Genki Japanese Language & Culture School

CONTEXT

During the spring of 2023, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in an 11-week language study program through GenkiJACS Kyoto. This is a trip I had originally planned for two years earlier, but needed to postpone because of the pandemic travel restrictions. The wait was well worth it. Prior to coming to Kyoto, I studied online with GenkiJACS during the two years in which travel restrictions were in place. Thanks to this, I had already met many of my teachers before arriving in Kyoto. Finally coming to the school was like being welcomed home.

TEACHERS AND STAFF

My favorite part about GenkiJACS is the wonderful people who work there. Although it took me a couple of weeks to adjust from online private classes to in-person group classes, I quickly felt comfortable at school. There is not a single teacher with whom I did not get along; class was a joy to attend and always felt like it went by too quickly. The great rapport I developed with my teachers was the highlight of my language study.

In the classroom, I always felt comfortable asking nuanced questions (such as understanding the difference between two similar types of grammar), even when my language ability made it difficult to explain what I meant in Japanese. My teachers were always patient with me and gave me thoughtful answers, sometimes following up with me the next day if I still didn't understand. There were also many times outside of class where I asked for feedback on homework or a grammar topic, and my teachers were always kind enough to go over it with me.

Several times during my stay, I had some professional obligations overlapping with my studies (in particular, I needed to travel for a week for a job interview). I greatly appreciate how flexible the school was in helping me work around these with minimal interruption to my studies. In general, the staff at school was very communicative and accessible before, during, and even after my studies.

I also appreciated that I was allowed to use the classrooms for self-study (since the student lounge was often noisy), and I regularly took advantage of this. Because I was often working in the school after classes, I had a lot of opportunities for more casual, spontaneous interaction with some of my teachers and I greatly enjoyed this. Not only was it good conversation practice, but I felt valued as a person as well as a student. Perhaps this more than anything else made me feel welcome at school.

About two months into my program, I had already decided I wanted to do another a homestay through GenkiJACS and started discussing this possibility with my instructors (in particular, thank you Mami-sensei!). Although I was advised that a class at my level would not be available at the Kyoto school, she helped me coordinate with the GenkiJACS Fukuoka school to make arrangements. Since I also planned to continue my online private classes with GenkiJACS in the interim, she even met with me several times outside of class to help me select textbooks and design a personal curriculum that matched my study goals. The level of personal attention and support I received is truly appreciated.

LANGUAGE COURSE AND CLASS SCHEDULE

The general core course consists of 20 lessons per week (4 lessons of 50 minutes per day). Registering for the Conversation Module adds an additional 5 lessons per week. A typical school day with this schedule (counting breaks/lunch) is between 4-7 hours. Each student's schedule is made available on Friday for the next week, and varies each day. On 4-hour days, it is common that the entire morning or afternoon is free (which is a great time to explore the city!).

The teachers rotate between classes, but all follow the same curriculum, so typically you can have four or five different teachers in a given week. This may make it challenging to get used to a single instructor's teaching style for shorter stays, but personally I appreciated being exposed to a range of teaching styles over the long term. Plus, you have a chance to meet many great teachers! On average, we covered about 1.5 chapters of the textbook (Minna no Nihongo) per week; for me, the pace felt perfect.

During my stay, there were not so many students studying at my level (high beginner), although there seemed to be many concurrent classes running for students at the low beginner levels. There were never more than 6 students in my class, but during a few weeks my class only had 2 students, during which the total number of classes per week was understandably reduced. In general, I greatly appreciated the small class size since it never felt too crowded and I had plenty of opportunities to speak.

I also registered for 4-weeks of Culture Classes (the maximum, since these generally repeat monthly), all of which were held on Saturdays. These classes typically involved 2-3 arts-and-craft style activities at local workshops, plus some guided site-seeing with GenkiJACS staff. I had a lot of fun with these, but my favorite two activities were visiting Nijo Castle and making a temple stamp book. Personally, I wish I could have registered for more than 4 classes since these were fun.

HOMESTAY

Before coming to Kyoto, I was certain that I wanted the experience of living with a Japanese host family, but very nervous that we would not get along well. After arriving, all of my fears more or less evaporated by the end of the first week. I absolutely adored my host family. They were a young family with three small, very energetic children (I am also grateful for gaining a lot of firsthand knowledge about parenting). I felt immediately welcomed and I feel so lucky that I was their very first host student.

