Japanese Classes

Starting in September I enrolled in a community Japanese class. There were 8-10 of us in the class. One other American, others from China, Korea, Indonesia, Germany, and Taiwan. I had never been in a second language classroom where the lingua franca was the target language. It made a whole new incentive to learn and speak Japanese.

Our teacher provided all of the materials. Mostly they were magnified pages from textbooks. But the pictures were simple enough to use in a beginning class. The class was every Thursday for 10 weeks. At 5000 yen for the course, it was cheap. But it could only be taken once. So make hay while the sun shines.

It was good for me to get out of the house and meet a new crowd of people. I have to admit that I was lazy in studying however. I'd write down the new words I'd learn and maybe the grammar point of the day. But between classes I had my own lessons to prepare and I didn't put in the time to improve. Being in a group class, I wouldn't have to take the spotlight and prove that I was learning. No tests or homework.