. But the school sorted it out quickly after I reached them directly.
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I went with them, but I did a study trip centered around otaku culture so probably not so helpful but I had accommodation at a dormitory which was very cheap and went to Akamonkai in Nippori which i believe is one of the cheaper schools but is very intensive.
Go go are quite supportive from what I experienced so I’d email them directly and ask, I think the shortest you can go is 6 months.
i believe gaijinpot has language schools with potential scholarships, but i’m not 100% sure
I went with GoGoNihon myself, and am currently in Japan. I know a lot of people recommend going directly through schools to apply, but it can be difficult if you don’t already know some of the language or have a resource to help you through the process. Honestly, my biggest expenses has been housing, food and transportation. The schooling itself was probably only 25% of my expected expenses.
You may look into schools directly and avoid the middle men altogether. Otherwise, you can do what I did, and just save a bunch of money until you can afford it. In the meantime, learn as much Japanese as you can. Memorize all the hiragana and katakana. Watch videos, read books, etc. That way when you do go, you can potentially test out of the early classes and potentially study for a shorter time saving you money in the long run. I really really really recommend learning as much as you can while you figure it out though. Spending even 15 minutes a day watching videos will give you an advantage once you do study in Japan. My classmates that didn’t even know hiragana and katakana when they arrived struggled to keep up, take notes, and were essentially illiterate.
There definitely are some scholarships available through my school now, but only available to me personally after I started attending. Not before.
No matter what happens, good luck. Keep in mind if you can’t do it now, you can always do it later. Plenty of people in these classes are older and middle aged.
they seem like a pointless middle man to be honest.
[deleted]
Normally language schools won’t have anything like scholarships or financial aid because it doesn’t benefit them at all. There only reason colleges do it, is because having successful alumni is better for their business.
None of the schools offer financial aid unfortunately and also keep in mind that for your student visa you’ll need to show that you have at least ¥2million in your bank account.
You’ll need to be able to show Japanese immigration that you have enough funds to live in Japan while you go to school.
Reality: they aren’t good. They have a very professional website to reel people in, but once you start the application things get really slow and sloppy. I am in Japan and I used them, and while they don’t usually absolutely hinder you, **all** of their services can be done faster, and probably more accurately, directly via the school you want to go to.
I have a list from another post explaining how I came to realize they really were suboptimal:
* It on average took them 4 days to respond to me. I learned later if you reach out my school directly, it only takes them a few hours to respond.
* They claimed to be translating stuff from my school. In reality, they were communicating with my school in English (**99% of language schools have english speaking staff. You do not need to worry about translation when applying directly**). So, they were holding onto information for days at a time for literally no reason (maybe to give the illusion they were translating, I’m not sure)
* At Go Go Nihon’s request, I ended up wire transfering my rent and tuition separately when I was supposed to do it together, a mistake on their part which costed me an extra $130 in fees
* I paid the entrance fee ($200) twice (since they make you do it via paypal once, they then forgot to subtract that amount from my first tuition payment). It took a month after I got to Japan for them to fix it.
* I had to ask the move in date for my dormitory 5 seperate times over the course of 45 days to *finally* get a response from them. They only tried to get an answer when I more or less yelled at them over email. I ended up having to book a hotel for a week because I had to book my flight before I knew the move in date, and the hotel shorted me $350.
* Sometimes when I asked questions, they told me to contact the school myself (the whole point of gogo is that they do this for you, but they get busy and sometimes make you reach out yourself anyway). But when it was taking them too long to reply to a simple question about billing and I said I was going to reach out to the school, they essentially flipped and told me that I could NOT contact the school under any circumstance, as they needed to give me the ‘best service possible’ and provide their ‘translator services’ (which I now know they were never doing). So when it was regular information, I should get it myself. But anything about billing, I couldn’t talk to the school about. Super shady
So, from my experience, they pretty much sucked.
You should not be afraid to reach out to the school directly. They have staff that will help you.
Well, given your financial situation, the first hurdle is the certificate of eligibility (CoE) from immigration , not the school itself.
You need around 2 million jpy equivalent in the bank which looks untouched for a while. If you do, then proceed to apply. I would do a direct contact instead of using the middle man.
Go go nihon did mess me up once a few years back. But the school sorted it out quickly after I reached them directly.