⭐ 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.

A great lesson today! We talked about scary games, fears, drowning and facial recognition. We then went over some homework using the テ buddy おく！いつも　ありがとうございました、サトさん！また金曜日‼︎

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

This lesson I went through a lot of pitch accent reinforcement because my mind just couldn't focus and I kept saying words in the wrong pitch and not being able to correct them and have them stay corrected. Also for the difference between "this room has become clean" (and it's clean now) and "this room has gotten clean" (and is becoming cleaner) the nuance dictates whether it's in the current state この部屋はきれいになった or becoming that state この部屋はきれいになってきた. Also while working on an example sentence for たべるようになる I realized once again that I was missing crucial memory points that should be with me already. Like because 直接 was between 友達 and 合う, I tried 友達を直接合う when it's clearly going to always be に for 合う, thus the correct phrase is 友達に直接合う.

During the lesson today we talked about to how say "have rice with furikake and eggs." "ごはんに　たまごと　ふりかけを　かけてたべます。" which somewhat messes with me when I try to think about it from my usual way of saying "Eat rice" then "with furikake and eggs", but it makes sense when I throw away my attempt to link it too heavily to english. In the same way "ちょっと　まってくださいよ" being used for "come on" as well through me for a loop. We also reviewed from the last lesson where in addition to ～のものもあれば…のものもある we went over りょうほう vs どっちも and how the can both be used for "they both", with an importance on りょうほう not having a particle after. Then also we went over 強調する vs 重点を置く. Where one is to emphasize and the other to put an emphasis on, with how 重点を置く for describing a normal type of emphasis, like with on speech, is a bit too wordy and formal-ish.