AKI HAPPY

My weekly Happy Conversation lessons with Aki Sensei have become a really important part of my study routine. It’s funny how it works - on any given week I often feel like I’m struggling but I can look back to a few months ago and see how much progress I’ve made. Her infinite patience with my clumsy Japanese is much appreciated, and she always gives me enough time to work out what I want to say. She is clearly a gifted and experienced teacher and I’m really glad I found her on this site!

Aki-Sensei is an excellent teacher. She is attentive to the student and makes the lesson fun and engaging. She also made sure to communicate very well before the day of lesson to get to know a little about my daughter and made the lesson fun for her. Thank you so much! If you book with this teacher, you will not be disappointed! We will book again.

Today was the first lesson with Aki sensei, it was a great lesson! She prepared cards with different topics, such as: - If you could tell something to all people on the Earth, what it would be? - If you have a chance, would you go to the Mars? - What book made the biggest impression on you? I think its a great way to make lesson, every time we can pick different themes and discuss it. Your Japanese level will be improved much faster if you will speak on different themes everytime, in this way you can broad you vocabulary, and also you can heard what Sensei thinks about that, which is very interesting as we all have totally different backgrounds, and that that we can talk about anything online while studing language its just great. Thank you Aki-sensei, looking forward to the next lesson with you!

いつも通り、今日のレッスンも素晴らしかったです。まず、ハワイの天気とか先週末の活動について話しました。それから、「難しい質問」を選んだから、日本のイメージとか５年後やりたいことについて話す合いました。今日は日本語の力はちょっと遅かったけど、それでも楽しかったです。「活火山」や「向かい風」や「物静か」など大事な言葉を習いました。これから、ハワイに住んでるから、その言葉をよく使うと思います！先生、いつもありがとうございます！

I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite things about Aki Sensei’s teaching style is that she always gives me enough time and I never feel rushed when speaking. This really helps me gain experience using more complicated sentences and I always feel like I can try out new grammar even if I have to go very slow. Today, as usual, there were a few such times and it really boosted my confidence to be able to get through the sentence I wanted to say instead of feeling pressured to use a simpler expression.

A year ago, I was really struggling with basic speaking and listening activities - I had a decent grasp of vocabulary and basic grammar but couldn’t speak at all. I had tried working with a few other teachers, but Aki Sensei was the first teacher who was able to work with me at my beginner level. Her approach really helped me finally get speaking in Japanese. I’ve made a ton of progress that I couldn’t have made without Aki Sensei’s incredible patience and guidance. I still have a long way to go, but I look forward to continuing these weekly lessons to help me get there 🙂