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I feel sad. It's been a great two months. Great is not as strong as I really feel that can reflect my feelings about Japan. I'm planning already to return soon and return to GenkiJacs. I am going to study on my own, of course, but I feel that you need that kind of interaction and immersing myself in Fukuoka is the way to do it. And of course GenkiJacs is the best way to do it. Why? Let me tell you.

1. The people. Yes, Japan is full of great people. Fukuoka has people that are always helpful and kind. But GenkiJacs have a staff that goes out of their way to make you feel comfortable and at ease. They spoiled me with chances to find things in Fukuoka and in Japan for things to see and do. It was my own fault that I didn't do all of them. The teachers were the best. They always found a way for me to remember certain things to help me speak and understand the language. It wasn't just a way to repeat things because we know that set phrases and set responses do not work. That's why outlessons were so fun. Outlessons were the times we shopped for groceries for our Takoyaki party. Or when we asked travel agents about recommendations for places to go in Japan and why. Or when we went to the shrine and were shown what to do and why. Or the 'extra' outlessons when we went to the yatai to order food or went to the photobooth to take pictures with our friends. I mean it was a constant learning experience. The fun seemed to be more of a primary factor than the learning, but next thing you know what we did helped me later when I was at the market alone without my teachers.

2.Location. GenkiJacs was right there in the center of Tenjin. Three points of subway stations were less than 10 minutes away on foot and one,Hakata station, was also a JR point that can take you to the rest of Japan. Buses are everywhere and they take you everywhere. Plus temples and shrines were always a walk away. Ohori Park was two stations away for a nice walk or good run. Tenjin Station was the hub of buses and the Nishitetsu(sp?) Line, plus it had over 6 floors of shops and restarants. It was hard not to shop or eat there. ha. Also, nearby was an arcade with a place that you can bowl, play darts, badminton, or just games. GenkiJacs is right in the middle of it all.

3. Lessons/Schedule. All the lessons were 50 minutes long with a 10 minute break in between and a lunch after two hours, usually. At least that was my schedule. I didn't have to wake up early everyday. There were days my classes started at 11am. Nice!! I could sleep in, catch up on homework, extra study time, run errands, or whatever. Or sometimes I had a 2 hour lunch so I could go somewhere with friends and not just pick up my favorite bento. Our schedules were always different. Just like our lessons. All of my lessons were always fun and something new. My day could be like 1st a Conversation Class. We would talk about our weekend or what we did yesterday. Mind you, this is all in Japanese. The only time you spoke in English was to ask how to say what you wanted to say in Japanese. And you even asked in Japanese. So I ended up building my vocabulary. We would use our Grammar structures we just learned to feel more natural in our speaking ability. Funny for me, I always reverted to being polite in the -masu form. Ha. But I was speaking. ha. The great thing was the topics were always open. Sure, it would start to be us talking about work, but then we would start talking about people at our work, or crazy things on the differences among all our countries. So it made it real easy to learn. Then I would go, or stay in the same room, and have my Grammar class. This was the nuts and bolts of Japanese, or any other language. And I have to say, Japanese has it easy. People think it's hard but it's not. Like to create a question you just add -ka. That's it. For English, we change word order, add a question word, and sometimes conjugate the verb to create a question. Grammar class was also fun. It's actually a conversation class with a topic, haha. Once we go over the what's and how's, we start talking by role-playing. And we didn't just follow the book on the grammatical point. Our great teachers would throw in something that would help us remember or even add on to show us more. This is also when we worked on Listening. We would watch a short dvd clip or a cd and listen. The we would interpret or fill in the blank. This could be then end of the day, but I wanted to add an extra conversation class, so I would get more out of my stay. Some of these extra classes, we learned more cultural points and played games. I learned how to play Shoji, Japanese Chess, and a card game where you have to find a card with a certain syllable and the card has the picture that the reader is describing. In the end, I took a pop culture class and we went over a few pages from a manga. We interpretted and discussed the grammar points and looked over a few cultural points because of the way the language was structured. Fun stuff.

4. Staff/Teachers. What can I say? They were more friends than staff. But I still spoke to them with the polite form, haha. They always were there to help and talk. for me, I had to break study and return home for a funeral, the staff sent me an email while I was in America to tell me when I had class on the day I returned. Also, my teacher gave me a few pages of homework to make sure I didn't fall behind. Nice huh? What I thought was cool was how you may have mentioned something in class and then a few days later, they would comment on it. Most people would forget. Also, the staff would help us when things came up. One student had an issue with the bank, the teachers were willing to go with her to speak or interpret for her. I also had the chance for my own interpreter when I had the TNC television studio come to my apartment for a taped interview. The staff always looked for opportunites to make us feel comfortable. Level checks were given to see where you would start. I may have known the kana and some words, but they let me start in the Basic Foundation class because I wasn't comfortable. I can't pick anyone to be my favorite because I liked them all. Each teacher had their own style but they also shared the idea of who we were as non-native speakers and tailored their teaching for us. Another great point is how the teachers were so energetic, it was infectious. During outlessons, I wasn't as shy as I usually am. I had fun. I'm gonna continue to study Japanese because of them. They added to my interest in the Japanese language and culture. And when I return, I want to be a little more advanced than I am now, not to impress them, but to better communicate with them and everyone else.

5. Size. The school was small, but that was only because there were a lot of students. This should show you something. Unfortunately, I missed the expansion. But I will be back to see it. Yay! The only thing I'm worried about is that the classes were perfect for us to have classes with a max of 6. I'm hoping it doesn't get bigger. I like smaller classes. The interaction was perfect. This was important because, in my opinion, our levels and comprehension of the language was still a little different among the students in the same class. I know there were times I felt I held the class back, but it helped when the other students were still helpful. The thought of a class of ten is bad. One or two who fall behind can really hold up the others, plus it can get out of hand with our conversations. haha. I like the class sizes as they are with 2 to 6 students. It also made it better for outlessons. I love those outlessons.

GenkiJacs is a real good school. They are making it bigger as they should because more of us are coming back and the students keep expanding. I made a lot of great friends from around the world. Where else can you say that. I met a few people from other countries in my Army days and in college, but it's different. Maybe it was how the school made the classes small enough for us to get to know each other in such a short amount of time, but I feel I made better friends here. I like how GenkiJacs made everything fun. I learned a lot because of that. Just take a look at my vocabulary list. haha. I'll keep that to myself. You build your own. I'll be back soon and blog again.