top of page
Students Feedback
Julien(Poland)
“Comprehensible, yet still challenging way of learning“
Kevin (Australia) 
“Achieve comprehensive results with balanced learning“
Prasanth (India)
“Learning Japanese that you can confidently use in real life right away“
Lars (Sweden) 
"From Intermediate / Advanced Japanese to high level Business Japanese"
Laura(Germany)
"Learning business Japanese and culture in a short time"
Maria (Spain)
"I switched from goals focused on passing exams to goals focused on conversation"
Chen Xi (China)
"My comprehension was dramatically improved by strengthening my vocabulary"
Charlotte (England)
"My skills improved when I switched from self-taught to personal lessons"
Julien (Poland)
“Comprehensible, yet still challenging way of learning“
Julien
I took up Japanese language classes, as I think that learning Japanese is the very first step to becoming an integral member of the society, which is my goal. Apart from that, I would like to be able to explore rural parts of Japan, where English is very often not sufficient to communicate. Therefore, my current focus is on developing conversation skills.
I was very fortunate to start classes with Sachi-san, who did a great job in recognizing my personal language learning preferences, and who from the very beginning emphasized personalized approach to language teaching. Sachi-san correctly identified me as a person who likes understanding principles behind the language. As a result, my typical class usually involves learning new grammar, which is set in context by practicing conversation. This approach works very well.
In addition, Sachi-san always makes sure to check if what we are learning meets my expectations , and works together with me to identify the next study goal. She always puts a lot of effort to prepare for the class. I feel like the right level of difficulty during the classes with Tomoko-san makes learning Japanese comprehensible, yet still challenging. Last but not least the classes are simply fun!
Kevin (Australia) 
“Comprehensible, yet still challenging way of learning“
Kevin
This is my second time living in Japan and although I have previously studied Japanese both at home and at a language school I still didn’t have the confidence to talk. I considered joining a language school again but decided the best way to start talking would be to get one on one lessons.
I started searching for Japanese teachers and was lucky enough to find Sachi’s profile on Hello Talk so organized a trial lesson.
At the trial lesson Sachi explained her teaching credentials and we discussed my goals. I instantly felt that Sachi was someone that is very experienced and is interested in seeing her students succeed, so decided to continue taking lessons.
Our lessons now are a good mixture of new grammar, speaking practice and some fun conversations using Japanese that matches my level. Overall I’m very happy with my lessons, I have an opportunity to start using what I learn straight away and can get easy to understand answers to any questions I have.
My main goal for now is to get to a level that I can have good conversations with anyone I meet in Japan and I’m more than certain that Tomoko can help me reach that level.
Prasanth (India) 
“Learning Japanese that you can confidently use in real life right away“
Prasanth

Working in a multinational company and in a multicultural environment the medium of communication is English and there is no pressing need to speak in Japanese or improve my Japanese skills as far as work environment is concerned. However living in Japan nearly about 10 years I was very much embarrassed about my poor Japanese skill. It’s not that I haven’t tried to learn Japanese, I have tried group studies, self study etc. leaned base meaning and stroakorder of about 2000 Kanjies following J.W.Heisig’s method. However none of these helped me to grow to a level where I could confidently interact in Japanese. Maybe I was following incorrect methods when it come to improving conversational skills, properly the focus was not good enough, the interactions were inadequate or perhaps the necessity factor was relatively low. Finally I came to the realization that may be for me (a person who doesn’t have necessity to interact in Japanese in day-today life, doesn’t have too many Japanese friends or the social interactions with Japanese people are not high) a method in which a direct conversational interaction is highly important and this is the point I started searching for Japanese teachers who can give interactive lessons.
I requested my friends and colleagues to suggest teachers from their known circle. I also tried to consult professional Japanese teaching centers however quickly realized that there is no very much room for customizing the lesson plans based on my skill level and requirements.
It was few months ago one of my ex-college shared me Sachi Sans contact number. In our first meeting itself I had very positive feeling. She was very much focused on trying to understand my requirement, skill level and was very open to discuss and customize lesson plans. She was also very flexible in terms of study tools as well. Being a computer architect one of my requirements was to use digital medium and tools for leaning and preferred to reduce the usage of hard copies. Sachi San was so quick in searching and figuring out those digital tools that she would use to aid the lessons. I was surprised that in quick time she bought an iPad and all tools she needed and suggested me to use those tools.
One of the amazing quality I observed in Sachi San was the ability to drive you through right path. When I started, I wanted to fly fast and set my goal as completing N3 in 6 months. Sachi San realized it quickly that I am not equipped with the skills needed to be ready for N3. Instead of saying it on the face, she tactfully gave me some sample questions and made me realize that it is too big of a target for me at that stage.
The best part in Sachi Sans teaching style is she is so calm and flexible yet strict and focused. You will get lot of opportunities to have detailed conversation, discuss your requirements and align the study plans based on it. 

