anone2
Yuko no Nihongo
"Sushi, Anime, Ninja, Geisha and Mt. Fuji! Do you want to explore Japan? Communication in a local language on your own is the most blissful experience you can have on this planet - This is a taste of satisfaction".
Learn to speak Japanese from anywhere on the internet.
Everyone will have 1-on-1 time with me to get you to speak up about your passion for Japan, in your first lesson. Go italki.com
I am an experienced teacher with over 20 years of combined experience teaching small groups of no more than 3 people. Please book me through "Book Online" in the top left corner.
Dynamic and fun, but we also learn systematically in the way that we approach basic Japanese. Most of my students start from an absolute beginner and for them, first impressions of the Japanese language seems to be unique and it is largely inaccessible to them.
In order to read and understand, moreover, listen and comprehend conversations that are spoken slowly in daily life, they need to study 46 letters of Hiragana, 46 letters of Katakana and 2136 letters of Kanji, plus master 24 grammatical points and be familiar with the conjugation of 346 verbs.
It sounds a lot and it is easy to get lost in the maze of Japanese language study, isn't it? But don't worry! We observe your learning progress and tell you where you are. Moreover, if you want, we can tell you how much you made progress compared to others.
Learning Japanese language show your true colour
Stimulate the right hemispheres of your brain
Like a writing a good poem, a visualization is a key to retain the Japanese language in your brain. Through my lessons, I coach you to use your imagination and ask you to draw a symbolic image which connects s Japanese words to your existing knowledge. The image must come from you, more dynamic, personal and unusual images work better. I don't know the reason, but through my experience, the student who has a habit of drawing or painting can remember better. I know that there is a momentary hesitation before an adult learner starts drawing. Anyway, if you use the hands to draw something creatively, you can open the right side of the brain for creative thinking. It will be the huge benefit of your life.
Use English as a tool
I use English in my lesson with respect as a lingua franca. So except for native English speakers, you will situate yourself in an opportunity to improve English by learning a second or third language. Especially for young learners and beginners, it will be challenging and it requires me a lot of patience in the beginning. However, no pain no gain. Most of my teenage students ended up with a better level of their English and I learnt patience and persistence. Don't worry, I am ready for you.
Setting the target keeps your chin up
After 20 years of teaching experience, I observed that some students have struggled to learn in front of me. Moreover, even if I asked students to explain difficulties, they barely answered me. That has prompted my interest in the coaching approach.
I gained working experience in various foreign countries which has allowed me to challenge myself in the area of coaching. Much of this working experience has been in the area of teaching, training, and translation. As a result of my experience, I have observed that stereotyping of communication does not necessarily bring the best results.
No matter if you wipe out throughout the whole lesson, I want to keep motivating you toward your target. Don't think, just do it! I'll fully motivate you until you explore YOUR Japan.
My very first student in a coaching approach, Bara who has been studying with us for 4 years, has achieved her target to climb up Mt. Fuji this summer. She joined a local tour and just did as Japanese people do!
In order to achieve her target, she saved up money to buy an air plane ticket, while overcoming her aerophobia and convincing her parents to travel on herself.
Facing your weakness, strike your bad habit
International Speech Contest in Japanese 日本語弁論大会
What is the most disliked moment during a study of a foreign language? For me, it is the moment somebody says "Please speak something in front of people".
When Ales came to me, he recited and showed me old Japanese tales. He was studying Japanese on his own for less than a year before taking my lessons. He is good at physics, and he is rather introverted, does not reveal his feelings, and often gives ironic opinions about things. At the same time, I sensed a poor-looser spirit from him. So I motivated him.
After studying with me for two years, he won the Japanese Ambassador's Special Award at the Japanese Speech Contest. Listening to his speech in front of me made me feel great. After that, he passed JLPT 3rd grade.
Here is his comment. It helps you to Imagine your study plan and future.
Practice makes perfect. There is nothing for it, but do it.
With an experienced teacher
I was as high as a kite when I heard I passed N3.
I didn’t expect to pass it before my exam result was announced, therefore I felt astonished.
The exam consisted of three parts, the first was grammar and vocabulary, the next was reading and listening was the last part. The exam offered four multiple-choice questions and I selected the correct answers. Although the exam would check the level of candidates according to the website of JLPT, just because a candidate is successful doesn’t mean they have a high level of Japanese language. If a candidate is an incredibly lucky person, he can choose all the correct answers.
