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Back to Genki Japanese and Culture School, Kyoto

Reviews of Genki Japanese and Culture School, Kyoto, Japan

Total number of reviews: 9
NOTE: All reviews are authentic. Only students who booked their course through us can publish evaluations here, and only after the end of their programme. These evaluations then are not manipulated in any way, neither by us nor by the school, and can be trusted as honest opinions about personal experiences with the school.

Average Rating

Based on 9 reviews of former students of Genki Japanese and Culture School
Overall rating
Genki Japanese and Culture School, Kyoto, Japan

Rating: 4.4

4.4 
City

Rating: 4.7

4.7 
Organisation

Rating: 4.3

4.3 
Facilities

Rating: 3.4

3.4 
Social activities

Rating: 3.6

3.6 
Quality of teaching

Rating: 4.1

4.1 
Value for money

Rating: 3.9

3.9 
Accommodation
Homestay

Rating: 4.7

4.7 
Shared Flat (apartment)

Rating: 4.0

4.0 
Other ---

Individual Reviews

Genki Japanese and Culture School
1. Nov. 2023
1.  (23 years)  Canada
101.Course: Japanese Plus Conversation [Japanese] - 3 weeks

Overall rating

Rating: 5/5.0

Value for money

Rating: 4/5.0

Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 5/5.0

School organization

Rating: 5/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 4/5.0

Social activities

Rating: 5/5.0

Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 4/5.0

Accommodation
Homestay

Rating: 5/5.0

Additional information
Positive aspects of school
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.
Negative aspects
The only mild disagreement I've had is that I feel like it's moving a little too slow at times? I am aware that classes follow the textbooks structure but I would have liked being introduced to some concepts a little quicker especially if everyone seems to grasp them quickly.
Insider tips about what future students should not miss
Use class time to chat in Japanese! Use your skills with your friends and colleagues, it helps so much.
23. May. 2023
2.  (33 years)  
102.Course: Standard Japanese [Japanisch] - 10 weeks12 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). ">

