I continue to have a great experience with this Sensei, rather than sticking strictly to any book we've focused more on conversational, modern Japanese, which I strongly prefer. We use a variety of methods to supplement Genki, including YouTube videos and Podcasts, which has been a great asset in getting a natural feel for the language to my end-goal of conversing easily with Japanese relatives. Really happy with my progress so far after a few months!

We covered lots in the past few sessions. I speak, according to Sensei "street Japanese" so already have a small base to work from, but with so many errors. So we're making fix-ups. re-reviewing genki 1 and 2, with a little more care and focus. over 3 sessions we've covered Transitive and intransitive verbs, conjugation them and (using を and が), そうです and といていました (i heard that). Also covered そうです (it seems like). Present, past, present negative and past negative tense were covered too. Also managed to touch on verbs for playing music and wearing clothes. And this was just a little bit of work we've done based off a test we did after the first class 💥

It's made such a big difference for my learning that we've started with romaji and I was able to slowly introduce kana once I felt ready for it. I really appreciate the personalization and adjustments we've made in the course of my Japanese learning. My year has looked like this so far: 2025 Jan - (Listening👂 App) - desu, ja arimasen, janai, number, time-nouns, nouns Feb -( Listening👂 App) - INTRO of をVerbs, がVerbs (Excel) - dic form , ますform , all ますform Conjugations , ますform grammar structures March - (Listening👂App) - INTRO がVerbs (Excel) - dic form , ますform , recap ますform Conjugations , more ますform grammar structures April -(Listening👂App) - INTRO いなadjective - Conjugations May - (Listening👂App) [てform youtube video] - INTRO て form - Conjugations、て form grammar structures June - (Genki Vocab👂 App) – Review lessons 1-5 Vocab. July - (Listening👂App) [てform youtube video] - recap て form - Conjugations、MORE て form grammar structures Aug - (Genki Vocab👂 App) – Review lesson

I have been taking private lessons with Natsuko Sensei for about a year. She teaches in a modern style without heavy reliance on books. She teaches vocabulary in Romaji (English alphabet), which means that I haven’t had to learn Hiragana or Katakana. Learning this way lets you focus on the vocabulary and grammar, which is ideal when learning conversational Japanese. Overall I have enjoyed every lesson as Natsuko Sensei is easy to talk to and very intelligent. Hontoni Arigatou Gozimasu!

Teacher provides Anime Podcast Youtube materials for practicing conversation, and when I don't understand some grammar she showed where to review in my Genki book . I enjoy the class very much! ありがとうございます、先生。

My teacher is patient and encouraging.