Come study Japanese with me!
Hello! 私のページへようこそ！Come study Japanese with me! My motto is “Knowledge. Clarity. Structure” and this is what you will get as I guide you every step of the way towards your Japanese language goals. Be it taking GCSE, JLPT, or A levels exams, completing your university coursework, understanding manga or anime, tourist-level conversation, a job interview, or proficiency in Business Japanese, everything is possible. Tell me what you want to achieve and I will help you get there. References from my students are here. Book a free session with me today! More info below.
About your teacher
My name is Mitski, my students call me Mitski-sensei. I am a PhD-holding professional Japanese language educator with a university degree in teaching languages. I have nearly 30 years of experience teaching Japanese for GCSE's, IB, A Levels, JLPT, university courses, and adult business and hobby learners.
I studied at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies on the Japanese Ministry of Education scholarship and have Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and the JETRO Business Japanese certificate. I obtained my MA and PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
Want to study Japanese with me? Any questions, wishes, or concerns? Email me!
My teaching approach: Consistency, Clarity, Flexibility
My approach to teaching is flexible, yet consistent, and friendly, yet rigorous. I build my tutorials on a solid and clear objective-driven structure based around your short-, mid-, and long-term goals. I tailor each tutorial to your specific situation at hand, ensuring the maximum level of efficiency and problem-solving every time.
My teaching materials
I use a wide range of hand-picked digital and print learning materials to suit your wishes, needs, and abilities in the most efficient way and ensure that your headway is equal across all the language components (reading, writing, listening, speaking, kanji, grammar, and vocabulary).
My teaching methodology: grammar
As a non-native speaker who learnt Japanese from scratch to the highest possible level, I can explain in plain English absolutely any aspect of Japanese grammar, no matter how minute or obscure. Japanese grammar is like maths, made of neat tables, equations, and paradigms, and that is how your every question will be answered: with mathematical logic, precision, and clarity. And I will always make sure that you know how to immediately put to use what you learnt.
My teaching methodology: kanji
To help you deal with the most daunting task for every student of Japanese, learning kanji, I adapted the best practices from the Japanese national school curriculum for the needs of non-native speakers: the whats, the hows, and the whys.
You will learn the theory and history of kanji to understand what stands behind the evolution of kanji as a writing system.
You will learn the names and significance of kanji strokes and their order (kakijun) to understand how each kanji is written
You will learn the names and meaning of kanji components (radicals) to know why each kanji means what it does.
That understanding will get you past that first couple of hundred of kanji where most students of Japanese drop out, and well beyond. You will also learn every kanji as a cluster of meanings and readings - they are not called characters in English for nothing. When required, I will refer to their Classical Chinese origins and cognates in Modern Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.
My teaching methodology: study skills
As an experienced university Academic Skills lecturer, I organise and run your study process in the most scientifically efficient as well as enjoyable way. My principle is: “Learning needs to be 50% hard work, 50% good fun.” Apart from the Japanese language itself, from me you will also learn study skills, i.e., not only what to learn but how to learn it best. Learning is essentially all about developing your brain in certain very particular ways and there are scientifically proven approaches to do that better. Be it kanji and vocabulary memorisation techniques, digitally enhanced study schedules, mind-mapping to engage your logical memory, composition writing skills, or efficient management of your study and leisure time, from me you will receive training for everything that will make your language learning better, faster, and more fun.
My teaching methodology: goal-setting and cultural awareness
Japanese is one of those languages here the better you speak it, the more cultural competence is expected from you. It is also one of the languages that, when mastered properly, will return your investment manifold by way of a rewarding career.
Drawing from my academic and corporate backgrounds as well as global work and study experience, I will advise you on career and further education options, obtaining qualifications, scholarships to study in Japan, etc. Having studied, worked, and taught in five countries myself, I am very attuned to cultural and linguistic differences between students from different backgrounds. adapt my approaches accordingly for each individual student.
Learning objectives:
・ Japanese GCSE exams,
・ Japanese A-levels exams,
・ Japanese IB exams,
・ all levels of JLPT exams
・ preparation for university entrance exams and interviews
・ university coursework on any Japan-related subject
・ Business Japanese and keigo
・ Travel Japanese from scratch
・ cultural competence
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Location:
Tutoring takes place online (Google Meets, WhatsApp, Skype or FaceTime) wherever you are at your convenience. I have many years of experience working globally across time zones and delivering excellence and results every single time.
In-person: Euston or Brixton, London (UK). Travel arrangements to your location of choice can be negotiated.
References: please have a look at extensive references from my former and present students.
Want to study Japanese with me? Email me any questions.