Language School Recommendations

Hi there, I’m currently looking at doing GenkiJACS’s 18-month student visa program in Fukuoka next year. In total I believe I’ll be spending a little over 3,000,000ï¿¥ over the course of my stay living very frugally with the course itself costing me 1,390,000ï¿¥ and homestay costing me 60,000ï¿¥/month. My mother is Japanese and I grew up learning a bit here in Canada but am definitely at a low-intermediate or perhaps beginner level in some categories. I’ve taken some Japanese courses in high school and at my time in university and am wondering if 18-month’s is a good duration of time to aim for fluency/N1. I’m looking at moving permanently to Japan on this trip, seeking a work-holiday visa once my studies conclude to further explore Japan while searching for a job in my field(software). I’ve been doing Wanikani for a little over 2 months now and have about 300 kanji to my name as well as 1500 or so vocabulary. My biggest weak-point is inarguably grammar as I struggle to make anything more than a basic sentence even if I have a decent set of words to pick from. If anyone has anything specific to say about Genki, life in Japan in software, fun things to do in Fukuoka, any recommendations for other language schools, or anything in general you feel I should consider or be aware of please let me know. I appreciate any and all replies and thank you for your time.

3 comments
  1. >I’m looking at moving permanently to Japan on this trip, seeking a work-holiday visa once my studies conclude

    FYI, you can’t apply for a working holiday from inside Japan, so if that’s your plan you’d need to expect to head back to Canada for a few weeks/months.

    >My mother is Japanese

    If your mother is still a Japanese citizen then it would be relatively trivial for you to get a child of a Japanese national visa. You’d need someone still living in Japan to be your guarantor though. With this status of residence you’d have basically no restrictions on work and can keep renewing it as long as you want. Even if your mother gave up Japanese citizenship (say by gaining Canadian citizenship) you could still get an ancestor visa by virtue of grandparents or great grandparents.

  2. >I’ve taken some Japanese courses in high school and at my time in university and am wondering if 18-month’s is a good duration of time to aim for fluency/N1.

    If you’ve only taken a few Japanese courses, and only have 300 kanji, no, you’re not going to hit N1 in 18 months.

    The general rule of thumb is 6 months per JLPT level, *up to N2*. The N2 -> N1 jump is anywhere from a year to multiple years.

    You’re not starting from zero, but you’re not starting from a particularly high level either. You could very easily hit N2 in 18 months, but N1 isn’t really feasible.

  3. Hello how did you figured 30k CAD for 18 months? I’d like to do the same as you but my calculations seems way higher than yours

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