We finally got around to updating our teacher introductions page to reflect some of the new teachers who have been hired recently. Not all new teachers have been added yet, though, so we'll keep updating the page whenever we have time!
We also sadly said goodbye to a few teachers whose contracts expired at the end of summer, including Takako-sensei, who is off to work with JICA (the Japan International Cooperation Agency, similar to the US Peace Corps), teaching Japanese language and culture in Bulgaria!
If you have a message for any of the teachers who left, feel free to mail it to us, and we'll pass it along!
We also sadly said goodbye to a few teachers whose contracts expired at the end of summer, including Takako-sensei, who is off to work with JICA (the Japan International Cooperation Agency, similar to the US Peace Corps), teaching Japanese language and culture in Bulgaria!
If you have a message for any of the teachers who left, feel free to mail it to us, and we'll pass it along!
GenkiJACS was recently approved as a recognized school for the German bildungsurlaub, or educational leave program. Qualifying German nationals can now receive 10 days of state-sponsored study leave with us.
We have been approved for the following states: Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein
The Bildungsurlaub program allows employees to apply for up to 10 extra days of educational leave to study a foreign language abroad.
There is a little more info on our site here. For more information, contact us!
We have been approved for the following states: Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein
The Bildungsurlaub program allows employees to apply for up to 10 extra days of educational leave to study a foreign language abroad.
There is a little more info on our site here. For more information, contact us!
02/10: No more Western Union!
We received a letter recently informing us that the only official Western Union agent in Japan, Suruga Bank, is ceasing to handle Western Union money transfers. This means that students cannot use Western Union to pay school fees anymore.
Their official release (in Japanese) is here. The only thing approaching a reason given is that their partnership with Western Union has expired, and will not be renewed.
The other options previously available for GenkiJACS students to pay are of course still available: International or domestic bank transfer, international postal money order, credit card, Paypal and Moneybookers.
Their official release (in Japanese) is here. The only thing approaching a reason given is that their partnership with Western Union has expired, and will not be renewed.
The other options previously available for GenkiJACS students to pay are of course still available: International or domestic bank transfer, international postal money order, credit card, Paypal and Moneybookers.
The Japan Times reports that London magazine Monocle named Fukuoka as the best city in the world for shopping! Reasons include the compactness of the central shopping district, the big selection of brand names, and the closeness to Asia.
Fukuoka was also chosen as the city with the 17th highest quality of life in the world – and only the second city in Japan, after Tokyo! Cities were ranked on a variety of factors, including friendliness, safeness, cleanliness, transport and more. Fukuoka is on this list for the first time, perhaps showing how much its profile has grown in recent years. As if you needed another reason to come here!
The original article is for Monocle subscribers only, unfortunately, but if you happen to be one of those, click here to read Fukuoka’s entry!
Alternatively, the article seems to be available as a PDF here, although perhaps not for long...
A couple of choice quotes:
“Friendly, cosmopolitan Fukuoka is tiny in comparison to Tokyo, but it beats the Japanese capital hands down with its cuisine and shopping.”
“these days it’s all about Fukuoka”
It's nice to hear that everyone else is finally catching up with what we knew years ago!
Fukuoka was also chosen as the city with the 17th highest quality of life in the world – and only the second city in Japan, after Tokyo! Cities were ranked on a variety of factors, including friendliness, safeness, cleanliness, transport and more. Fukuoka is on this list for the first time, perhaps showing how much its profile has grown in recent years. As if you needed another reason to come here!
The original article is for Monocle subscribers only, unfortunately, but if you happen to be one of those, click here to read Fukuoka’s entry!
Alternatively, the article seems to be available as a PDF here, although perhaps not for long...
A couple of choice quotes:
“Friendly, cosmopolitan Fukuoka is tiny in comparison to Tokyo, but it beats the Japanese capital hands down with its cuisine and shopping.”
“these days it’s all about Fukuoka”
It's nice to hear that everyone else is finally catching up with what we knew years ago!
The busy summer season means that this blog doesn't get updated nearly as often as we would like, but much has changed in the last month or so that we would like tell you about. For today, though, we wanted to mention one recent thing that we are very proud of.
We receive students from several agencies, including Languagecourse.net, which is based in Barcelona. They ask returning students to provide feedback on the school they studied at. Throughout the last year, GenkiJACS received an average customer satisfaction rating of 4.7 out of 5!
In Languagecourse.net’s own words:
"Only the very best schools receive the Excellence Award ... to certify that superior customer satisfaction has been acknowledged by LanguageCourse.Net. The feedback of your clients showed that your school did excellent work in providing satisfied customers throughout the last year. Overall rating: 4.7 (out of 5.0)"
Here's the actual document:
We receive students from several agencies, including Languagecourse.net, which is based in Barcelona. They ask returning students to provide feedback on the school they studied at. Throughout the last year, GenkiJACS received an average customer satisfaction rating of 4.7 out of 5!
In Languagecourse.net’s own words:
"Only the very best schools receive the Excellence Award ... to certify that superior customer satisfaction has been acknowledged by LanguageCourse.Net. The feedback of your clients showed that your school did excellent work in providing satisfied customers throughout the last year. Overall rating: 4.7 (out of 5.0)"
Here's the actual document:
21/05: New website chat feature!
If you visit our main site, you may notice a little black bar in the bottom-left-hand corner. This is a chat box, and if it says "Click to talk to GenkiJACS rep!", you're just one click away from us! We can't promise to be online 24 hours a day, but when we are, we're happy to answer your questions straight away. And you're almost completely anonymous - no login is required, and the only identifying information sent to us is your IP address.