Overall rating

Rating: 3/5.0

Value for money

Rating: 3/5.0

Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 5/5.0

School organization

Rating: 3/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 2/5.0

Social activities

Rating: 3/5.0

Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 3/5.0

Accommodation
Shared residence

Rating: 3/5.0

Additional information
Positive aspects of school
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).
Negative aspects
I'll start with the absolute worst point: groups were merged at different levels. In concrete terms, people started on the same day in different levels and consequently in different classes. Every first Monday of the month an A0 group starts, so with prior knowledge you join a group that started at A0 2, 3 or x weeks ago. So far, so good. But it turned out that people who had started at 1-3 weeks more advanced level suddenly ended up in my class. Explanation: While in my course the Ta, Te and dictionary form were run through in pretty much exactly 4 days, more advanced courses sat on the Te form alone for 2 weeks. So they artificially slowed down their time while I started crying because we were being rushed through. We were "kindly" allowed to take photos of the slides and I then studied them one by one with the book and my pitiful notes. It was always "Kakimasen, kakimasen - don't write, don't write". We were practically not allowed to take notes on such days, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get through the material. On the worst of those days, I spent 4 hours doing extra work. Why all this? Was it to keep the class size of the advanced classes at 1x 6 persons instead of 3x 2 persons per class? This chasing through even led to strong differences in practical ability, although theoretically we were on the same book lesson. I found it particularly irritating that I was then offered the opportunity to do additional exercises to practise. This extended my practice time by another 1-2 hours, so I stopped again, because then I would not have been able to do anything at all in Kyoto. // Although it was allowed to stay longer at the school (or to come earlier), there was actually not enough space. The lobby is an entrance room, break room and homework room all in one, so it is never quiet there (people come and go even during class time) and you were constantly approached by people. And it was incredibly loud before and after lessons. If a classroom was not occupied, I could also sit down in such a room, but that was not always the case. There was a lack of clearly defined learning areas and quite simply: space. // We only received the Minna no Nihongo exercise book after 4 weeks. In my opinion, it should have been handed out from the beginning. // The teaching materials are incredibly old. Since Minna no Nihongo is a standard work (last update: 2012), this is not the school's fault per se (and as mentioned in the positive points, many teachers have made an effort to make the lessons more modern). Nevertheless, I was reminded several times of my early school days, because one was so often confronted with poorly readable photocopied teaching sheets (from the early 2000s), including outdated words and ugly black-and-white graphics. // A lot of English and German outside of class, because exclusively Western students. // Despite the fact that the teaching style is already aimed at Western students, it remains a Japanese teaching style: lots of parroting and worksheets non-stop. I would have preferred to get a binder instead of a notebook, because it turned into a terrible paper jungle (my tip: write the date and sheet number on all the sheets. Otherwise, with 4 to 8 sheets PER DAY, you quickly lose track). Genki certainly doesn't do any worse than other Japanese schools. The Japanese are just behind internationally. Nevertheless, it is a negative point that you have to be prepared for. // No long-term planning possibilities because you only get the timetable on Fridays. As a result, the classes are regularly mixed up, which means that you cannot form close friendships. At this point, it should be mentioned that it was not at all clear who was in which class and why, or why others had classes in the morning for three weeks in a row, but you had to constantly jump between lunch and afternoon classes. When asked, I was told once (quote) "There are plenty of reasons" and once "It is a coincidence". I didn't like this lack of transparency.
Insider tips about what future students should not miss
The school hours tend to start in the morning at the beginning of the stay (I have observed this many times with others), then there are 1-3 "mixed" weeks and then practically only afternoon classes. I can only recommend to everyone to use the afternoons for activities right from the start, because these afternoons quickly become rare. And in the mornings you simply can't do that much, because almost everything only opens at 10 am (temples/shrines sometimes already open between 6 and 9 am). So on weekdays, do everything Kyoto has to offer. And at the weekends, you can take trips to other cities.
Other comments
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.
City/place
Kyoto is the ideal city to get an impression of Japan. In addition to sightseeing within Kyoto, you can take countless excursions into the surrounding area from there, as Kyoto is well connected: Omihachiman, Kobe, Osaka, Nara, Nagahama, Lake Biwa, Uji, Himeji Castle to Amanohashidate in the west or Wakayama in the east of Japan, can all be reached for day and weekend trips. My personal tip: buy or rent a bicycle and cover most of the distances. Although the bus connections are incredibly good (and there's also the underground), you get to know a city in a different way by bike. And cycling along the Kamogawa, surrounded by the mountains in the early morning or at sunset... Priceless.
Quality of teaching / language progress
I would point out that you should definitely come to Japan with very good hiragana and at least a basic knowledge of katakana, whether at Genki or another school. I have seen people take six weeks to learn to read hiragana fluently. That's six weeks in which they made virtually no other progress because they lacked reading skills. Do yourself a favour and learn to read hiragana fluently before you go on a language course. Everything else is a waste of money and time. // I wanted to have private lessons, but they were not available at the time - I am now quite happy. Two other participants had private lessons and both told me that they had hoped to get more out of them. Maybe it is more worthwhile if you are already at a very good A2 or even B1 level.
Accommodation
My accommodation shocked me when I arrived. According to someone who moved there of its own accord, this accommodation was the cheapest shared house in Kyoto after comparing it with other options. Over time, I realised that many houses - even those inhabited by Japanese families - look so bad. Japan just doesn't have a sustainable building policy. On the positive side, the house provider "J-Stay" spoke English, always reacted very quickly to emails and defects were quickly repaired (blocked drain, fallen-off kitchen cupboard handles, defective lamps, etc. were usually repaired within 48 hours). My tip: Complain about everything, but really everything. Because only then will something change. For example, I slept on a sagging mattress - my flatmate complained and got a new one (that was already too late for me). Cleanliness depends on the flatmates, but you should be aware that your accommodation will be more like a freshman flat than a luxury flat. You should also bring earplugs and a hot water bottle. You can still buy the former in Japan. The latter you can't. For reasons I don't understand, you can't buy hot water bottles in Japan (at least not in drugstores, household goods shops or supermarkets). The windows are single-glazed and it can get very cold between about October and April. Even the Eakon (the heating or air conditioner) doesn't help, because it only heats your own room. The kitchen, corridor and bathroom were still freezing cold. It was really great to be able to live according to my own rules, which many host families could not do. That's why my conclusion is as follows: I would definitely live in a shared house again. The immersion effect in host families is low, especially if you know A0/A1 Japanese, especially since many families can speak halfway decent English in the end and you therefore speak in English. Besides, I never eat breakfast, so it would have been a waste of money for me to pay for it. And I wanted to savour the culinary diversity of Japan, so many dinners would have been paid for by me for nothing. Moreover, you have to submit to their rules. I heard from some people of legal age (!) that they didn't get a key to the house and therefore had to be home by 10 pm, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get in. You don't know such things beforehand. All these things would make me want to go to a shared house again. Especially since I met great people there, some of whom I could speak Japanese with (mostly it was English). I got lots of helpful tips and as different as the people were, they were also lovely. If you stay for 4 weeks or more, it is also worth cooking for yourself (things like some spices and sauces are often still there from previous residents and are therefore available for free). I always found it great to walk through the supermarket and try out all the crazy things I found there. Next time, however, I would look for accommodation on my own and prefer to pay 2 euros more per day and have a slightly higher standard.
10. Apr. 2023
3.  (29 years)  
103.Course: Japanese Plus Culture - 4 weeks

