JLPT Preparation Course

I recently completed a two-week, full-time immersive Japanese language course in Kobe, Japan, held by Lexis Japan. The program ran from 9am to 2pm daily on weekdays, with short breaks and a one-hour lunch break from 12pm to 1pm.

The course heavily emphasized conversational practice, vocabulary, and grammar. I joined an introductory course that was already two weeks into their schedule, which was beneficial for me since I had been self-learning Japanese over the past year. In the first week, we focused on a new set of vocabulary, engaging in conversations about attending events, hobbies, and ways to describe ourselves and others. The second week focused on more relevant vocabulary and practical skills, such as offering, accepting, or declining invitations, and giving and receiving directions.

I believe the program's intensive nature improved my language skills significantly. It also offered cultural exchange opportunities, including afternoon karaoke sessions, temple visits, and tea ceremonies. These activities aided my language skills and provided a more in depth view of Japanese culture.

Overall, the program was a great fit for me. I highly recommend this course to others interested in immersive Japanese classes given its excellent location and the high quality of the instructors. However, future potential students should be aware that the school allows students to join at the start of any given week, which could be challenging for complete beginners if they are placed in a class already several weeks into the curriculum.

My experience was positive. I learned more things about japanese Language. My teachers are really good and I enjoy the classes. The rythm of kanji, dictation, lecture, grammar and speak between all of us was very exciting.
The course seems to be like a “kaiten sushi” but in a school. You arrive to te course and you jump insiste the class in the same way that if you climb to a bus that is travelling around the city and you to down when you return to your house. The sensation is the same that if you to to a kaiten sushi, you pick up your meal you stop eating, you pay and go out but the kaiten continue his movement. The students feel The same. You don’t have a course personalized, you begin in the 7 lesson of marugoto (for example) and you libe in the 8 lesson. But the teachers say a lot of interesting things.
Best regards for all !!!

My entire time at Lexis Japan was nothing short of truly amazing. I will try my best to detail each aspect of it, as to further promote that this is a great place to be :D.

For classes, the main part to keep in mind is that you will have your teachers switched out nearly weekly. So essentially, you will have multiple teachers who may have different standards for different areas. Let's say for writing, one teacher may not be as focused on it and be more focused on fixing your speaking, while another teacher in the week will focus on your writing. As a result, it's a great way to get well-rounded, but it may have some disadvantages to those who prefer one teaching style more than the other.
And if the classes aren't working out, you can always talk to Shilpi or Tracy, who are both amazing ladies that you'll usually find at the front desk who are extremely caring and reliable. With them, you can book private lessons, I believe--although I never tried them. But as a whole, things are very accomodating!

But as a whole, the teachers are all extremely kind and willing to answer questions. Although there may be some difficulties that naturally come with the different nuances in languages--they will try their best to answer you, but there are a surprising amount of exceptions that may just be there because it's always been there.
I absolutely adored all of my teachers. Mia-sensei is very outgoing and genuinely a great person. Rie-sensei is a great, patient beginning teacher. Kubo-sensei is respectful, kind, and sociable. And Aiko-sensei is absolutely a sweetheart! They are all people I'd love to meet again.

The issue I may have with the teaching is the textbooks, as they are kind of odd in their explanations. It will detail the connotations and the meaning of new concepts in grammar, but they usually don't make much sense to me. But that's really where the teachers come in, and the teachers overall lead the lesson and make up for what the textbook lacks.

The location is right in a hotspot of things to do. There's a department store you can buy food, kimonos, and almost anything from. You can take the train stations to other parts of Kobe, really, you'll be stunned at how many things there are to do. I reccomend the Okonomiyaki shop somewhere by the Sannomiya Shopping Center (it's across from the department store).

The school also prepares activities daily (except for Monday), and the Friday activites are ones where you go out to even more interesting places with the group, at a fair fee. It's overall a great way to explore Japan while making friends with others at Lexis Japan! For example, we went to the Kobe Museum of Art, Suma Dera Shrine, and a cultural museum I can't quite remember.

Lexis is very clean! And the facility is well maintained. However, for the housing--I honestly would not reccomend the sharehouse/student dorm. Management will listen and is nice! However, the building is generally dirty. Especially the kitchen/common area. The location for this sharehouse is near a nice park and a mini plaza, but I think there are other better options.

I truly don't have many complaints, the staff at Lexis Japan is just wonderful. Aiko-sensei helped me pick out my yukata (thank you!!) and the other teachers have also just done so much so kindly that I think is heartwarming and memorable. I've never had so much fun as I had in my time with this school. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, I am grateful to everyone there.

Lexis has a great location in Kobe. The classes use a text designed for conversation and speech patterns. Teachers do their utmost to get students using what is in the lesson. The approach covers every step a student should know. If you get hung up on something new teachers will help you to understand without resorting to English. So even if you come in at an elementary level or haven’t studied Japanese for ten years like me, it’s ok to make mistakes and just go on. The pace is efficient at a lesson a day, so students should plan to take what they learn as a foundation for further review and study. The orientation is clear and they make sure you don’t fall through the cracks. Students are friendly and home stay was great. I added an extra two weeks because I liked the program so much. I was able to recognize what I need to do to progress with Japanese study and so it was a great investment of time.

