Enrollment Steps

One day I had to attend a—I can’t remember exactly what it is called, but it was one these brain-washing, team-building things every company nowadays tortures their employees with. We started with a short introduction round—name, hobby, etc. Of course, everybody had model hobbies like hiking or reading or reading while hiking.

Everyone except this one Japanese guy, who said without any false modesty: “My hobby is drinking.”

So, he and I started drinking together. Regularly. Meaning almost every day. But in a totally responsible manner.

One thing led to another—or, to be more precise, drinking together led to cultural exchange—or, to be absolutely precise, he started drinking Russian vodka and I started learning Japanese. It was fun, but I wasn’t really making much progress in Japanese, although I was (and still am) quite committed to learning the language. Maybe I wasn’t focused enough though…

Thanks to Nihongo-Pro I discovered that one can learn Japanese without drinking! What a mind-blowing experience! Well, to be honest, with Araki-sensei we quite often talk about food and drinks, but so far we have managed to remain sober.

The most amazing thing though is that online Japanese lessons with Araki-sensei actually, really help. Before my first lesson I was, let’s say, a bit concerned whether I’d be able to understand anything, but right from the first minutes, Araki-sensei involved me in a conversation I couldn’t even imagine I was capable of. But by means of some voodoo magic (or maybe due to Araki-sensei’s experience?) all of a sudden I realized that I can be quite talkative, even in Japanese.

It has been almost a year since our first lesson. The only disadvantage of online lessons I have discovered so far is that one can’t drink together with the teacher. But collaboration technology and tools are rapidly improving, so I’m pretty sure the day will come when Araki-sensei and I will have an online Japanese class while drinking. Of course, in a totally responsible manner.

You might think that polyglots have it easy, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes, as it happened with me, having a large knowledge base requires a highly skilled teacher with very swift and quick train of thought being able to help you connect all the information you acquire intuitively and being able to help you build a solid foundation.

Tanoshima sensei conducts my Japanese lessons in such a masterful way that there is room for me as a student to use my language intuition, practice all the possible examples and variations of the words and sentences and step by step acquire more and more. I am very comfortable during these lessons, I am never rushed, and I have a lot of time practicing speaking, which is crucial for me in Japanese. Tanoshima sensei is a very responsive teacher—at my request she can help with finding a lot of unique information about Japan and even give an introduction to the modern Japanese poetry. I am very grateful that I can take lessons from Tanoshima sensei.

Nihongo-Pro. Wow. This is the first online learning platform with such a fantastic classroom! I have never come across a system so easy and convenient to use as the one provided by Nihongo-Pro. From the technical side, my teacher can choose a server that gives us the best possible connection speed, what gives the optimal connection speed no matter where you are and how unstable your connection is. From the practical side, the classroom platform is very easy to use and intuitive. This is the first time that I felt that distance learning can be comfortable and convenient.

Thank you once more to Tanoshima sensei and Nihongo-Pro: for existing, for finding the best of the best Japanese teachers and for staying up to date with modern technologies.