As far as I am concerned, before attending Sachi Sans lessons I had very little confidence to converse in Japanese even though I was able to understand the gist of basic conversations in Japanese. With the help of Sachi San I could quickly gain confidence and start interacting with people in Japanese. The more I started interacting it helped go give a rapid progression to my learning. To give you an example, after joining Sachi Sans lessons, I managed to talk with real estate agents in Japanese (although my language skill is yet not that great) and bought a land in Tokyo. You can imagine the requirement to interact in Japanese especially when dealing with these kinds of matters.  I am extremely happy that I was able to manage those conversations myself. Now I am progressing in the discussions with construction companies to build a house in fact. I am taking this example not to say I made a rapid progress instead I would like to highlight the confidence level I gained in quick time. 
Overall I am a very satisfied student of Sachi San. 

 

Lars (Sweden)
"From Intermediate / Advanced Japanese to high level Business Japanese"
Lars

As I have learnt Japanese in a bit fragmented way, from my work and daily life, I want to build a bit deeper understanding of grammar, in speaking and writing, as well as enrich my vocabulary. 

My main motivation is to improve my language skills, so that I can more natural interact with clients in my work. However, I also believe it’s important for my daily life, and to experience an overall better quality of life in Japan. 

Sachi-san has been very accommodating, listening to how I want to study and advised me along the way what kind of things may be important to focus on. Many times, it has been helpful to work on a piece of text, that I would then discuss with her during our lesson. Sometimes, we would deep dive a bit more into grammar, and look at examples how that would be used in practice. I have also worked on material from my work, which has helped me shape a vocabulary that is very practically applicable.

I think Sachi-san is very attentive as a teacher, able to understand the needs of each individual student. I think she is very good, in particular for intermediate students like myself, as she can provide good context and explanations that helps understand not just how things translate to English, but how the language is used in context. Recently, we have also explored tools like Quizlet (vocabulary) and shared documents (writing) that enable me to make some progress between lessons.  

I believe that I have become more confident expressing myself in my work, and enriched my vocabulary quite a bit. I still have a lot to learn, but the lessons with Sachi-san has also helped me find more effective ways to study, which gradually helps me improve. 

For the future, I believe I need to work on reading more to build my vocabulary further, but I also try to find opportunities to practice presentations and blog article writing.

