かず(kazu)

I have been working with かず先生 for the past few months preparing for the JLPT, and he is someone I have been looking for for a very long time. He is very patient, and will give you time to express yourself in your own way. I appreciate that he is adaptive, and will slow down or speed up the materials he provides based on how much he believes how well you know the material, but you can always ask to change the speed or strategy. かず先生 is also open to any questions you may have at any point during the lesson, whether it is related to the current topic or not. He also only speaks Japanese during the lesson, so that is forcing you to understand what he is saying, and for you to speak only in Japanese also. I appreciate all the lessons we have done together, and I am looking forward to continue working with him as much as possible.

I started taking lessons with Kazu-sensei in July 2021. At that time I had already passed N4 but had been stuck in a plateau. Since taking lessons with him I have passed N3 (Dec 2021), and have just found out that I have passed N2 (Dec 2022). I didn't have much free time in 2022 to study. My lessons with Kaz-sensei were the main thing keeping me on track – he carefully provided feedback to me and chose interesting and helpful topics for the lessons. I always enjoyed the lessons and Kaz-sensei was always kind, helpful and patient - I had a lot of bad days where I was tired, and struggled to get my words out, but Kaz-sensei was so helpful. Given this was pretty much my only studying, it speaks volumes to how good the lessons are. I remember a while ago browsing through some N2 textbooks and thinking I would never be able to understand them. Now the same books are interesting, funny, and above all, quite understandable. This is largely due to taking lessons with Kaz-sensei.

I have been taking lessons with Kazu-sensei for about a year, and I have to say they have been incredibly helpful. I have very little time to actually practice Japanese due to my busy work-life, but thanks to Kazu-sensei's well prepared lessons, I have made good progress. Thanks to this, despite my lack of time to practice outside of lessons, I have managed to pass JLPT N2 (and with a reasonably good score at that!) If it works this well for me with almost no time to practice outside of lessons, it speaks volumes about the efficiency of these lessons. I can only recommend this teacher to anyone who wants to learn Japanese, and I'm looking forward to more lessons. N1 awaits!

Learning with かず先生 is always an enjoyable experience. I have late-night sessions with him and always find myself being energetic and ready to learn due to his enthusiasm. His methods are conducted almost entirely in Japanese, which has been incredibly beneficial for my speaking and reading skills. By explaining and understanding concepts in Japanese, I’m truly beginning to think in the language rather than translating from my mother tongue. I highly recommend かず先生 as a tutor.

Kazu is a brilliant teacher, and I could not recommend him enough. If you are considering lessons with him - I highly recommend you do. He is patient and thorough with mistakes, and walks you through mistakes and how to improve. But in general, he's great fun to talk to. He really is capable of holding lessons entirely in Japanese, even if you have a very limited understanding (which was me when we started). At this point, after close to a year of lessons with Kazu, I feel prepared to move to Japan.

去年からかず先生に素晴らしいレッスンだけ受けてくれました。それぞれレッスンが面白いだけではなくて、楽しくて、役に立つでした！たとえ私は少し遅い時もあっても、かず先生はいつも根気です。次のレッスンを是非楽しみにしています！どうもありがとうございます！