Japanese Language Courses

Japanese is the national language of Japan and is a member of the Japonic or Japanese-Ryukyuan language family. The relation to Korean and Altaic language families is a matter of contention. While there were some initial Chinese documents from the 3rd century that appeared to use Japanese words, the first clear Japanese texts were only seen around the 8th Century.

Old Japanese was heavily influenced by Chinese but as it went on, many other influences came in, especially European loanwords. This especially increased during Japan’s self-imposed isolation in 1853 and now there are a myriad of Japanese words that have come from English roots.

Japanese uses a lot of Chinese characters or kanji in its writing (along with other scripts) and much of its vocabulary is borrowed from Chinese. However, despite this, there is no genetic relationship between the languages.

Japanese is also spoken in:

• Australia
• Brazil
• Guam
• Micronesia
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Palau
• Taiwan
• Thailand

Many professionals in companies across the UK, as well as private individuals, have benefited from a Japanese Language Course with SIMON & SIMON. We have a terrific team of qualified native-speaker Japanese teachers, and with an average of 15 years’ experience they will ensure you benefit from a course designed specifically around your needs, whether you are a complete beginner or an advanced learner with more specialised requirements.

We consistently receive excellent feedback on our Japanese tutors from our clients, and we send our students a profile on their Japanese tutor prior to their Japanese lessons commencing, with information on the tutor’s background and experience.

If you have only studied languages before at school you will find that teaching approaches to modern language training have changed enormously in recent years – it’s now a lot more fun and a far more rewarding experience!

Your teacher will conduct your Japanese lesson almost entirely in Japanese – a method known as the Communicative Approach – and you will find yourself making progress from the very first lesson and soon growing in the confidence to communicate in Japanese in a variety of social and business situations.

Our Japanese language courses are available on both a 1:1 and group basis, but the majority of our clients offer 1:1 Japanese training to their employees. However, with careful planning, group training can offer great value for money, provided there is a real commitment from the participants to get together at the same time every week. We strongly recommend you keep group numbers to 6 or less for these types of courses to be successful.

Those learning Japanese on a 1:1 basis will naturally make much faster progress, as the course will be designed around their individual needs and focus on their particular strengths and weaknesses.

Course Management

Every SIMON & SIMON language course is overseen by one of our highly experienced Account Managers, all of whom are multi-lingual.

At the start of your Japanese language course we will send you a profile on your trainer along with the relevant course materials, and then a Progress Report after every 40 hours of training.

SIMON & SIMON has arranged Japanese language courses for clients in numerous locations, and with our global network of language trainers we can organise a Japanese language course for you wherever you are – in almost any major city in the UK, Europe and beyond.

The vast majority of our Japanese lessons take place at our clients’ offices, removing the need for you to travel, but Japanese lessons can take place in your home if that is more convenient.

We can also arrange Japanese language courses in our offices or online via Skype if that would be more convenient for you.

Japanese Course Schedules

Our Japanese language courses run throughout the year. The majority of our students attend at least one 90-minute session per week and many students will try to do more than one session depending on work commitments.

Our Japanese teachers are available Monday – Friday from 8am – 6pm, and Weekend Courses can also be arranged on request.

Our intensive Japanese language courses run for 30 hours per week, (6 hours per day Monday – Friday), and take place on our clients’ premises or in our offices here in the UK or abroad.

The content of your Japanese language course will reflect your level and your particular objectives. We will assess your Japanese language level before your course, and discuss with you in detail the subject areas you wish to focus on.

You may be a complete beginner looking for day-to-day Japanese survival language skills, or a more proficient Japanese speaker needing to improve your fluency when discussing areas such as law, banking, finance, insurance, sales, travel, marketing, and administration.

You may want to focus on improving your Japanese for meetings, discussions and negotiations, or to concentrate on improving your listening comprehension, pronunciation and telephone skills.

Whatever your needs, working with one of our highly experienced Japanese language trainers you can be confident that the content of your Japanese language course will be tailored just for you and that you will soon be meeting your objectives.

Japanese Language Examination Courses

We can also help prepare you for Japanese examinations of a business or general nature. We are proud to say our students have a 95% pass rate in language examinations, and their success further underlines the value we place on working with Japanese teachers with above average experience.

As part of our service, SIMON & SIMON will also organise the registration and administration of Japanese examinations and the issuing of result certificates.

The table below is based on recognised language levels used by various academic institutions across the European Union. A highly motivated student attending weekly sessions with their Japanese language trainer can expect to move from one level to another after 50 hours providing they also commit to a similar number of hours of self-study.

Of course, some people find learning languages easier than others, and some students will have more opportunities to practise Japanese in the course of their work and leisure, so these factors also need to be considered when trying to assess how long it will take to move from one level to another.