I teach Business English online, and for a little supplemental income I’m looking at hosting an English learning experience via Dungeon and Dragons on Roll20 (an online gaming platform) with the assistance of a friend who also plays DnD and teaches English. We’re slowly putting together the introductory materials, getting familiar with the software, finding areas where we need more practice, etc. However, soon we’ll likely move into the next phase: recruiting actual students, and we’re at a loss as to where and how look for them. To start, we’ll only be able to handle 5-10 students, but I’m concerned that the concept is niche enough that it’ll be very difficult to find ANY interested players unless we find the right forums/sites. I know that reddit is practically unknown to most Japanese, so I doubt we’d get much traction here. Any ideas?
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Edit: I have one student who is into board games, and I plan on getting his opinion later this week. That said, I’d still value other perspectives from you r/japanlife redditors.
Edit 2: I’m near Funabashi in Chiba, though all the sessions will be online. Japanese posts/posters/etc. won’t be an issue, as we have spouses who can assist.
5 comments
Whether this is possible is really determined by where you’re located. Unless you’re in a huge city, physical posters are bound to be more effective. You’re still going to need a lot of time to get things started, I think. Go to card trading shops and the like and ask them to put your posters up. You’re going to need some Japanese on there, so have someone double-check that.
So.. the concept is people pay to learn D&D English vocabulary? No offence but I don’t see the 2 markets intercepting much.. are you banking on trendy young people being into Stranger Things season 4? Haha.
If there’s a university nearby with an English department, then you could try and get in contact with a lecturer. If you’re nice they’ll probably be able to at least tell their students. They probably want them joining clubs like that. They might have a boardgames/gaming club with interested students anyway.
If this is a no go then coffee shops in the area? Community centres, local notice boards, etc.
I definitely agree with hobby shops though, I’d be surprised if they didn’t have community notice boards already at ones with playing tables. As long as you’re not encroaching on their income I don’t see why they’d mind. You’re not competing or replacing, just offering something they don’t.
My thoughts:
Japanese people could find desperate nerds who would slave away for hours to offer them this for free. They don’t need to pay for it.
Japanese adults who are willing to pay for English class are very goal orientated. They all want a higher score or to pass an exam or to achieve fluency. It’s not often recreational/hobby focused.
Japanese people don’t care about dnd.
Playing a game to learn English will only amount to conversation practice at best. You would not be able to charge a high rate at all.
My advice is play games with your students as a fun mini-break, don’t try to make the side activity the main hustle.
Ignore all the naysayers, most people on here have zero ambition or initiative to actually create something in their lives and experience confusion when confronted with people that do.