Standard Intensive Japanese Language Course in Hokkaido

The summer course in JaLS is very good! I recommend it to everyone, who want to learn something more about Japan and not only study Japanese. You can learn a lot about the Japanese culture and make interesting things that probably you will never try again in your life :) There are a lot of activities during week so you have always something interesting to do, every day is fun ! Japanese lessons in the morning are enjoyable and you will learn a lot in few time. If you have any problem school staff is really helpful and i think everyone is friendly and kind.
I really enjoyed my moth in JaLS, and hope I'll go again in future.

I really enjoy doing the activities especially the cultural lesson. It helped us understand more and help us to adapt to the environment we're surrounded by. The food is also very delicious, i get to meet new friends create bonding, by travelling and doing school activities together help us learn more about each other. For example, the city tour activites since the first week where were walking around and taking photos and doing group activities where we had been given sets of task to complete. This part make us know each other better, their characteristics and personality in order to go and talk and be friend with them because sometimes we don't know whether he/she is friendly or not.

When i made my decision to go study japanese in Japan, i directly aimed to live in Sapporo.
In many ways a city that did fit my preferences with it's closeness to nature and mountains, it's a big city without all the rush and stress you can experience in Japans other major cities.
For me it was the perfect mix of japanese studies and culture experience, even though class is only 3 hours per day you will learn and progress alot since it's small classes and you get alot of attention from the teachers.
This was my first time leaving my home country alone, but i went back home with so much awesome experiences and awesome new friends!

I spent four weeks studying Japanese in JALS and had such an amazing time. The class sizes are small, and learning for three hours a day really lets you improve your Japanese ability really quickly - but I never felt stressed out at all. The lessons are very well-structured and focused on conversational ability, and it was really fun to go out every afternoon and practice whatever I'd learned that day on unsuspecting wait staff and my host family.

The activities after classes are all really interesting as well (e.g. sushi-making, clothe dyeing), but the best part was meeting so many different people from all over the world and making new friends, hearing a huge variety of different languages, and going out for dinner, drinks, or karaoke in the evenings. I had friends from Europe, Taiwan, America, and a load of other places. It's really a mixed bag of people but everyone is really fun. The staff and teachers are all really amazingly nice and helpful as well and felt like friends too :)))

Living in Japan is also super interesting. I stayed with a host family and got to experience life like a local - speaking Japanese at home also does wonders for your language abilities, although my host family also spoke perfect English, if anyone's worried that it might be too difficult. We went out a lot on weekends to do things like cherry-blossom viewing, and visiting nearby towns :) Sapporo itself is probably my favourite city in Japan - it's like Tokyo without all the horrible overcrowding and insanity, and I highly recommend living there. I will definitely try to come back to do more time at JALS at some point in the future :)

My younger brother and I both studied at Hokkaido Japanese Language School together during the summer of 2014. It was our first time traveling internationally without any other family members with us and we were a bit nervous. The school was extremely accommodating and arranged everything upon our arrival to Hokkaido. They scheduled a taxi to pick us up at baggage claim and had us dropped off at our host-family's house. Any worries we had the school had it covered!

Everyone at the school was so kind and friendly. The teachers and staff have a great sense of humor and truly make you feel welcomed. The language lesson instructions was very interactive and there was never a dull moment in the classroom. The school also offered great activities like kendo, taiko and trips to the lavender fields.

During our stay in Hokkaido, we lived with a host family. Our host family was great and surprisingly they used to live in California which is where we're from! They were very welcoming and made us feel part of the family. It was a great way to experience the Japanese culture and it was a lot of fun to do things with them.

It has almost been a year since we studied at Hokkaido Japanese Language School and we still are in contact with the school staff and our old classmates!

Classes:
I did a 9 week winter course, taking group lessons which lasted 3 hours every weekday morning. The small class sizes (max of 6) allowed plenty of personal attention from the instructors to help practice and improve my language skills. My instructors were extremely helpful in teaching Japanese not only from the course curriculum, but also incorporating new material when the students asked to learn about a particular subject or scenario. In 9 weeks I feel that I learned the equivalent of a university semester course (if not more).

Culture:
Beyond the classroom JaLS offers a full cultural experience. My afternoons were filled with optional activities; a few I took part in include making sushi, taiko (Japanese drumming), and learning a traditional tea ceremony. I also attended several conversation lessons, in which Japanese locals mingle with students to play games and practice conversational Japanese.

The school is located in the city center, which gave me plenty of opportunities to explore on my own with easy access to shopping, dining, and sightseeing. I also found it very easy to take day trips and overnight trips to other parts of Hokkaido on the weekends. I took advantage of Hokkaido’s legendary snow and went to several nearby ski resorts, including a couple adventures with JaLS students and staff.

Community:
The JaLS community is what made my time in Japan an amazing experience. I quickly bonded with many of the other students who came from various corners of the world, united by a common interest in learning Japanese. I made many friends and was happy to have new companions to explore Hokkaido with while practicing Japanese.

The JaLS staff is the core of creating a positive community atmosphere. The friendliness and support of the staff is outstanding! I was comfortable in their presence and confident in their ability to proficiently run a language school. And beyond school business I was constantly impressed by the genuine outreach they made, often going out of their way to organize group events, assist with logistics (reservations, housing, travel, etc.), or just joke around with between class.

The staff is incredibly nice and good at teaching. My time there prepared me for over a semester's worth of intensive 2nd year Japanese at my university, and I still had most of the day to freely explore Sapporo and its surroundings with my new international classmates and friends. I stayed at one of the hostels JALS recommended, and it was a great place to stay long term; if you're imagining ten bunk beds and one sink in the same room, don't. We all had spacious rooms to ourselves, and there were several well-maintained communal bathrooms on each floor. There was a kitchen downstairs with plenty of cabinet space and appliances for cooking, as well as a TV area with 3 sofas. The residents were very friendly, as are the residents of Sapporo; the city itself is beautiful, clean, and there's so much to do. I was fortunate enough to choose a great school in a great area, and I had a wonderful experience. (Can't wait to go back!)

I had the great privilege of taking a month off of work and spending it in Hokkaido. My wife and I picked JaLS because of its summer program with all its cultural activities. Classes are 3 hours in the morning and then optional cultural activities take place in the afternoon. The line up of activities was a lot of fun. There was kendo, soba making, and kimono experiences. There were special activities like trips out to nearby Furano and Otaru.

If I had the time and money, I would go back again. I made a lot of new friends through the program. Many of whom I still keep in touch thanks to social media.