Japanese school in London

I am looking for a Japanese school in London as I am currently taking private Japanese lessons but my teacher is going back to Japan this April, I used to study at the Alpha school in London but I did not enjoy studying there as the teacher kept on saying there something wrong with my brain when I did not understand something first time and also she said I was stupid which I told her I am not and I did make complaint to the school about her but their did nothing about it so I left. I would like try find another Japanese school to study Japanese as private lesson are really expensive for me at the moment. If anyone know any good Japanese school in London can you please tell me them.

http://www.iiel.org.uk/english/index.html

I don't know how they are by now, but this school was (at least when I was there) quite resourceful.

Hiya, I read your post, I also went to the Alpha school in London last year, the also teacher used called me stupid but only outside the class room but I still heard her calling me stupid and she told me there something wrong with my brain once during class. When a new term started they did not tell me so there charged me for another term without asking me and they told me I started a new term once I completed one week of the new term, this is after when I told the Alpha school I did not want to carry on studying there. I left one week after this but they charge me extra for leaving early. But anyway this is web site below has list of Japanese school in London; I hope this web site helps as it helps me find a very good Japanese teacher:

http://www.jpf.org.uk/language/home/

Your Alpha school experience is shocking! sorry to hear that.

Go for the iiel one that AK recommended. You can pay for classes or choose completely free lessons (apart from initial ｣18 registration fee) taught by Japanese trainee teachers. When I was there, the standard of teaching was pretty high.
You also get the chance for language exchange with the Japanese teachers; so you might meet in a coffee shop, you help them with their English for an hour and then they help you with your Japanese for the next hour for example.

Wow, i'm a good advert for them! lol!

I studied at Alpha for 18 months and thought it was excellent; all the teachers I had were friendly and experienced and I've recommended the school to a number of people.

The post above by 'ジョンリー' - I recognise the name - is actually from a disgruntled class member who I studied with in a group of 3. He was constantly disruptive, did not pay attention at all in class and pretty much ruined the experience for other people.

After putting up with it for a while, I and the other student complained about him, and asked to be moved to another class, which Alpha did. The complaint prompted Alpha to re-test him because it was clear that he was not making progress and would not be able to move up to the next level of study. Since he had not been paying attention in class I am not surprised he failed the test.

I am certain that Alpha does not employ teachers who would go around calling students 'stupid'. I am also pretty sure that the teacher mentioned only said 'Is there something wrong with your brain?' as a casual jest in response to the student above completely ignoring a question or doing something else disruptive.

What I really don't get though, is why someone would pay about 400 pounds for a set of classes and pay no attention when they're actually there. Strange. Very glad I am not in classes with that guy anymore.

I am looking for a school to study basics Japanese as I am planning to apply for a holiday visa this year go to Japan, so really I want a good school to study Japanese basics and maybe some advice on the holiday visa.

All the posts about the Alpha school have kind of put me off going their to study, as Nick andジョンリー experience sounds terrible plus Robert Laing post has not helped as it kinds of indicates that the Alpha school were looking to get rid of ジョンリー and not try to help him but at the same time ジョンリー did not seem he wanted to stay at the Alpha school but the Alpha school presumed he wanted to stay and charged him for another term with out asking him first even he was constantly been disruptive and not paying attention during class. I think its clear that ジョンリー or Nick did not enjoy their experience at the Alpha school because of this Japanese teacher. This Japanese teacher seems to be a bit nasty and I surely hope it just the one teacher that did this if this did happen. Any way I will stop here and ask the Alpha school about this as I do not want go to a school that does not help their students.

I looked at both the Alpha and IIEL website, which I have e-mailed both with questions, included questions about the above students. I also looked at the jpf.org.uk website which has links to other websites that provides information on school in and around London. But I think at the moment I like the IIEL School as there are cheaper than the Alpha school plus if their do language exchange after class that’s a nice added bonus and the fact their give free lesson is a nice touch. But can someone else recommend any other schools apart from the Alpha and IIEL schools? Just to note I have to work 1 weekend in every 3 weeks so I would like do a course during the evenings.

I am the third of the 3 students who studied together (with ジョンリー and Robert) in the situation above. I studied at Alpha for around 5 or 6 months in 2006, starting at beginner level, ahead of moving to Tokyo.

