Sho

It has now been one year learning with Sho sensei and choosing Sho sensei to be a part of my Japanese learning journey has been the best decision. We have now completed the whole Minna no Nihongo textbook covering N5 and N4 material. I started from not being able to speak at all to now speaking basic sentences pretty comfortably and can understand much more in my immersion study outside of class. Sho sensei is a true delight to learn with. He is engaging, meticulous with his lessons and makes sure you properly understand what you are learning. His structured teaching style, with vocabulary, kanji and now writing homework provide a tried and true method for learning Japanese in the most efficient way. I have tried many teachers before finally finding Sho sensei and am grateful I have someone who can guide me in my journey. I am very much looking forward to further lessons and moving to the intermediate level. よろしくお願いします。

I have been learning with Sho-sensei for 6 months now, meeting 3 to 4 times a week on average. I just achieved the milestone of completing the Minna no Nihongo beginners course. This is been an incredible experience. Sho-sensei is patient, kind, warm, and a delight to work with. I could not speak or understand any Japanese at all at the beginning, and now I can have basic conversations and understand almost 100% of the beginner Japanese audio content I’ve engaged with. It’s amazing how much progress I’ve made with Sho-sensei in such a short time. I love the immersive approach of his teaching materials and lessons. It would be tempting to resort to English to try to understand things, but the immersion focus really sped up my progress. Sho-sensei is excellent at moving at a students pace and carefully using vocabulary and grammar that the student can handle. I will continue with him for intermediate studies and would highly recommend him to anyone looking to advance their Japanese

I thank him for his patience and tolerance with me despite my mistakes — he is truly an excellent teacher.

I’m finally finished with the first 25 chapters of Mina no Nihongo. Sometimes I’m very hard on myself, as I still have trouble finding certain words or saying the right thing during my interactions with the people I work with (in Japan). But when I look back on where I was when I started, it’s crazy how far I’ve come. I’m so much more confident doing things in my every day life. I have lived in Japan for three years, but have only really started studying for the past five months or so. It’s incredible what a difference these lessons have made. My co-workers will speak to me in Japanese completely, whereas before they would insist on speaking English. I can speak clearly with my barber, waiter, friends etc. Even on days where I’m struggling to find the right words, I can look back on where I was, hardly even able to talk about the weather, and find joy in my journey of improvement. It’s crazy how much I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Thank you very much Sho sensei. Ganbarimasu!

I've worked with Sho through lesson 41 of 皆の日本語 and it's been great every step of the way! I appreciate how he adapts our lessons accommodate the areas where I most need to improve. I always leave each session with a good sense of what I need to practice, and the materials he provides after each lesson make it easy to review. Over the last ten or so chapters especially, I feel that the fluidity of my speech has come a long way and I am much more comfortable communicating in Japanese. Sho patiently points out issues with my pronunciation or grammar, often interactively in Microsoft Word, leaving me with materials I can review between sessions. This has really improved the effectiveness of my study time. I'm looking forward to completing 皆の日本語 with Sho and moving on to more advanced Japanese!

I truly appreciate the quality of the lessons that Sho Sensei provides. The detail oriented lessons cover the specific details of each grammar point as well as plenty of time to practice speaking, listening and reading skills. I also appreciate the take-home writing assignments as this is another critical piece of learning a language. I recently completed chapter 50 in Minna no Nihongo and I look forward to continuing to work with Sho Sensei on 旅行の日本語 and 中級の日本語!