Studying in Akamonkai (The first 3 months)

Hi everybody!
Long time no see!
I'm sorry we have been away for so long!
So, first here is our new video!

As you can see, I did this video by myself [Andiie], because Victor has decided to step out from Japaneki. So, from now on, I'll be doing videos all alone! Of course, since I'm almost always with him, you'll probably see him from times to times ;)

So, I received a lot of questions about studying in Akamonkai, so I decided to do a video about it. I feel like my video is all over the place, so I'm sorry! I'll try to do this blog post a bit more structured!
And also, sorry for always saying "basically" in this video, it annoys the hell out of me. Being a French speaker, I'm searching for my words a lot of times! I'm sorry about this! (;w;)

What we use to study

Minna No NihonGo

The book we use is Minna No Nihon Go. To be honest, I'm not particulary fund of this book, but Japanese seems to love it so... I used this one as well at my university. If you are curious about this book, you can easily find it on the internet, so you can look at it. Also, you don't have to pay for this book, it's include in the tuition fees.

Hiragana/Katakana book
We use this one only in the first month since this is where we learn hiragana and katakana.

Vocabulary book

This is the vocabulary book that goes with Minna No Nihon Go. It's basically the vocabulary you have to know for each lesson.

Kanji book

This is the kanji book that we use to learn new kanji everyday. You have the kanji, the reading, words with the kanji and sentences using that word.

Kanji Practice book

This is the book we used to practice our kanji everyday. You have to write each word 10 times. Plus, you have to write the reading in hiragana above each one.

Katakana book

This is the katakaka book we use starting from the second month. It's images and katakana. We do this everyday.


Sakubun
The Sakubun is a book for when we do writing. Sometimes we do it in class, somestimes it's an homework.


The first month

The first month is really basic stuffs. You learn all hiragana and katakana. You learn how to do a basic sentences, how to count, etc. You learn till lesson 6 in Minna No Nihongo.

Also, you have two teachers by class. One for Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the other for Tuesday and Thursday.

Then, you have a test to know if you go to the quick pace class (2 days a lesson) or the slow pace one (3 days a lesson).

The second and third month
So, you get a new class after the test. New classmates and new teachers, yeah!
I was in the afternoon class and I will tell you how it looks like:

13:00-13:45
We usually do the kanji and katakana test. Then, we learned new kanjis and new katakana.

13:45-13:55
Break!

13:55-14:40
We usually review what we did the day before and practice a bit more.

14:40-14:50
Another break! Yeah!

14:50-15:35
We learn new stuffs.

15:35-15:45
Yes, another break!

15:45-16:30
We still talk about the same thing we start learning.

Somedays are pretty boring, I must admit. But sometimes, they are also pretty fun. I think the subject and the teacher can make it fun or boring, but so far, I didn't have any bad teacher.

We usually get one sheet of exercices as homework which is not much. Plus, the kanji practice that you have to do. I usually take about one hour to do my homework. (Because the kanji are long to write.)

I can only speak for this level so far, but I have a lot of free time. If it's something that worries you about Akamonkai, I can tell you that you will have free time in the first three months. We have a lot of vacations as well. Of course, during longer vacations, we have homework as well, but it's not that bad. Also, we don't have more homework for the week-end as we do during weekdays, so no problem there as well.

So, I hope this helped you a bit more and if you have any questions, please ask me in the comments section! I'll be happy to help you!

You can also join me on twitter (yukinozofan or Japaneki).

Thanks for reading and see you soon hopefully!

P.S. I know this blog looks so ugly, I'm sorry! I'll try to change it when I'll have time!

Andiie