Overall rating

Rating: 5/5.0

Value for money

Rating: 4/5.0

Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 5/5.0

School organization

Rating: 5/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 4/5.0

Social activities

Rating: 1/5.0

Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 5/5.0

Accommodation
Homestay

Rating: 5/5.0

Additional information
Positive aspects of school
The classes were small and the teachers were very competent.
Negative aspects
There were no afternoon or weekend activities organiesed by the school. And the public area could easily get overcrowded.
27. Mar. 2023
4.  (65 years)  
104.Course: Standard Japanese - 12 weeks

Overall rating

Rating: 2/5.0

Value for money

Rating: 2/5.0

Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 5/5.0

School organization

Rating: 2/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 1/5.0

Social activities

Rating: 1/5.0

Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 2/5.0

Accommodation
Homestay

Rating: 5/5.0

Additional information
Positive aspects of school
The teachers are enthusiastic.
Negative aspects
Classrooms with little space, suffocating. Many changes of students, teachers. Outdated teaching.
Accommodation
Very good relationship with the lady of the house. The house and the surroundings are very nice.
20. Mar. 2023
5.  (24 years)  
105.Course: Standard Japanese - 24 weeks

Overall rating

Rating: 5/5.0

Value for money

Rating: 5/5.0

Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 5/5.0

School organization

Rating: 5/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 4/5.0

Social activities

Rating: 5/5.0

Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 5/5.0

Accommodation
Shared residence

Rating: 3/5.0

Additional information
Positive aspects of school
Nice and friendly teachers. Are always open to help you.
19. Sep. 2022
6. Halvor (22 years)  Norway
106.Course: Standard Japanese - 2 weeks

Overall rating

Rating: 5/5.0

Value for money

Rating: 4/5.0

Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 5/5.0

School organization

Rating: 5/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 4/5.0

Social activities
---
Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 5/5.0

Accommodation
Shared residence

Rating: 5/5.0

13. Apr. 2020
7. Julia (30 years)  
107.Course: Standard Japanese [Japanisch] - 12 weeks

Overall rating

Rating: 5/5.0

Value for money

Rating: 4/5.0

Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 5/5.0

School organization

Rating: 4/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 3/5.0

Social activities

Rating: 5/5.0

Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 4/5.0

Accommodation
Homestay

Rating: 4/5.0

Additional information
Other comments
They offer a great cultural program. Here you get the opportunity to go on excursions and get to know special cultural things that you might not otherwise get.
City/place
If you want to get to know traditional Japan more. Is Kyoto perfect. You can also reach other places like Osaka, Biwa Lake, ... quickly.
Accommodation
My host family was very friendly and helpful. They showed me the way to school. They were attentive and went on excursions with me. I was also able to fulfill my wish to learn about the tea ceremony. I took a few lessons with my host mother. I was very pleased.
28. Aug. 2019
8. Ida (64 years)  Netherlands
108.Course: Standard Japanese [Japanese] - 1 week

Overall rating
---
Value for money
---
Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 2/5.0

School organization

Rating: 5/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 4/5.0

Social activities

Rating: 4/5.0

Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 4/5.0

15. Aug. 2019
9. Benedikt (24 years)  Germany
109.Course: Standard Japanese - 4 weeks

Overall rating

Rating: 5/5.0

Value for money

Rating: 5/5.0

Detailed review
City/place

Rating: 5/5.0

School organization

Rating: 5/5.0

Facilities (library, classrooms)

Rating: 5/5.0

Social activities

Rating: 5/5.0

Quality of teaching / language progress

Rating: 5/5.0

Accommodation
Shared residence

Rating: 5/5.0


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