The service is provided by Hab.la, and is theoretically platform-independent. However, if you have any problems using it, please do drop us a line!
Unfortunately, at first only sales and marketing reps will be available to talk to you - no Japanese teachers on hand to answer your grammar questions instantaneously just yet, I'm afraid...
In our never-ending quest to improve our students' Japanese, we've linked up with Japan Online School (J-OS), a Japanese school offering webcam lessons over the Internet, to offer a special discount to GenkiJACS students who sign up with them.
First, the problem:
Many students tell us that they don’t have a chance to practice their Japanese after returning to their home countries. Without practice, you WILL forget what you studied, but if there is no Japanese community in your home area, keeping up your conversation practice can be very difficult.
This is where an online school like J-OS can come in very useful. Trained teachers and private lessons ensure that you don’t forget the Japanese you learned at GenkiJACS!
After considering all of the major online schools, we chose J-OS because of the good structure of their lessons, the quality of their teachers, and the simplicity of their system.
Now, the package:
Standard private lessons are roughly 1,900 yen for 50 minutes. However, GenkiJACS and J-OS have teamed up to offer a special deal for graduating GenkiJACS students:
1) Free trial lesson (normally 980-1280 yen)
2) 1 extra lesson free when you first buy lessons (so, for example, 5 lessons for the price of 4)
There is no extra cost to students for this - GenkiJACS pays for your trial lesson by cutting costs elsewhere. We took this step because we don't want students forgetting the Japanese they spent time and money learning, and the only way to keep it up is regular practice!
This deal is only open to graduating GenkiJACS students. If you are a GenkiJACS student who graduated between January 1st, 2008 and now, you are also eligible. Contact us for details!
12/02: Student Safety Policies
In general, Japan is a very safe country. However, it’s still important to use common sense and take safety measures, especially for female students traveling alone. Recently, a GenkiJACS student was touched inappropriately while walking home alone in the evening. As a result, we have brought in a few new policies:
- All female students are provided with a free personal alarm, that emits a loud noise when its button is pressed. Students are asked to carry this at all times.
- The cost of cellphone rentals has been cut from 1000 yen per week to 500 yen per week. This is to make it easier for all students to rent a cellphone, so that they have an emergency contact method.
- Host families are being instructed on ways to keep their students safe, such as picking them up from the station in the evening, and teaching them the best roads to walk.
- We talk to students at orientation on the first day, to provide some tips on staying safe in Japan.
Hopefully these will help to make sure Japan's crime rate continues to be among the lowest in the world!
- All female students are provided with a free personal alarm, that emits a loud noise when its button is pressed. Students are asked to carry this at all times.
- The cost of cellphone rentals has been cut from 1000 yen per week to 500 yen per week. This is to make it easier for all students to rent a cellphone, so that they have an emergency contact method.
- Host families are being instructed on ways to keep their students safe, such as picking them up from the station in the evening, and teaching them the best roads to walk.
- We talk to students at orientation on the first day, to provide some tips on staying safe in Japan.
Hopefully these will help to make sure Japan's crime rate continues to be among the lowest in the world!
03/02: Spanish language website!
Today we added a few pages about the Japanese school in Spanish, to make it a little easier for Spanish-speakers to find information about study with us. Former student Paula, thank you so much for the help!
Access them here!
Access them here!
There are some big changes planned for GenkiJACS Japanese language courses in the coming months, but the first step has been put into operation. Effective immediately, our Japanese for Exams course has been demoted from a full course down to a weekly option, that is taken in addition to another standard course. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough students year-round to justify keeping it as a full course.
The Japanese for Exams course is now available each year only between October and November, i.e. the two months before the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
The new Exam Skills option is offered year-round, as follows:
Every week, your teacher gives you homework, including past papers from the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). Each Friday, you meet with the teacher for an hour to discuss any problems with the homework, and how to improve your weak points. The teacher acts as a “tutor”, guiding your studies. Classes are available corresponding to JLPT levels 2, 3 and 4.
Course Outline
Friday (for new students, Monday): Receive that week’s homework
Wednesday: Receive the homework answer paper
Thursday: Hand in your corrected homework, for your teacher to evaluate
Friday (around 3pm): Exam Skills class!
Cost
2,100 yen per week
You can sign up when applying to the school, or after arrival by talking to our office staff. The new option will give you a lot of practice in the skills you need to pass Japanese exams, while complementing your studies in other classes. It’s obviously recommended for anyone thinking of taking the JLPT or other exams. However, we also recommend it for any students who want to increase the amount of kanji and vocabulary they study each week.
The Japanese for Exams course is now available each year only between October and November, i.e. the two months before the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
The new Exam Skills option is offered year-round, as follows:
Every week, your teacher gives you homework, including past papers from the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). Each Friday, you meet with the teacher for an hour to discuss any problems with the homework, and how to improve your weak points. The teacher acts as a “tutor”, guiding your studies. Classes are available corresponding to JLPT levels 2, 3 and 4.
Course Outline
Friday (for new students, Monday): Receive that week’s homework
Wednesday: Receive the homework answer paper
Thursday: Hand in your corrected homework, for your teacher to evaluate
Friday (around 3pm): Exam Skills class!
Cost
2,100 yen per week
You can sign up when applying to the school, or after arrival by talking to our office staff. The new option will give you a lot of practice in the skills you need to pass Japanese exams, while complementing your studies in other classes. It’s obviously recommended for anyone thinking of taking the JLPT or other exams. However, we also recommend it for any students who want to increase the amount of kanji and vocabulary they study each week.
