Languages MA Graduate offering Japanese Tutoring from total beginner to JLPT N2

Experience

I am an MA Japanese graduate of SOAS, University of London, offering online Japanese tutoring to new or intermediate learners of the language. I graduated with Merit, earning High Distinction in all language components of my degree.

I make my own lesson materials so my learners will not have to buy any additional materials, although all learners will be provided with a list of helpful textbooks.

I passed JLPT N3 after studying Japanese for just under a year, and later attained a distinction grade in my final J400 (advanced Japanese, approximately N2 equivalent) module at SOAS, and as a learner of Japanese I am able to empathise with beginners, while also pushing them to do their very best. I am currently pursuing native-level Japanese classes, engaging in detailed discussions using specialist language, and am pursuing N1 certification (the highest attainable Japanese Language Proficiency Test certification), and am confident explaining Japanese grammar and politeness variations to new learners.

One of my biggest frustrations with learning providers is a complete under estimation of beginners’ ability to learn. I have several students who had been “learning” Japanese for months of years, but still couldn’t read hiragana or katakana, let alone kanji!

I like to get my students reading hiragana and katakana script within one to two weeks, and aim for 25 new kanji characters every fortnight. Japanese is a very structural language, and most of the difficulty of learning script can be overcome with smart study tools. I use Anki, a free spaced repetition flashcard software, to help students learn kanji in a time efficient way, and can provide you with flash cards all the way from elementary japanese up to the more advanced JLPT N2 level.