No one in my host family spoke English, but this never felt like a barrier. Rather, staying with them was an incredible opportunity to practice conversational Japanese in a non-intimidating setting. I would regularly chat with my host father for 2-3 hours after dinner and I'm still shocked at how easy it felt to converse in another language. They included me on a number of family activities during the weekends and I never felt left out. Attending a nomikai with my host father and his senpai was a blast. I really feel like I became a member of my host family and I will visit them when I return to Kyoto in the future.

SUGGESTIONS

As much as I loved studying with GenkiJACS, I found myself wishing there had been a few more extracurricular activities organized by the school. Information on this and some other topics from the school website, although generally quite detailed and informative, occasionally seemed either out of date or was applicable only to the other schools in the Genki family (perhaps this was a lingering effect of changes due to the pandemic). The Culture Module and the school field trips on public holidays were a lot of fun, but I was not aware of other regular activities at the Kyoto school. For example, I wish their had been an opportunity for some form of language exchange through the school with local Japanese. A movie night was only offered twice during my stay (and of those two times, one needed to be cancelled for logistical reasons), although to their credit this seemed to be an event staff were in the process of restarting. That said, I had a lot of fun solo-traveling around Kyoto and I never felt at a loss for something to do.

CONCLUSIONS

My stay with GenkiJACS Kyoto was a better experience than I could have hoped for, 11-weeks went by far too quickly. I highly recommend the school to anyone who is serious about learning Japanese in a structured, supportive environment. I can't wait to study again at their Fukuoka school in the near future.

I studied Japanese for 2 weeks in Tokyo with GenkiJACS at a beginner level. I'd been studying Japanese myself for a while but really wanted something more intensive to boost my skills and motivation. I chose GenkiJACS because their website looked professional and reviews seemed to suggest they would suit my style of learning.

It was an even better experience than I could've hoped for. Right from my first enquiry, their staff were extremely helpful, answering the many questions I had about the course. Booking it was easy and they kept in touch without any prompting to update me on any information I needed to know before travelling. They sorted out health insurance and provided all the visa information I needed.

They also gave me a test and an interview online to test my Japanese levels, allowing them to place me in a class that was the appropriate level. This worked really well, I think the class they chose for me was exactly the right one. Being able to talk with one of the teachers on a Zoom call was nice too, it reassured me that I'd made a good choice as she was really helpful and made me feel confident speaking in Japanese.

The school itself is in a beautiful location right next to the Hanazono Shrine in Shinjuku. I chose to use my own accomodation, which was very local, so didn't have experience with the accomodation provided by the school, but walking to the school through the shrine every morning was a lovely experience and one I'll never forget.

On my first day there, I was made to feel welcome and given my textbooks and some orientation about how to use the school and its facilities. Everyone was very friendly and efficient and there wasn't any stress or worry. I went straight from orientation to my first class. I was worried it would feel weird because I was jumping into a class that had already been running for a few weeks. It didn't feel weird at all. There was a very brief introduction and then straight into the lesson and another lesson and by the end of the second lesson, I already understood the style and structure of how things would work for the rest of the two weeks. Their learning model is very intuitive.

The classes themselves were excellent. Every teacher has a different style but the material feels very consistent, with each lesson building on knowledge acquired during the previous one. Occasionally I'd feel a bit lost but we always went over things multiple times as each topic fed into the next one really cleanly. I really felt like I was learning things in a meaningful way, not just rote. To make it better, the classes were really varied and enjoyable. The teachers all had great senses of humour and made things fun. It was the perfect mix of entertaining but meaningful learning.

I enjoyed meeting all my classmates too. As a much older learner than average, I was worried that everyone would be super-young and I'd feel alienated but I didn't at all. They were all lovely, inclusive and fun to learn with. I think this is a credit to both them as individuals but also the school, for fostering such a friendly, upbeat environment for learning.

In the second week we were given a test that was surprisingly tough. I didn't pass first time but asked if I could retake. Technically, I didn't need to retake as I wasn't advancing to another class afterwards but I really wanted to have a second go to prove something to myself, and they kindly allowed it and were very encouraging. The difference in my marks - from 67% to 94% - I think shows the progress I made and also that the course material was both challenging but ultimately achievable.

