Japanese Online Lessons using SKYPE

Which is better, online lessons or offline (face-to-face) lessons?

February 1, 2022

In terms of learning effectiveness, both are the same.
The advantages of online are convenience and cost, as shown below.
-No need to travel. As a result, you can make better use of your time and Price per lesson is relatively lower than offline.
-You can get the service that suits you best from lessons, teachers, and schools around the world.

One-on-one, group, or class lessons – which is better?

February 1, 2022

The answer to this question depends on the budget you can invest. This is because the fewer the number of students in a class, the more time you can spend on effective learning exercises, but the fewer the number of students, the higher the price per lesson.

Please also refer to the article “What learning methods work best?”

In Class lessons, there will be many students so it will be like just a lecture, no customization.
In Group lessons, there will be some students, it will be better because you can have more opportunities to ask questions and speak.
In 1:1 lessons, the teacher can know your goal, preference, situation and strong points as well as your weak points and they can customize accordingly.
But, cost wise, 1:1 is top, group is second and class is the lowest.

Please refer to another article for lesson prices.

Here are some other things to keep in mind.
-Not many schools offer class lessons for intermediate or advanced students.
-Most of the participants in class lessons are young students and there may be no other business people in the class.
-Group and class lessons have fixed schedules. You can choose your own schedule for one-on-one lessons.
-It is easier to stay motivated when you have classmates.

What learning methods work best?

February 1, 2022

When thinking about highly effective learning methods, what is frequently cited is the learning pyramid developed by NTL (National Training Laboratories Institute for Applied Behavioral Science) in the 1960s, which shows that different learning methods have different rates of memory retention.

The “learning pyramid”, sometimes referred to as the “cone of learning” suggests that most students only remember about 10% of what they read from textbooks, but retain nearly 90% of what they learn through teaching others.

The following resource give the retention rate for various study methods.

The amount that can be memorized merely by listening to a class is low. So try using your body as much as possible and combine reading, watching, writing, discussing, role playing, and so on.

Also, you probably already found a study method even more effective than role playing. It’s “teach others”. You can’t teach something very effectively to another person if you don’t know it very well. In other words, it’s necessary to understand the subject well in order to teach it effectively to another person. The study method that utilizes this principle is called “teach to learn”. Please try to teach another person (or even yourself) what you’ve learned. There are various methods you can use. You can collect all the points you’ve learned and make your own original textbook or you can upload what you’ve studied to SNS.

*To be precise, I would like to add that there are some criticisms for this learning pyramid that is not well-founded. However, many instructors who have been involved in language education for many years feel that different learning methods have different effects, and many of them support this. Also, since active learning is said to be effective, I thought it would be helpful to introduce it here based on my actual experience, although it may not be an accurate resource.

From what level, should I study Business Japanese?

February 1, 2022

In general, many of the vocabulary and expressions used in business Japanese are difficult.
For this reason, it is recommended that you start at an intermediate level or higher.
However, if you need to speak business Japanese right now, you can start right away.