Description
How does this work?
Bring whatever you’re struggling with or want to finish. Come for some conversation practice.
This is NOT a class so I will be taking cues from the people attending that day.
Since everyone will be at different levels, you would learn by helping each other while I check on your work. Then I’ll pull people into a short lesson or group practice who are collectively having issues with or questions about the same topic so we review and work on it together.
We’ll gather questions at the beginning of the session and as students work through things and have questions. If there isn’t enough time to cover a topic / question, we’ll fit it in where it works best over the next few sessions.
What level do I need to be?
Beginner or intermediate Japanese learners are welcome to join! Even if you’re just starting out with characters or grammar, as long as you have something you can practice or do during the session we’ll happily work with you.
Given the wide range of levels and the session format, advanced learners won’t get much out of it I’m afraid.
Do I need to take your classes before I can join the group?
Nope, you just have to be currently studying Japanese and want help or practice with it.
And if you are taking my classes right now, participating in the study group will let us practice and review topics from previous courses. (We obviously use everything we learn as we keep moving forward but don’t dig as deep as we do when we study it the first time and there’s not enough time to go over anything in detail while making sure we learn the current course topics.)
When can I / my child start?
Japanese learners can join at any time!
What if I / my child can’t attend for, say, a session or two?
The purchased session packages are like credits.
They get spent when you come to a study group; you’re not charged for sessions you don’t join.
However, you have to let me know if you can’t attend an hour or more before the session. This is when I start driving. (If everyone decides not to come and some don’t tell me, I’ll have driven 60 – 90 minutes round trip for no reason!) 1 session will be subtracted from all participants who don’t show up without notifying me an hour or more before.
Can you hold a study group at _____ Library?
I will try to set one up if the library is on my list of in-person locations.
However, if there are no classes or tutoring at that library, the study group won’t start until at least 9 people have signed up.
How can I get the most out of these sessions?
Good question!
Whether you’re coming to finish homework, get a better understanding of something or practice speaking, be present in the moment. The conversations going on around you may be illuminating!
That said, keep conversation topics on the Japanese language.
So that you aren’t idle, have one or two things you want to learn or get done.
Try not to spend the whole time asking “How do you say this?”. I ran a conversation group a while back and noticed that most people wouldn’t remember those words or phrases the next time they talked about that topic again. So, it wasn’t a productive use of anyone’s time. Instead, say what you think is correct and someone will help you if it isn’t.
