Genki 1 & Genki 2 Study Group with Native Japanese Volunteers in Nihongo Tea Room starting January 2022

[Haruka Flores]

Starting January 2022, every Saturday 9pm JST (Japan Standard Time) equivalent to 4:00am PST / 5:00am PDT (depending on Daylight Savings Time), Yoshi Sensei, a native Japanese volunteer will guide Japanese language learners through both Genki 1 & Genki 2 textbooks, with light homework / revisions to discuss the next Saturday. It's free and Voice Chat is required.

• Genki 1 Study Group will start mid-January 2022, most likely on Saturday, 9pm JST if there's enough participants.
• Genki 2 Study Group will start on Saturday too, 8th January 2022, 10pm JST and this is confirmed due to having a couple of existing learners. New participants are welcome if you're already done with Genki 1.

Yoshi Sensei plans to guide us with Genki 1 and Genki 2 back-to-back every weekend, from January onwards. Even though I'm starting Genki 2 next year, I'm glad he is doing Genki 1 again at the same time too. I still need to brush up on some learned grammars to polish my comprehension and fluency.

Now here's the copy and pasted notice from Yoshi Sensei:

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Dear Japanese Language Learners.

I am planning a new Japanese activity for beginners. I would like to start GENKI (this is a very popular textbook for self-study of Japanese) from the Lesson One again.

This is a beginner course, but it require that you can read at least Hiragana characters. Katakana and Kanji characters are not required yet.

I would like to start it in mid-January next year. If you are interested in this activity, you have about a few weeks before the start, so please learn Hiragana by then.

• I haven't decided on an exact start date and time yet. I think Saturday night from 9 p.m. for an hour (Japan time, of course) would be good, but it can be adjusted.
• This activity is not like school. You need to study on your own. I will only push you and support you.
• Could you kindly inform me if you would like to attend or not?

 

And here's a note from the owner of Nihongo Tea Room, Mystie-san, another native Japanese who regularly observes the class. Her English is superb, hence she helps Yoshi Sensei when there are difficult queries from learners.

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Actually, it IS like school!

The classes will be taught by Yoshi-sensei, but Learners will need to do their own preparations and reviews. They will get homework. So we need your commitment.

If you are a serious learner, come and join Yoshi-sensei's Beginner Japanese activity! The lessons are serious but fun!

 

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In Nihongo Tea Room, we’re encouraged to speak mostly in Japanese to each other and the relaxed atmosphere makes it feel like we’re at home, rather than in a classroom. In fact, they rather not call it a school because the setting is more casual.

For now, we have classmates from America, Australia, France and Poland, while I'm from Malaysia. This also makes it an interesting place to learn about other cultures from different countries while speaking Japanese.

Important Note: Nihongo Tea Room has security set to kick newbies (mainly to avoid trolls). Admins would have to manually add a person if their Second Life account is younger than 2 weeks old. So if you’re new to Second Life, please send me an IM before coming by, and then I will inform the owner so she can add you in a safe list.

Supposing that your account has past 2 weeks old in Second Life, search for ‘Nihongo Tea Room’ and you will see a Teleporter to the place we have our events every week. If everything still seems too confusing, feel free to IM me and I’ll do my best to help explain things in more detail. Below are snapshots from some of our sessions (photo credit to Mystie-san).

Looking forward to welcoming you to our Japanese learning community.

よろしくお願いします。

Edited December 19, 2021 by Haruka Flores

[Haruka Flores]

The most important update but unfortunate announcement is that I’ll have to end any more new registrations for the Genki Study Group, or there might not be enough space in Nihongo Tea Room garden for everyone who has responded earlier (the owner joked that we might need a stadium! 😅). We worry it might be hard to have a good learning experience if it’s too crowded.

But if there’s any new openings, I’ll definitely post again. The least crowded option at the moment is the weekly Shiritori Japanese x English Language exchange activity every Friday at 10.30pm JST. It’s happening in Nihongo Tea Room as well, but you don’t have to register to join this activity.

It is less-structured compared to learning via Genki textbook but it will be good as another Japanese speaking exercise. This activity has the most Japanese native speakers attending in Nihongo Tea Room due to them wanting to brush up their English while casually teaching you Japanese.

Sincere apology for those who aren’t able to join this Genki study group any more but hopefully you'll be free on Fridays to join the Shiritori game night. Good luck and all the best in your Japanese studies!

Edited January 23, 2022 by Haruka Flores