Sho

It has now been one year learning with Sho sensei and choosing Sho sensei to be a part of my Japanese learning journey has been the best decision. We have now completed the whole Minna no Nihongo textbook covering N5 and N4 material. I started from not being able to speak at all to now speaking basic sentences pretty comfortably and can understand much more in my immersion study outside of class. Sho sensei is a true delight to learn with. He is engaging, meticulous with his lessons and makes sure you properly understand what you are learning. His structured teaching style, with vocabulary, kanji and now writing homework provide a tried and true method for learning Japanese in the most efficient way. I have tried many teachers before finally finding Sho sensei and am grateful I have someone who can guide me in my journey. I am very much looking forward to further lessons and moving to the intermediate level. よろしくお願いします。

I’m finally finished with the first 25 chapters of Mina no Nihongo. Sometimes I’m very hard on myself, as I still have trouble finding certain words or saying the right thing during my interactions with the people I work with (in Japan). But when I look back on where I was when I started, it’s crazy how far I’ve come. I’m so much more confident doing things in my every day life. I have lived in Japan for three years, but have only really started studying for the past five months or so. It’s incredible what a difference these lessons have made. My co-workers will speak to me in Japanese completely, whereas before they would insist on speaking English. I can speak clearly with my barber, waiter, friends etc. Even on days where I’m struggling to find the right words, I can look back on where I was, hardly even able to talk about the weather, and find joy in my journey of improvement. It’s crazy how much I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Thank you very much Sho sensei. Ganbarimasu!

I have been learning with Sho-sensei for 6 months now, meeting 3 to 4 times a week on average. I just achieved the milestone of completing the Minna no Nihongo beginners course. This is been an incredible experience. Sho-sensei is patient, kind, warm, and a delight to work with. I could not speak or understand any Japanese at all at the beginning, and now I can have basic conversations and understand almost 100% of the beginner Japanese audio content I’ve engaged with. It’s amazing how much progress I’ve made with Sho-sensei in such a short time. I love the immersive approach of his teaching materials and lessons. It would be tempting to resort to English to try to understand things, but the immersion focus really sped up my progress. Sho-sensei is excellent at moving at a students pace and carefully using vocabulary and grammar that the student can handle. I will continue with him for intermediate studies and would highly recommend him to anyone looking to advance their Japanese

I just wrapped up with Sho-sensei's reading comprehension section and while it was nerve-wracking at first to go from strictly grammar lessons to application, it has made a huge difference in my ability to comprehend different levels of Japanese media. I'm consuming content strictly in Japanese without the need for crutches like English subtitles. While I'm still learning, Sho-sensei's thoughtfully put together lesson plan means every week I'm getting a little better and a little faster. If you want a teacher who's going to help you get results, I can't recommend him enough.

I recently completed Sho-sensei's「旅行の日本語」(Travel Japanese) course after finishing his beginner course. It was brief with a few amount of lessons, but I felt that the information was invaluable and will greatly help me prepare for my next trip to Japan. I was able to practice hearing and responding to the type of speech you would be more likely to encounter in real life compared to lines from a textbook. The format of the course was also a nice way to familiarize myself with the format of the pre-intermediate lessons I have just started with Sho-sensei. As always, the lessons are succinct and fun to complete, while providing a rewarding challenge!

Easy to understand content and examples. Sho-sensei can answer topics on grammar usage as well as culture. Deconstructs grammar points to help understand context rather than based on memorisation.