I wish I could've stayed at GenkiJACS longer. By the time I attended my graduation ceremony on the final Friday, I really didn't want to leave. It's a shame I didn't get chance to attend any of the day trips or social events the school puts on, as that would've been fun, but everything I did experience at GenkiJACS was great. I wish I had some constructive criticism, but I honestly couldn't have asked for more.

I guess their style won't be perfect for everyone - some people may prefer a stricter, more formal style of learning and GenkiJACS is a fun place (they have manga framed on the wall, Pokémon plushies and a Hatsune Miku door chime! :D), but I thought the educational value and quality of the course was superb. I feel more confident and motivated with my Japanese and also feel like I've found the right style and direction for further study. Which is exactly what I wanted to get out of this study abroad.

From September 2022 to December 2022 I came to Tokyo to study Japanese and selected Genki JACS as my cultural language school. Before coming to Japan I had a couple of talks with the staff at Genki JACS. They were so kind to answer all of my questions and gave me detailed information about the Core Japanese Course I enrolled with. My entrance to Japan was when the borders where still closed, however, the same staff helped me with the student VISA process and provided all documents I needed for a swiftly entrance to the country.

Upon my arrival the Genki JACS staff greeted me and showed me around the place near the school. They also gave me a brief introduction to how the classes worked weekly together with my Japanese textbook and kanji books. I also took an orientation test to set me up with the appropriate group of classmates according to my level of Japanese. I felt extremely welcomed! I also received a student account which I used daily to see my schedule of the current week and upcoming events.

Japanese lectures where amazing and really helpful. My teachers were always willing to give it all for me to advance and learn the language. They are all well prepared to teach the topics and they make the class fun, interactive and interesting. Schedule changes every week together with the lecturers, however, you get to know them all and they remember you too! Be prepared to have daily homework as a matter of practice and exams about once a month.

To be honest I felt lost at the beginning, but in no more than 3 days I was already adjusted. Three months passed by so fast but I can now understand and speak a bunch of Japanese. I'm not an expert yet but will continue studying with them through their online-private lessons. While my stay I didn't set up my accommodation with the school, however, some classmates talked good things and great support about it.

I have nothing bad to say about GenkiJACS. I highly recommend the school and would definitely go back to pursuit my Japanese studies in the future.

I have studied with Genki JACS Fukuoka for 2 weeks.
Beginning with the pre-arrival support, the staff was very kind and answered the mails quickly. I took the online tests to determine my level and also had a Zoom interview.
At the first day at school, one of the teachers showed me and another girl around and we also went to Hakata station. The teacher showed us good spots for lunch, e.g. the food trucks close to school.
After that I continued studying in the 3rd and 4th/4 lessons of the day.
The last 3 years I have studied only on my own with a textbook without a teacher, so I knew a lot of grammar but did hardly practice speaking. As in the courses you mostly learn and practice the grammar (speaking practice was also about using especially the learned grammar), it was too easy for me and thus I could change the class at the next day and thus skip a few pages of the textbook. As I was the only girl in the new class, the staff recommended me to transfer into another class again for the next day. The 3rd class was also nice, but still the grammar was a bit easy, but it didn't want to transfer every day.
Which I liked about the course were the vocabulary repetitions and little tests every day.
The textbook we used in class was Minna no Nihongo 2 (in an information sheet I got pre-arrival it was written that you use Genki!) and a Kanji book. I could also change my unused Kanji book into a more difficult one.
I additionaly booked the conversation class, which is normally 5 lessons per week, but as I was the only participating student, it was only 2 lessons a week, but still very helpful and I could practice speaking a lot. I also had the feeling, that the teachers chose the topics I am interested in to speak about.
I stayed with a host family, that was extremely nice! They sent the information 3 weeks before moving there. I wished to live in a central area, the family lived in Kasuga, but with a very good connection to school with JR Kagoshima line, it was only 20minutes to school.
On a holiday the school organized a trip to a sumo tournament, which I enjoyed. But of course, you didn't have to participate.
All in all, I recommend Genki JACS to other students, as everyone of the staff and teachers was very eager to meet my needs.
Many thanks to the teachers and staff!

People are just amazing, from first contact to last day at school you feel they work hard everyday to make this the best experience possible.
On the content it is not easy because of different levels, and conversation classes are just additional to the standard course. I wonder why this isn’t included in the standard course and mandatory for all students. Certain number of hours maybe?
Anyway, awesome experience and I would like to continue the course after coming back to my country.
I hope I can follow the class online from now on.