Two short years later, and I now live in Japan - where among other thing I do a lot of public speaking... in Japanese. I was ranked number 1 in speaking and presentation in the Tokyo school I attended, and was placed 2nd in the Tokyo Shabereon Public Speaking Contest for foreign students in Japanese last year (2008). In addition, I am occasionally invited to give guest lectures at Universities about my experiences learning the Japanese language, and the best ways to approach language education as a student.

While I've put in a lot of effort to get to this point, one of the most important factors in my Japanese education has been tutoring from teachers who really brought the language to life, made the experience lively and fun, and who put their hearts into pushing me forward, and helping me realise my full potential, every step of the way.

Alpha in London was such a school, and - as the very first language school I ever set foot inside - I am very grateful for the experience. I started studying Japanese, having never seriously undertaken learning a foreign language, and as such had no idea how good I could really become, or how far I was going to be able to go with it. I saw a new unfamiliar language as a huge unfriendly mountain that would take years to properly surmount.

Alpha's teachers understood this, and from day one they held our hands as we took our first steps into the big wide world of Japanese. Lessons were adapted to our individual interests, and always put particular focus on the areas where we needed a bit more attention. Within just a few weeks, I was able to strike up a (simple!) conversation in Japanese with a Japanese girl on a bus, and maintain it without having to switch back into English at any point.

At one point I casually mentioned to a teacher that I was interested in doing some extra kanji self-study on my own time. The next time I came to class, he had photocopied about 20 pages of a kanji book for me, with recommendations as to how best to tackle them!

It was this level of true dedication and encouragement from the staff that pushed me beyond my fears and trepidation about my limits, and gave me the confidence to get out there speaking Japanese from day 1 of arriving in Japan.

Even after I moved over there, the school and my former teachers kept in touch. They would always make time to meet up with me when they were passing through Tokyo, in a social context, and give me further assessment and encouragement on my progress.

I don't want to pile-on in the ジョンリー discussion, but to be honest everything was pretty much exactly as Robert said. It's silly to say the school were trying to get rid of him - they showed nothing but patience in the face of his often abrasive attitude.

The main problem was, unless you're doing private lessons, you have to pull up your socks and keep pace with everyone, or you're ruining the experience for other people. The school clearly faced a bit of a dilemma with him, because he wasn't just making it difficult for himself, he was starting to become an obstacle to the progress of the two of us. Language education is as much about your fellow students as it is about the teachers, and the school can only give you so much leeway before it becomes counter-productive to everyone.

I don't wish any ill on the guy, and I hope he found a language school that was a better match for him - but I'd like to reiterate what Rob said, and insist that it's very unfair to chalk this particular case up as a failure of the language school. If you're not going to meet your half of the bargain, and actually put in the effort, it's not going to be a smooth experience.

I'd highly recommend Alpha to anyone who is starting their out down the road of learning Japanese. Studying there was a wonderful experience and an integral part of my journey to the success I've achieved with mastering the language today.

I would recommend the IIEL or you could try SOAS. IIEL is cheaper than Alpha and plus I have study at the IIEL were I found the teacher to be very friendly. Gemma if you are worry about the comments about Alpha than just go somewhere else to study Japanese. This post has seem to be focus onジョンリー, no one said anything about Nicks time at Alpha. The post by Robert and Tim seems to be a bit unfair on ジョンリー as its pointed to him going to Alpha just to cause problems you do not do this, you pay go to learn, in my opinion he paid £400 to learn Japanese. You do not become a disgruntled student over night something probable did upset him and maybe Alpha did not deal with the best there could at the time but it may not just been the teachers it could have been the students that upset him, you really do not know. I do agree with Tim that learning languages is a two way thing but everyone will have a different view on which is the best school to study at. Robert and Tim like the Alpha, ジョンリー and Nick did not enjoy it. £400 for 10 lessons for me was too much to pay when IIEL only charges £180 for 10 lessons and the lessons are really good.

http://www.iiel.org.uk/english/index.html

http://www.soas.ac.uk/languagecentre/languages/japanese...

I would recommend the IIEL School out the above Japanese school as the teachers are very friendly and prices are cheap £150 for 10 lessons. I do not know about SOAS, but I did try the Alpha school at the beginning of this year but only as far going to their free lesson which is not really a free lesson it’s when their test you to see what your Japanese level is. The teacher who tested (at the free lesson) me was friendly but the building was a bit noisy, this also put me off as well the prices at Alpha I.E. Registration Fee £60.00 and £340.00 for 10 lessons in my eye is too expensive.