Sho

It has now been one year learning with Sho sensei and choosing Sho sensei to be a part of my Japanese learning journey has been the best decision. We have now completed the whole Minna no Nihongo textbook covering N5 and N4 material. I started from not being able to speak at all to now speaking basic sentences pretty comfortably and can understand much more in my immersion study outside of class. Sho sensei is a true delight to learn with. He is engaging, meticulous with his lessons and makes sure you properly understand what you are learning. His structured teaching style, with vocabulary, kanji and now writing homework provide a tried and true method for learning Japanese in the most efficient way. I have tried many teachers before finally finding Sho sensei and am grateful I have someone who can guide me in my journey. I am very much looking forward to further lessons and moving to the intermediate level. よろしくお願いします。

I have been learning with Sho-sensei for 6 months now, meeting 3 to 4 times a week on average. I just achieved the milestone of completing the Minna no Nihongo beginners course. This is been an incredible experience. Sho-sensei is patient, kind, warm, and a delight to work with. I could not speak or understand any Japanese at all at the beginning, and now I can have basic conversations and understand almost 100% of the beginner Japanese audio content I’ve engaged with. It’s amazing how much progress I’ve made with Sho-sensei in such a short time. I love the immersive approach of his teaching materials and lessons. It would be tempting to resort to English to try to understand things, but the immersion focus really sped up my progress. Sho-sensei is excellent at moving at a students pace and carefully using vocabulary and grammar that the student can handle. I will continue with him for intermediate studies and would highly recommend him to anyone looking to advance their Japanese

After today's session with Sho-sensei, I've just finished a series of classes where I was able to practice shadowing, followed by reading and going over various texts. Shadowing is very challenging as it involves mimicking audio you hear on the spot, but I think it's very useful towards building your listening and speaking abilities. The texts were short pieces of fiction and non-fiction that were quite interesting and provided a lot of material to review grammar points and learn about Japanese culture. During these sections I was also able to engage in casual discussion with Sho-sensei about what I was reading. From here, I'm looking forward to moving onto Sho-sensei's lessons where I'll be practicing with even longer sessions of reading and shadowing.

I’m finally finished with the first 25 chapters of Mina no Nihongo. Sometimes I’m very hard on myself, as I still have trouble finding certain words or saying the right thing during my interactions with the people I work with (in Japan). But when I look back on where I was when I started, it’s crazy how far I’ve come. I’m so much more confident doing things in my every day life. I have lived in Japan for three years, but have only really started studying for the past five months or so. It’s incredible what a difference these lessons have made. My co-workers will speak to me in Japanese completely, whereas before they would insist on speaking English. I can speak clearly with my barber, waiter, friends etc. Even on days where I’m struggling to find the right words, I can look back on where I was, hardly even able to talk about the weather, and find joy in my journey of improvement. It’s crazy how much I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Thank you very much Sho sensei. Ganbarimasu!

Sho is a great teacher! He is very patient and clear in his instructions. I really appreciate it when he takes the time to explain my mistakes to me and thoroughly explains how I could say what I'm trying to say more clearly/correctly! I spent a number of classes studying keigo with Sho as well, and this has greatly helped me in my life in Japan in understanding what workers at the city office and other official places are saying to me! Sho has a very structured teaching style.

I really enjoy learning from Sho-san. The materials he shares are very useful and he is very patient and helpful during each lesson. I always look forward to my next lesson with him. ありがとうございました。