Kaoru Yamamoto

I already had more than 50 lessons with Kaoru and I take so much out of each lesson. Kaoru is positive, optimistic, patient and motivating. Kaoru always responds to my wishes and implements them so quickly in our lesson that I am surprised every time. So I was able to prepare perfectly for my Japan trip, for an event, for concerts etc. and thanks to her I also passed my JLPT exam last year, where she continues to help me with grammar for the next exam. In class, Kaoru encourages you to speak Japanese too, and gives you enough time to think and also helps you along. I am not afraid that I might say something wrong or make mistakes. Like, you only learn from mistakes, right ;-) Learning Japanese on my own is not easy, but with her help it is much more fun and within a year I have learned so many new things that I would not have learned from a textbook or anywhere else. I can recommend Kaoru to anyone who is tired of boring textbooks and who needs some support in their self-study.

This is the 2nd lesson I've had. I've had about 9 italki teachers, both professional and community tutor, and no one has been bad but I can confidently say that Kaoru pays the most attention to detail by far of anyone I've talked to. She'll make specialized lessons based on your interests and will actually type out what you say so that you have a record of your mistakes and how to correct them, along with any new words or sentence suggestions.

Those lessons help me so much with self-study. They are super fun, interactive, informative and fit my needs perfectly. Every week I look forward to the lessons and they always leave me feeling like my time was well invested! I learn a lot - each lesson has enough structure to prevent me from feeling lost but enough flexibility to keep it entertaining and interactive. They are just perfect for me. Thank you so much, Kaoru-sensei! ^^

Kaoru-san is encouraging and engaged and always makes me feel excited about learning. Thank you for all your help!

I had a great first lesson with Kaoru, booked to ask advanced level questions about word choice and nuance in a translation I'm working on. Probably not a typical lesson format, but she quickly grasped what I wanted from the session and accommodated my needs seemingly effortlessly. I really appreciate how engaged and enthusiastic Kaoru was, with the material and our conversation. She immediately cultivated a comfortable and safe learning environment, which felt a lot like language exchange I did with Japanese friends back at university. She also patiently answered my questions so efficiently we flew through them all, with time to spare for clarification, examples, or just to commiserate with me over how awkward Japanese can be to put into English! (笑) And eve n before that, I like that she took the time to read my profile and personalise a message to me, was responsive to my replies, and understanding about technical difficulties. I'm already looking forward to my next lesson.

After 40 lessons, I can say with confidence that I would not have near my level of growth or understanding without Kaoru-san's guidance. If you are studying by yourself, please do yourself the favor of booking a lesson. Not only will you be able to enrich yourself with a native's understanding of the content you're interested in, you will gain a curious, patient and excellent conversation partner. Language is all about communication so if you really want to succeed, having a native speaker to engage with is indispensable. Kaoru-san's lessons provides that and more through careful lesson building, encouragement, and creating a safe environment to try things out and make mistakes. You'll learn a lot and have fun doing it, so if you're thinking about it, definitely book a lesson!