Student Testimonials
[5] Gregg Pickett

I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to convey my deep appreciation for the superb & dedicated Japanese teaching (which includes language and culture, of course!) of Kimizuka, Yuko Sensei over the past two(+) years. I've been especially impressed by her flexibility to work with a range of study materials and her excellent listening skills. After having studied grammar on my own for a number of years -- and not making much progress -- I discovered how important private lessons can be to reinforce the use and development of new skills. Somehow, I had imagined that if I could only 'study' all the excellent textbooks out there, I would achieve proficiency on my own. That was a big mistake in my thinking and I strongly encourage any professional who feels he/she is 'too busy' to make serious progress to consider private lessons with Kimizuka-Sensei. Moreover, we've maintained progress over the years irrespective of the outside demands on my time, overseas travel schedules, and new projects. I've also been most impressed with how well Kimizuka-Sensei can sustain the freshness and vitality of the lessons while maintaining a very friendly, yet professional manner. She's worked around my time schedule while also making an extraordinary commitment to being prepared for each lesson and to maintain a consistent schedule over the years.

Kimizuka-Sensei possesses a deep understanding of Japanese language, literature and culture as well as business etiquette. Through her teaching and 'debriefing' of my experiences, I've learned how I was inadvertently running into communication problems and I've become much more comfortable with projecting my own personality and style in Japanese. As a result, my Japanese colleagues and clients are very supportive of the time and scheduling commitment I've made for my Japanese lessons. I was especially fortunate to have had the opportunity to study with Kimizuka-Sensei because her explanations of the grammar are very concise and clear and, as a consequence, I've achieved a very good foundation for building my reading and listening skills in a variety of social situations. I've also learned how to use e-mail to keep relationships with colleagues 'open' and 'on the 'agenda' with brief messages and responses in Japanese -- although our formal meetings are in English. Particularly with delicate negotiations, if clients feel that their English in a brief e-mail might be 'legally binding' it is very helpful to be able to encourage them to write in Japanese and to be able to encourage them to share their views and suggestions.

Perhaps most importantly, Kimizuka-Sensei applies very solid teaching methods to achieve predictable and efficient progress, but without imposing any demands on the student. That is, she is genuinely interested in the student's long-term success and will adapt in any way to help him or her progress.

I very much look forward to continuing my Japanese language studies with Kimizuka-Sensei for many years to come.

[4] Thomas Gerke

Hello my name is Thomas(Germany) and I had the chance to enjoy some "Japanese-in-Japanese" lessons by Ms. Kawaura.
When I first heard about learning Japanese just in Japanese even without knowing any basics I was wondering how that was supposed to work.
But it turned out to be a very encourageing, joyful and productive way to learn a language that is so different from my native tongue.
I can only recommend this way to learn to everyone who worries that Japanese is "impossible" to learn.

[3] Carsten Thirstrup

Aramaki-sensei has been my Japanese teacher for 2 1/2 years. During that period, I always appreciated his excellent choice of materials and relaxed way of teaching. I can only recommend Aramaki-sensei as a skillful teacher.

[2] Paul.C

Aramaki-san works hard on getting lazy people (like me) to learn Japanese. He's a great teacher and I'll recommend him to anybody!
Aramaki-san, gambatte kudasai!

[1] Paul.F

Hi! Paul dayo! Oi! Koitsu! Omae! Nani yatte no? Anyway,I'm still in shock after Kota told me how cheap his lessons were and I'd recommend his lessons to anyone interested in Japanese. Anyway,it's time to go.