I started one-to-one lessons with Asami in 2018 and highly recommend her to anyone wanting to learn Japanese – whether you are starting from scratch or building on existing skills.

 

I first wanted to learn Japanese in my mid-20s as I was holidaying regularly in Japan. While I was able to get by in cities with just English, I was keen to visit more remote locations where the language would be an absolute necessity.

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Like most people, I initially tried independent learning using online resources but quickly realised I wasn’t going to make the kind of progress I needed. I decided to find a teacher for face-to-face lessons and was extremely fortunate to have found Asami! After just a few months with her, I was pleasantly surprised at the progress I’d made. Asami has a knack for explaining abstract linguistic concepts which is particularly important when learning a language that, at times, can seem totally at odds with English. In our early days, Asami was extremely patience and eased me into the language in a way that made understanding new grammar points feel natural and logical.

 

Over time, the structure of our lessons has evolved with my ability. More recently, a greater portion of our lesson time is dedicated to just casually conversing in Japanese. It’s a great way of improving language comprehension – far more useful than the standard drill exercises I’d been used to that focused on just one grammar point at a time. It’s fun to actually put what you’ve learned to use!

 

One of the highlights of my journey with Asami was visiting Japan after a year of learning with her. Being able to understand what I heard and saw and having the confidence to speak in the language allowed me to experience a Japan I hadn’t seen before! I cannot recommend Asami strongly enough!