I already wrote one review of Miki-sensei's work, but I'm grateful to have multiple opportunities to praise her as a tutor. She is exceptionally good at helping English-speakers improve at Japanese. Among other reasons, I just marvel at the balance she strikes between challenging me and encouraging me. She makes this balance seem easy, but I know it's a rare skill to have, especially with how she doing it in real-time during our delightful conversations. For example, we hold our lessons mostly in Japanese (which is challenging in itself), but she has an incredible ability to speak to me on my level, as well as support me when I get confused. (Imagine being able to speak clearly to someone who is a beginner at your best language... it's not easy! It takes a really sophisticated understanding of both the learner and the language!) I leave every lesson of ours with a smile on my face and increased confidence in my Japanese, but also a renewed eagerness to learn even more!

As soon as next week, I will be the parent of a child whose first language will be Japanese and Miki has been doing such a good job for many months of helping me improve my ability so that my relationship to the child can be strong in their native language. I will always love and appreciate her for the time she has spent with me preparing for this major life change.

今回のレッスンでは、敬語の基礎として「くれる→くださる」の使い分け、依頼表現のバリエーション、「なさっています」などの尊敬語を丁寧に教えていただきました。特に「他社の人・目上の人・お客さん」への表現を中心に学ぶことができ、業務ですぐに使える、とても実践的な内容でした。 これからもMIKI先生のレッスンを楽しみにしています。

I really enjoy my classes with Miki sensei! She is a kind, warm, supportive, and very experienced teacher. She always begins our lessons with a small-talk practice. I am a beginner, so it's challenging for me to express myself with my limited Japanese. But I try, and Miki sensei patiently helps me, often writing down useful words and phrases. She speaks only Japanese with me, which makes it a great listening practice. This 1 hour feels very productive! The textbook we use is also a great choice, and the workbook has lots of exercises to review after class. I also have homework to write, which we then check together. Thank you! :))

Today, Miki-sensei and I got into some deep conceptual grammar that I had general questions about in our lass session. I appreciated how she prepared a worksheet to explain it more deeply to me this time. She is very committed to me learning in general and also to me learning what I'm most interested in about the language, both of which I appreciate so much.

I love working with Miki-sensei. This week we restarted my tutoring after I spent a month in Japan practicing. It was great to reconnect and discuss my next set of language goals, which include taking the JLPT N4 in December, following my success on the JLPT N5 last year.