⭐ Ejderha Sato ⭐

As 2023 concludes with today's lesson, it’s time to reflect on a year and a half of learning Korean! I am deeply and incredibly thankful for discovering Sato! While I began the year familiar with many words, now I can engage in basic Korean conversations. My proficiency in conjugating between past, present, and casual to polite tenses has grown significantly. Sato's teaching skills are evident; he gauges precisely when to challenge me and when to allow independent exploration. Whenever I struggle with a concept, his patient explanations ensure clarity. He will always keep at it until I have fully grasped the topic. His organized Google Docs of lesson notes are invaluable, and his commitment shines through—even when responding to late-night questions! Beyond language, Sato also adds invaluable insights into Korean culture and lifestyle. His meticulous attention to my pronunciation ensures I sound as authentic as possible. Truly a dedicated and skilled instructor! Thank you!

Another fun and very helpful lesson with Sato-sensei! I appreciate his patience and understanding when I forget vocabulary or make mistakes. And I'm super enjoying the pace and really am absorbing the new information well. I also enjoy all the cultural and language context that he gives as we go through the lesson. It gives so much more life and meaning to learning Japanese. I also found it very easy to study up on the previous lesson thanks to the Google Doc notes and organization.

Today was another great lesson! I’ve been really busy lately, so I’m grateful that Sato is always so accommodating and understanding. I’ll keep working hard! We focused a lot on conversation practice today. One thing I definitely need to improve is speaking more freely and naturally. I understand the basics well, but when it’s time to actually talk in Korean, my brain suddenly freezes and it takes me a while to figure out how to express what I want to say. I think I just need more practice speaking without overthinking every sentence. Still, I can tell that I’m improving little by little, which makes me happy and motivates me to keep going. Even when conversations are difficult, it feels rewarding when I can communicate something successfully in Korean. Thank you Sato and see you in our next lesson!

As another year studying with Sato San is finishing, I feel the need to write a proper review. A new year's resolution two years ago changed my life, I decided to try learning another language and shortly after discovered Sato San. Looking back after almost 100 lessons it is hard to believe we've come so far. Starting from scratch, we are now conducting class in almost exclusively Japanese. I am still far from proficient, but feel like I have an extremely solid foundation to build my intermediate level Japanese on. Sato San's style of teaching puts the ball in your court as a learner. The amount of information and study material he provides is abundant, its up to you as a student to study and apply. We have come a very long way together and I am very grateful as a student to have found such a great guide on my language Journey. We continue to trudge towards the metaphorical peak of Everest together. Sato San- 本当に　ありがとうございました

A great lesson today! We talked about food delivery, long term care, and Starbucks in South Korea! We then started the new buddy ままで！いつも　ありがとうございました、サトさん！　また来週‼︎

Continuation of notes for prior lesson: 腐る for letting them spoil doesn't work because it is "to spoil"　itself. This would mean "it spoils" or something and neither fits well into the sentence as is and doesn't get across the intention of "to let it" spoil, so need to use causitive passive to say that we are letting it spoil with "腐らせて" Then we end up on 捨てちゃう because the action was an negative result of the over preparing. And then ます-stem on that with ことがよくあれ to emphasize that this is a situation that often happens. 買う前に, before buying ほんとに必要なのか "Is this really necessary" no どうか because not "whether or not" かんがえて　みる　しょうひ　しゅうかん < Consumption habit of reconsidering, modified earlier by another to mean the rest of the sentence. だいじになってくる ＜ Is to say that it's BECOMING more important　くる is vital to convey that here.