Program Reviews

(I'm not English-speaking so maybe there are some grammar mistakes in this comment.Please just don't mind~~)
I was a student in Hokkaido Jals before,and I really loved there. And now Jals had a new school open in Kyoto, so I enrolled the trial lesson and went back to Jals again.

I extremely enjoyed the study in Kyoto Jals !!
Of course, I would like to go there again in the future!!
All the teachers and staffs were really friendly! I received many supports from them.

And also the lessons were interesting and helpful. Because there was a limit of the number of students for each class( about max 5~6 people(?)), I could have much time and many opportunities to practice my oral skill in class. ←I considered this was a big difference from other schools, and really an outstanding point !!

The lesson(maybe pre-medium(??)) I joined that was more focused on the oral than grammar, I thought it is really efficient to be able to talk in Japanese.

Moreover, the excellent part of the school I like was that there were many different activities almost each day !! In the activities, not only I could make more friends and have a chance to interact with local residents but also have many chances to keep speaking Japanese after the class~

If you have a chance to study Japanese in japan, I will definitely recommend Jals to you!!

Attending JaLS was great! My teachers were very knowledgeable and kind. The staff were incredibly hardworking and made me feel welcome. My classmates were from all over and they were really friendly. Because the classes are very small, I got to really know my classmates and spent a lot of time speaking in Japanese. Also, the school itself is brand new and has a very chill café vibe. They offer activities almost everyday, so I had a lot of opportunities to explore Kyoto and meet many native Japanese speakers. Over the past few weeks, my Japanese has noticeably improved, particularity my speaking and listening ability. I am very happy that I went to JaLS! I look forward to going back one day.

JALS was probably the best experience of my life abroad!

It was a very engaging school which helped my Japanese language skills improve from none at all to average conversation within 3 months. The staff at JALS are incredibly friendly and definitley improved my experience as it helped me feel more comfortable in the school.

The winter course was definitley a wise choice in my opinion, because it allowed for me as a student to see some of Hokkaido's claims to fame, such as the snow festival in Sapporo city, or the popularity of skiing (which I'm not good at.) It also had less students at a winter time which allowed for the classes to be more personal as a group. I am definitley looking forward to returning to JALS in the future.

The course at JaLS exceeded my expectations! Right from the beginning when I emailed some inquiries to JaLS, I could sense the staff's sincerity in replying me and answering any doubts I had. While I was at school, the staff were also very helpful in entertaining any queries I had, such as recommendations on food and travel.

The language teachers were also very professional and patient (and fun at the same time). They used many examples to illustrate new grammar to us so that we could understand what was being taught. They also gave us sufficient time to practise the new grammar/vocabulary during class.

I enjoyed the cultural activities very much too. I was blessed with nice classmates/schoolmates and we shared many fun times together! Really enjoyed every bit of my time in Japan! =)

I was at Hokkaido JaLS in the summer of 2016, as both a foreign student studying Japanese and a young intern for the company. Through the 6 weeks I was there my Japanese improved a hundred-fold – my Japanese friends were so surprised when I returned and we could just talk in Japanese for hours on end! What's more my Japanese level wasn't even high to begin with - I arrived there a "pre-intermediate level" and am probably now an "intermediate level"; it doesn't seem like much on paper but I feel so natural and much more effortless speaking Japanese now! It's thanks to the 50/50 split of international students and Japanese students studying English at JaLS: there were so many opportunities to speak Japanese with others, and I made many lasting friendships with people of all sorts of ages and countries.

As for the internship, the experience will vary for those between those who are native Japanese speakers and foreign interns. The amazing thing was that JaLS so flexible in offering types of things I could do for the company, even though I wasn't a native Japanese speaker. I hosted my own Language Exchange event, took students to festivals, baseball games and activities such as Japanese Taiko drumming lessons! I even learned how to operate a cafe and cash register, and shadowed some of the English teachers teaching Japanese students English (as I have an interest in education).

Finally, JaLS allocated me a share-house in which I stayed - which was an incredible experience. There were about 40 people living there, 50% International and 50% Japanese - we each had our own rooms and a giant shared living room/kitchen space. It was a great opportunity to learn Japanese and I really enjoyed spending time and being taken around the city by my Japanese share-house mates. Incredible.

A truly unforgettable 6 weeks of my life, I miss JaLS and Sapporo already!! Plus, the school will come back better than ever in October 2016, bigger and even more welcoming! 12/10 !!

One of the best decisions I’ve made was studying at the Hokkaido Japanese Language School (JALS) for 8 weeks. Looking back, my experiences in Hokkaido all feel like a really good dream that I didn’t want to end. If you want to learn real Japanese, there is no better way to do it than here. I have seen students who spoke zero Japanese come to class each day, and by the end of their summer session, were able to write, read, and speak easily! My personal progress has been no less amazing, but even more, I left Sapporo with the drive to keep studying Japanese, to keep pushing myself forward in life, and to work towards my goals each day.

Learning Japanese is just one small part of the experience though. After morning classes, the day belongs to the students. JALS always has an activity lined up after lunch for those who are interested, and if not, there is always something to see and do in Sapporo! This brings me to the most memorable and important part of my journey—my friends. I made so many friends during my time in Sapporo between the students of JALS and the Japanese residents of the share house that JALS arranged for my stay. These people that I call my friends made Sapporo feel like a second home. We shared food, drinks, stories, embarrassing karaoke performances, and so much more. And no matter what background anybody was from, we were all equal and in this adventure together. Each weekend JALS had a new weekend excursion lined up for the students and it was these outings that were my most memorable. I had the chance to see the expansive lavender fields of Furano, Biei lake—a lake that echoes that beautiful teal color of Caribbean shorelines, Rusutsu Resort—an amusement park and ski resort in the mountains with breathtaking views and rollercoasters, Otaru—a well-known seaside town with a scenic canal reminiscent of Venice, and much more! If you’re thinking about visiting or vacationing in Japan next summer, consider the Hokkaido Japanese Language School! You’ll do more, see more, and make many unforgettable friends along the way. And don’t forget to bring your camera!

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 :)