Cheap/Free Japanese classes

Hello,

Nice to meet you.
I'll be staying for 3 months in Japan for Japanese Language intensive learning. I'm still deciding with prefecture to stay.

My main concern is price. I googled and there seems to be free classes in Kagoshima, Kyushu (link below)

http://atlas1998.web.fc2.com/japanese/class.html

Anyone have reviews on it? How is it? The only issue is that it is once per week. I dont mind paying if they have daily classes, but how much is it?

Also, i found another one in Osaka.
http://www.kkc.cc/eng/index.html

This is a good deal with group lessons, monday-friday, at 30,000YEN/Month. Anyone have reviews on it? How is it?

What do you guys think about it? Any other recommendations?

Thanks in advance! :)

They both look like community center or volunteer school for local residents. The one in Kagoshima is once a week, one hour and a half at a time, so not useful for intensive study. Normal language schools provide full-time courses, meaning three to four hours a day, five times a week. Otherwise you won't learn much in three months. Please consider carefully.

Thank you for your feedback!

The one in Osaka, http://www.kkc.cc/eng/index.html
seems to be full japanese language course. Monday to Friday (38,000/month), is this one okay?
Prices they are offering is HALF of those from other schools, so i'm asking if there's review on this school?

Or any other suggestions?

Thanks so much!

that might be the similar one or a derivative from 大阪外語学院.
http://www.osaka-gaigo.jp/index.htm

the problem I should point out is that they use the name 国際交流センター大阪.
this name was taken (imitated) from 大阪国際交流センター, which is established by OSAKA city authority.
the founder is expecting that applicants may misunderstand that the 国際交流センター大阪 has a connection to 大阪国際交流センター.

generally speaking, any companies or any institutions, which use similar name for expecting the misunderstanding, are not good.

First of all, you can find free Japanese lessons everywhere in Japan. They're non-profit and the teachers are usually housewives or retired people. They may or may not have gone through enough training to teach, but they teach out of goodwill so that foreign residents with little money can make their lives better in Japan. This will eventually lead to a better society for all of us.

About the one in Osaka (http://www.kkc.cc/eng/index.html), it says on the Japanese language page that the head person currently works for the prefecture's foreign information corner. From her experience there, she felt the need to provide language lessons for more people.

It seems that they use qualified teachers, which is probably the reason for the fee. Another reason may be that students tend to study harder when they are paying. Also, I think it depends on the municipal, but there usually is a limit to how much one can charge to call themselves non-profit, and if you're non-profit you are allowed to do a lot of things such as to use public facilities for the purpose. So perhaps that is why their fee is cheaper than others'.

So long story short, I sense that the Osaka class is leaned more toward goodwill and perhaps less toward technique. If so, the quality may depend on the teacher. But I could be wrong.

I recommend that you pay to go to an accredited school - goodwill or volunteer schools/classes have their limits, in my opinion. You get what you paid for, is my general view. And if you are coming just for three months, you'd want to absorb as much as possible.

"Accredited" schools are approved by the authorities to issue long-term student visas to students who want to study for a year or two, which many students do if they want to study the language to a level where they can be admitted to a university in Japan. So this means they will need to maintain certain level of quality in the education they provide. "Goodwill" schools would lack that practical motivation.

This association provides a comprehensive list of accredited schools:

http://www.nisshinkyo.org/english/index.html

Of course there are non-accredited schools that might have their own specialty, such as catering to business people (specific topics, evening courses, etc.), but if you have not received any structured lessons using a set of textbooks, I recommend you attend an accredited school.

If you're going through the expense of coming to and living in Japan for 3 months specifically to get better at Japanese, you might as well spend the bit extra and attend a legitimate language school.

However, if you're mainly coming to experience life in Japan and just want to study a bit on the side, it seems that most every city has some free language classes organized by the local government and staffed by volunteers. So long as you're in town while they're in session, you can pretty much pick a place you want to be first and then look into their language classes on offer.

thank you all for the kind feedback!

Hello guys,

what do you think about COTO ACADEMY?
http://cotoacademy.com/course/nihongo-plus-japanese-conversation/

They have this course 16lesson/month @ 28,800YEN
Which makes 3 months @ only 86,400YEN.
Its almost cheaper than other typical courses by HALF.

Any reviews? Any advice?

thanks!!

16 lessons for 28,800 yen for a month, but that's only 4 lessons per week, meaning you only get 4 X 110 minutes, less than 8 hours of lessons per week!

If you are coming for 3 months to study Japanese "intensively," please do consider enrolling in a full-time course.. the same school has "intensive" course, and they do 9:30 - 12:20 each weekday, so 3 hours X 5 days per week, at 25,000 yen per week. This is the kind of course you want if you are coming only for 3 months.