[bigapple99]

Hi, apologies if this has been asked many times on this forum but I couldn't see any concise responses to finding a Japanese course that is taught in ENGLISH. HKU Space's courses from Sept - July is too long of a committment and I want the structure of a classroom setting instead of a tutor. I took one from Pasona and hated it because it was all by rote memorisation rather than Western educational methods.

Does anyone have experience taking courses from an institute?

[jgl]

To echo the above- don't use Persona (based in CWB) even though they teach in English. I did an intro class and they were terrible- the instructor couldn't speak enough English to explain what she was teaching (just kept parroting the same things in Japanese) and had obviously never been taught how to teach.

[gazmario]

Damn, I was just about to enrol into Pasona .

Not because I was drawn to them specifically, but more because there's a real dearth of options available here.Sounds like I should reconsider.

In case the OP is interested, I did come across another school called GEOS, that teaches in English. I believe they have a branch in Causeway Bay, but it was the Hung Hom (Metropolis Mall) branch I originally discovered.

I can't vouch for the school though; in the end, I found it a bit pricey and never enrolled. But you might want to check them out.

I'm not a beginner, so it's been really hard finding somewhere to carry on with the study. But the longer I leave it, the more I feel like it's slipping away...

[jgl]

If you already have a good base in Japanese, Persona might be okay. But they well and truly sucked for a beginner's class. The instructor was so inexperienced that she didn't even realise that people learn at different speeds- some students had taken Japanese before so were way ahead of us. She kept moving at their speed, and I had to point out that everyone else could not keep up.

I don't think this was down to the individual instructor- I spoke to a student in the other beginners class, and he also found it very frustrating for similar reasons.

[gazmario]

Thanks jgl for the tip. Given that's there's not much else available, I might just have to give Pasona a go for at least one term. But if it's learning by rote, I can't see myself enjoying it. And enjoyment is critical to learning.

[bigapple99]

I agree with jgl that if you do already have a foundation in Japanese, it may be worth giving it a try. I went there because it was recommended by a HK local who liked it and Pasona is known as one of the few institutes that have native Japanese (rather than HK) instructors teaching the Beginner classes. Now I'm not sure whether the rote learning method is also the Japanese method for teaching or if that is for the HK local market. The 3-hour class goes by quite quickly with a lot of new material offered each time so by the time the break came along, my head was already spinning and I'm normally quite good at picking up new languages.

[bigapple99]

Has anyone taken a course here? I'm considering them for the Japanese course. Are the instructors non-HK locals?

[octarine]

I took an A2 course at Pasona, the teaching was good, though it was all in Japanese. My problem was more that the class was too big, and that my classmates and I had rather differing levels. My japanese is mostly conversational, having learned in Japan, whereas my classmates were more a product of the learn-by-wrote school of language. (I'm not commenting on which is better - my vocab sucks). Also, since they're all local chinese their Kanji is streets ahead of mine, which was really a problem for me.
GEOS is more of an Eikaiwa style learning, classes sizes of 4 and 5 and more emphasis on conversation.

Right now I'm just trying to keep my level by myself through reading and listening.

[Teria]

Originally Posted by bigapple99

Has anyone taken a course here? I'm considering them for the Japanese course. Are the instructors non-HK locals?

I've taken private classes there before, it is on the pricey side and the classes are not very structured. At least for the private classes. If you intend to, make sure you have an active say in how fast or slow you want to go, and what depth of material to cover.

I stressed that I had basic grammar knowledge, but needed help in vocabulary for Business interactions. The tutor ended up trying to teach me really superficial and basic Business terms, which was really frustrating, as the tutor was just wasting valuable time pronouncing the vowels slowly like I was some deaf retard. Hope this helps.

[jacqy]

Reading Japanese tutorial and watching tutorial videos is effective too.