Laura (Germany) 
 "Learning business Japanese and culture in a short time"
Laura
My husband is Japanese, so by talking with his family and my mom friends I was able to speak daily Japanese fairly well. But when I wanted to go back to work, I was concerned if I would be able to speak business Japanese well enough, or if I would accidentally be rude. When I first met Sachi, I explained to her my concerns and she said "Don't worry, before you go back to work, we will do our best to thoroughly practice all the business expression that you will need" so I felt very much reassured. Sachi found a textbook that suited my needs and we practiced by role playing common business situations. It was very helpful that she explained the detailed nuances of vocabulary and expressions used by Japanese people.
I sent her a speech I had prepared for the first day of work, she helped me to clean it up and make it sound clear and professional and then we practiced it together. When the day came, I was able to deliver it with confidence.
I had many in-depth discussions with Sachi about Japanese thinking and behavior. 
Especially regarding difficulties I had on how to behave in the society of my mom friends. It seems they often obscure their true opinions, and because there is no culture to express oneself, I also repressed my feelings, and often felt like I couldn't be myself. More than just teaching Japanese, she smiled and listened to my stories and gave me some casual advice which really helped me to detox.
Maria (Spain) 
"I switched from goals focused on passing exams to goals focused on conversation"
Maria
I came to Japan two years ago. Since then I learned basic grammar and vocabulary from my university classes in Japan, and I was able to communicate in simple Japanese, but I couldn't keep up with the quick, natural conversation of Japanese people. I felt embarrassed and sometimes depressed, just silently listening. That's when I met Sachi. In order to improve my language skills, I thought that "I first need to pass the JLPT and gain confidence," so I asked Sachi to start by reviewing grammar together.
But I still couldn't keep up with the quick, natural conversation of Japanese people, so with Sachi's help I came up with a new strategy. Sachi said to me: "Your listening skills are actually very good." As Sachi mentioned, I noticed that I couldn't participate in conversations using my own words, although I generally understood what people were talking about. Sachi changed our approach so that the "lessons shifted to output, that is, to speaking, using more and more of the grammar already learned".
I noticed that using in my daily life the grammar that I had learned was more important than passing a test. After that we started having more conversation. We exchanged opinions on weekend events, stories on daily life, talked about cultural differences and men from various countries (lol), I was able to talk with Sachi about anything, and when she asked for my opinions, I did my best using the vocabulary I knew, or sometimes I drew a picture or even used English words to express myself. I began to realize that I could do this. My embarrassment in speaking Japanese to Japanese people disappeared as I gradually grew more confident.
I think at that time it was good not to focus solely on JLPT. I again realized that mastering a language means "communicating."
In the future, I want to improve my language skills by real-life communication rather than focusing entirely on textbook studies.
Chen xi (China) 
"My comprehension was dramatically improved by strengthening my vocabulary"
Chen xi
I came to Japan when I was a high school student. That's why I understand most of what people are talking about, and I am often told that my pronunciation is natural. My work is in Japanese and as it's in the service industry I can speak a decent level of "Keigo" (honorific Japanese.) But I had a bit of a complex. When I wanted to talk about Japanese news, especially regarding economics, politics and business, there were many words and expressions that I couldn't read even though I understand kanji, so I couldn't get the meaning.
I met with Sachi and she first checked my level with a trial lesson. Sachi immediately commended my pronunciation and said that there was no problem understanding my speaking. So, I started studying using a textbook for Intermediate / Advanced Japanese. I worked on strengthening my vocabulary by focusing on my weak areas. I entered unfamiliar words into my smartphone app and memorized them during my commuting time. I also practiced expressing my own opinions by using the words and expressions I had memorized. By practicing this way, I felt that "unfamiliar words" became "vocabulary that I can hear and understand" and "vocabulary that I can use". Sachi's lessons don't place emphasis on "memorizing", but rather on "using". I want to continue this kind of fun studying so that I can understand more news and Internet articles.
Charlotte (England) 
"My skills improved when I switched from self-taught to personal lessons"
Charlotte
I have been in Japan for almost two years. When I first came to Japan, I used English wherever I went, but then I started studying Japanese by myself thinking that it would be fun if I could talk with the local people. By studying via Japanese learning sites on the Internet and YouTube, I learned hiragana and katakana and also some easy greetings, but gradually I became dissatisfied and began thinking "I want to learn properly with a Japanese teacher." Easy sentence patterns were okay, but it got more and more difficult when it came to verb conjugation.
I practiced speaking about myself using sentence patterns and expressions I learned with Sachi. We also role-played different settings. It's still difficult to speak fluently, but as my listening skills have improved, I can understand what Japanese people are talking about much more than before. Sachi says "when you have enough input and you can comprehend well, you will be able speak Japanese naturally." So, I'll continue to do my best to achieve my goal, to speak Japanese fluently.
bottom of page