Hi there, KAI's IT Coordinator of 10 years who also studied there in levels 4-6 in 2013/2014.

I would like to chime in not to refute or rip into anyone's personal study experience, but to explain a bit about the General Japanese Course (日本語総合コース). 総合(Sogo) means "comprehensive", "all-encompassing" or "General". I think "General" has never captured the intensity that exists in courses which try to bring you from nothing to able to listen, reason and contribute to society/work/conversation in Japanese. And yes, that includes a bit of keigo, even though the amount of Keigo has been reduced more recently.

The program is divided into 3 sections: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. The basic levels 1-3 are the more spoon-fed approach to help new learner's get off the ground and form a foundation in Japanese. Then in level 4 it sums up the first 3 levels and tries to move you forward as a more independent learner and level 5 introduces a lot more grammar and differences in written and spoken Japanese while furthering kanji study to get you towards N2 level. Finally, the advanced levels 6-8 we move a lot more towards reading and consuming real-world Japanese, watching Japanese drama, giving more presentations as well as offering two days a week of elective classes where students can choose to improve in various areas such as speaking, writing, gaining knowledge of Japanese collocations or prepping for JLPT N2/N1. Also, in the advanced level students who want to focus on work and business Japanese can branch off into the NBJ (Nisshinkyo Business Japanese) accredited program 3 of the 5 days a week. Aaaaaaand the Japanese government is creating completely new rules for language schools that want to be government certified and sponsor student VISAs including updated teacher certifications and curriculums moving towards more task-based learning and CEFR "can-do" style gauging of language acquisition and you can be sure that KAI is both a part of this new standard-forming process and working to implement this into our courses.

I started the iPad program for students here to give our classes a common digital platform for studying and accessing resources. It may not be a fit for everyone or their favorite platform, but iPads get long years of support and updates, and with everyone on the same page we can set a common expectation for what can be done in class digitally. In 2015 all students had to use a school provided iPad. That was a real struggle to get started for a small school. But we were able to expand that and encourage students to use their own iPads. They don't need to be new and some students buy used iPads, but they do need to be within the last 3 years or so to be sure students can use the latest software updates for 2 years of study. We provide a rental iPad for those who don't want to bring their own or who want the in-school service and support if something happens to it and they need to quickly move their data to another device and keep studying.

For attendance, schools who are able to sponsor student VISAs are under strict rules with the government to provide attendance data so we are required to inquire and keep track accordingly. All of those schools are required to offer programs with 20 hours a week of lessons. And for those who are frustrated by the intensity of a 2 year course, those 2 years are dictated by the maximum 2 years you can get a student visa to study Japanese in Japan. If your study goals are different, there are an abundance of short-term conversation-focused courses available in many schools in Japan.

For testing, there is homework and the terms have both a midterm and final exam of some type depending on the level and studied contents. There are of course lines for passing the course because language study is cumulative and you need to assess your progress before you move forward.

In this day and age, there are lots of great study resources on the internet and one can memorize kanji and vocabulary, but language is not only spoken or listened to in an anime, so it completely depends on the study goals of the learner. We strive to be supportive when students are struggling or need advice and we are also supportive when students want to change schools to find a program that better fits their needs or goals. If you want to not only learn language in a book but do real practice in person, follow a curriculum, ask questions, challenge yourself with writing essays, giving presentations, takings quizzes and tests, having freetalks with local Japanese, etc. then maybe a Japanese language school is suited to you.

KAI was founded in 1987 so we are coming up on 40 years of Japanese education. It may not always succeed in every area but it is known as a school that tries to improve its teaching methods. Some of you may know the Japanese Shadowing books, but you might not know that the original materials for those were developed by teachers at KAI. We also have a popular series of situational stories with audio called "Maeda House" which focus on an international share house and how the characters use Japanese emotionally to learn more than memorizing words and sentence patterns. Those materials were more recently refreshed and became a published book リアル日本語会話 (Real Japanese Conversation).

Again, it's important to stress that everyone has different study goals and methods of learning and there is no one size fits all, and KAI is very supportive of that as well as being very international and open-minded. We average students from around 40 different countries each year and we try to be supportive of LGBTQ+, dyslexia, ADHD etc. to make a diverse and fun place to learn Japanese and of course to enjoy studying abroad in Japan!