3 Best Live Online Japanese Courses

Good location/transport connections, very good organisation, very friendly staff/teachers

13 February 2024
Course: Standard Course + Private Lessons - 2 weeks
Student age: 60 years

I am so glad that I chose this school! I felt so well looked after and welcome here. Both the teachers and the staff were fully committed to their work every day and I have never had such a great learning environment, learnt so much and had so much fun. The immersive method is used, i.e. everything is in Japanese, but if you really don't understand something, you can of course get by with English. I enjoyed being there every day, as I said I learnt an incredible amount (standard course + private lessons), made great friends and am already planning to come back. I can recommend the school 100 per cent!

8 January 2024
Course: Standard Course + Private Lessons - 12 weeks
Student age: 29 years

Genki offers the opportunity to meet loads of new people with likely very similar interests. Teachers were all fun, interesting and proactive. I really enjoyed everything about coming here.

1 November 2023
Course: Japanese Plus Conversation - 3 weeks
Student age: 23 years

I am very impressed with the dedication and passion of the teachers to be sure that the students would be as successful as possible. School administrators were equally helpful and supportive. I have the highest regards for JaLS Kyoto.

24 October 2023
Course: Standard Course + Private Lessons - 3 weeks
Student age: 67 years

Many activities are offered and organized, facilities offer space to study and relax, staff are super kind.

30 September 2023
Course: Standard Course - 6 weeks
Student age: 31 years

It was nice to be able to speak English and Japanese together with various foreigners.

19 September 2023
Course: Standard Course - 4 weeks
Student age: 54 years

School was great, small classes and the excursions were also very interesting.

13 July 2023
Course: Standard Course - 5 weeks
Student age: 37 years

It is very friendly. The building is modern. The teachers are mostly pretty good.

12 June 2023
Course: Standard Course - 2 weeks
Student age: 66 years

Very sympathetic, very good teachers with high motivational potential
very pleasant

29 May 2023
Course: Standard Course - 8 weeks
Student age: 67 years

The teachers were so nice and motivating. The size of the class is absolutely brilliant!

23 May 2023
Course: Standard Course - 7 weeks
Student age: 32 years

Very hard-working teachers and an incredibly nice headmistress. // Additional worksheets are available on request. // There is a lot of emphasis on practising speaking, so that after a while you lose your shyness and dare to ask questions in shops or restaurants. // All teachers could speak at least basic English, so that in (what I consider) the right situations, they insisted on Japanese, but the teaching staff also sometimes used brief English. // The reception is great and always approachable, and they speak really good English. That's important, because the reception also helps you with non-school-related problems such as SIM cards, tickets, translations of information, emails, websites (if you want to buy concert tickets, for example) or ( alleged) problems with your accommodation. // You were allowed to stay longer within the school's premises in order to study there. // I took part in two free bank holiday substitute activities. One was a waste of time and one was really good. I was positive about the (paid!) weekend activities, but I'm glad I didn't book them. Because some of these activities could also be done on weekdays, so I didn't "waste" weekends doing them. And I preferred to have my own schedule instead of having to follow someone else's, especially since I then had to "fight" my way through it myself and was forced to talk myself. However, especially if you're only there for 2-4 weeks, it might be nice to get things organised and not have to worry about it. // The location of the school is unbeatable. // The class size is limited to 8 people. Most of the time, the class size according to plan was between 6-8 people (minus sick leave). // The way of teaching varies a lot, for better or worse. However, I noticed positively that the teachers often made an effort to adapt the work materials to the students, e.g. setting a date for the coming weekend or including the names of the class members. // The teaching staff has a relatively un-Japanese teaching style. Compared to German teaching, it may still seem old-fashioned, but anyone who knows how teaching is done in a typical Japanese school will agree with me. So the teaching staff has clearly attuned itself to its western audience, which is very positive. // Extremely flexible start, i.e. on any Monday of any week and of any length (in contrast to other schools that, for example, only start every quarter and/or only offer >12 week courses). // There is the possibility to change between Tokyo, Kyoto and Fukuoka relatively easily. This gives you much more impressions. (However, it is not worth it if you cannot stay in one place for at least 2, rather 3 weeks => minimum stay of 4, rather 6 weeks. Reason: The period of acclimatisation to a new place is harder than many think).
My personal conclusion: Many of the positive and negative points I mentioned are simply two sides of the same coin. You have to be clear about what you want. I chose this school because of its flexible start and end times and because of its location. These points were so irrefutable for me that I would retrospectively choose everything exactly the same again today. But I would not choose this school again under different circumstances. The negative experiences with the expected equalisation of learning levels were too bad for me. The constant reshuffling of classes and the fact that I only knew the timetables for the following weeks on the Friday beforehand were also acceptable this time, but next time I would prefer to have lessons at the same times throughout (even if it would only be in the afternoon) in order to be able to bring a permanent routine into my day, and in addition always be in class with the same people and have planning security for the weeks to come. So if you only want to take lessons for a few weeks, I can definitely recommend the Genki School. There are hardly any other schools that offer such flexible weekly starts. For those who want to stay for three months or longer, I would recommend looking for another school. For me, the negative aspects of the flexible concept outweigh the positive ones.

23 May 2023
Course: Standard Japanese - 10 weeks
Student age: 33 years

I like the school very much. I would like to go back to Kyoto or another JaLS location for a week or two next year!
Very good concept

15 May 2023
Course: Standard Course - 1 week
Student age: 52 years

I was very impressed with everyone at the school. They are a class act. Staff will be checking constantly to see how you are doing and staff visiting from other JaLS schools also walked around just to introduce themselves and to see how you are doing. I have only the highest regards for all staff and all sensei. I plan to return to Kyoto JaLS later this year.
They are the best. I miss the school already.

2 May 2023
Course: Standard Course - 2 weeks
Student age: 67 years

The classes were small and the teachers were very competent.

10 April 2023
Course: Japanese Plus Culture - 4 weeks
Student age: 29 years

The teachers are enthusiastic.

27 March 2023
Course: Standard Japanese - 12 weeks
Student age: 65 years

Nice and friendly teachers. Are always open to help you.

20 March 2023
Course: Standard Japanese - 24 weeks
Student age: 24 years

The teachers are all very empathetic and very attentive to the individual student, despite the fact that it is a large class.
The teachers are wonderful, competent and interested in the individual student.

6 January 2023
Course: Japanese Language Course Short-Term - 5 weeks
Student age: 28 years

The staff, the teachers (4 out of 5 were really great) and the food.

29 February 2020
Course: Japanese Language Course Short-Term - 6 weeks
Student age: 37 years

Small flat, small classrooms without windows

21 October 2019
Course: Standard Course - 2 weeks
Student age: 54 years

Nice lounge where students, teachers, and staff can meet.

2 August 2019
Course: Standard Course - 8 weeks
Student age: 46 years