What made you interested in Japanese?
It was an ironic result. I have been interested in Japanese culture since I was little, perhaps, 10 years ago or more. I watched a Samurai or Ninja on TV, I thought he was the business! When I was 10 years old, I borrowed a very interesting book titled ‘The young samurai’.
The story was something like this... An American ship has reached Japan then the American troops were attacked by Ninja troops. Good people were killed, nevertheless, a boy survived and fortunately a pedigreed samurai family adopted him. Eventually, he became a samurai. Probably this book was written for a child, I was really hooked.
Tell us about your journey of learning Japanese.
I started learning the Japanese language two years ago. I searched for various information about Japanese through the internet and attempted to learn it through websites. Since I learned something, I don’t recommend it as the best way to learn the language. Because the websites which are free access cannot explain the details.
If we take learning a language seriously, we have no choice but to buy a textbook. Which textbook to choose depends on a person. It is necessary to choose the best textbook which uses a suitable approach for each individual. The next step is… Although I have just mentioned that self-learning through the internet is not recommended, you can use the internet to help your study with the textbook, you can ask a question on website forums. Surely somebody has asked similar questions before on the forum, I can find the answer. Reading sites might help you, for instance, articles from newspapers and magazines. It helps to get a wide vocabulary.
To be honest, Hiragana and Katakana are the easiest part. I used an application on a smartphone. Once I could read and write them, I wrote down an article in the textbook by myself.
When I search for something through the internet, I try to use Japanese, especially when I want to search for something related to Japanese culture, I input a Japanese keyword.
If my friends ask me about Japanese, I answer it. Moreover, some friends of mine said that I am not an ordinary person. If they have a manga comic, they pass it to me and ask me to translate it into the Czech language. They say, how come you can do that!
Most of my friends think that Kanji is the most difficult thing and it is a pain in the neck. How come they have these Kanji? said they. But I have an opposite opinion about Kanji. Once you know Kanji it surely helps to read Japanese sentences. Something written without Kanji is hard to read for me. It is difficult to recognize Joshi and words.
I believe that learning radicals are the best way to learn it. Each radical contains its meaning.
After that, practice makes perfect. There is nothing for it, but do it.
I was given the first opportunity of teaching Japanese in Xiamen, China in 1998 by my teacher of Chinese Kung-Fu. He taught me how to kick and in return, I taught him how to say a kick in Japanese. Since then I have enjoyed opportunities to teach my mother tongue to foreigners in China, England and now in the Czech Republic.
There is no instant way of mastering martial arts nor teaching Japanese to foreigners, especially Europeans. It's just a process of trial and error. Firstly, I focused on breaking complex and boring grammar exercises down into understandable and entertaining activities. Since then, fun is the root of my teaching.
After a period of time, I found out that the fun was not enough to lead students to success. They need to be motivated not by me, but by themselves. No sooner have they been motivated than they study proactively. Therefore I introduced a coaching method into my lessons in 2008. Luckily, I had been taught it by Sir John Whitmore who is a pioneer of coaching and leadership development. Through an interactive coaching method, my students asked various questions about Japan and I answered them sincerely and patiently. Although I had to seek out some particular information about Japan on the internet, my students seemed to be engaged. After introducing a couple of basic grammatical points, eventually, they expressed their opinions in Japanese.
Surely it is easier said than done. Retaining new words and phrases we learned in the previous lesson is a major headache for us. They understood well, but they didn't remember much. It seems that understanding is not sticky enough for their brain. Why? I guessed that the Japanese language system is so far beyond their experience. It is a fact that the Japanese language contains various kinds of letters such as Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji which might give them cognitive hiccups, in other words, immediate escapism from a visually chaotic impression.
So if it is beyond their experience, how about using their imagination? I started persuading my students to use their imagination to connect Japanese to personalized graffiti on their notebooks. Then I ask them to use creativity to write a story about their personalized graffiti. During this process, I try to use Japanese as much as possible.
Be a specialist for your favourite Anime! And create your own story in Japanese.
Marcel was a new type of student. He and other students are different as chalk and cheese. He was rather shy, but he showed his toughness by proudly showing off his new tattoos and earrings with each lesson. The conversation with him was like a Zen question and answer. When I asked, I got a minimal answer. When he said he liked drawing manga, I thought in mind, "Let's go at his own game." After that, we had a great time.
I have started to teach at a primary school since September 2021