The teachers were nice, the place was very conveniant with different train stations, places for drinks and food,the housing was good,the classes were fun and activities were also fun.

I had a wonderful experience in a fantastic country with very nice people and a lovely host family. The school was great and the teachers very dedicated. I made nice friends. I enjoyed the activities very much. I really can recommend Lexis Japan

First a few words about myself. I am a 30 years old IT-Administrator from Germany whose hobby it is to study Japanese. Therefore, I have studied at three different schools before Lexis and also took Japanese classes in Germany.

About Lexis:

As mentioned before this is my 4th language trip to Japan so I have other schools to compare.

What is there to say about the quality of teaching. Well, there is no teaching and if you think that this sentence is supposed to be a joke, believe me, it's not. The teachers are a bunch of clueless housewives without any kind of teaching qualification. In addition, the book (Marugoto) which this school uses is totally unsuited for any kind of self-study. In fact, if you missed something during classes, you can't even do the homework. No grammar explanations, no examples - nothing!

When the teacher is being asked a question, you will hear primarily three answers.

1. You have studied it before so you should know this.
- They will even tell you the date when you studied it and which chapter it was. Sorry girls, when you are asked a question, IT'S YOUR F****G JOB - THE THING I PAY YOU FOR - TO ANSWER IT!

If you are too lazy or to stupid or whatever to answer, maybe you should consider a different job

2. This is an exception.
- Oh really? I just asked google. It clearly says that there is a rule!

3. You will study it later at B1+ level.
- Yes, thank you! Great answer! I'M ASKING YOU NOW AND I WANT THE ANSWER NOW - NOT IN B1+!

The speed or better the rush through the chapters seems to have the purpose to make as many students as possible to repeat the classes, of course it's not free. They rush through one chapter every day (09:00-12:15) after that give you around seven Kanji and 30 new vocabs as a homework. For people whose native language uses the same grammar structure as Japanese and whose language is based on Kanji that might not be a problem. For me, whose native language is mostly based on Latin memorizing around 1800 word and 400 Kanji in only 57 Days (8 weeks) is impossible. Furthermore, Marugoto doesn't care about the frequency of usage for each Kanji, like JLPT does. They just give you whichever Kanji the believe are useful even so you will never see some of them outside of the textbook.

About facilities:

If you want to see snow at 30°C outside - turn on the air condition. That part of the building works just fine.
The school has huge whiteboard, A little to huge in my opinion. With an average humane angle of view, you can't catch it all at once.
And here's the down side. The tables are cheapest of the cheap Ikea crap tables. You can use that stuff for dining but definitely not for writing. The tables are very shaky and if one person uses an eraser all the other have to stop writing and wait until the one with the eraser has finished.

About social activities:

Yes, Lexis offers that and most of it is a waste of time. I participated in Calligraphy, a short hike to the waterfall near Shinkobe-Station, a one-hour trip to a nearby game center and the Lexis city tour.

Calligraphy and the waterfall were interesting but the other are just a waste of time. As for the game center - go and see yourself and for the city tour - they will show you the main shopping street. Seriously, does anybody need a guide for a shopping street?

There are more activities but the mentioned four were the only one that sounded interesting enough to participate.

About the location:

It's as central as it can possibly be.
Motomachi-Station, 250m
Sannomiya-Station, 600m
Lots of bus stops right next to the building where Lexis is renting its rooms.
All major sigh seeing spots are in walking distance (Meriken Park, Kobe Port Tower, Harborland ect.)
The central shopping streets are also just around three minutes away.

About housing:

I have booked a homestay. The first one I left after one week, because the gave me a room for disabled people where I had a toilet right next to my bed. The family was super nice but I simply didn't want to stay in that room.

As for the second homestay. The room is smaller, the train station(s) are further away. There are only two small restaurants in the neighborhood but the host parents are very nice and they cook great. In fact, I'm staying with them for one more month after finishing school.

What else is there to say:

The classes in the afternoon are just another way to make money. At "Japanese Plus" they don't teach you anything that you couldn’t google within one minute and the "guided individual learning" -> GIL-Time, well, most of the students call it "KILL-Time". You will understand why once you tried.

My advice:

- If you still want to go to Lexis, book part time and don't expect any kind of serious education. Everything there is about a happy, smiling atmosphere but nobody cares about your progress. Lexis is good for people who want to make lots of international friend, not for studying.

- If you want some education, take a look at JLI-Sapporo (I went there in 2016).
To be honest, my best experience so far was at ISI-Gifu (2017) but that school has been closed and moved to Kyoto (2018). Unfortunately, the quality has dropped a lot after moving.


@Lexis
I strongly recommend you to adjust the quality of teaching. For the money you are asking, you should easily be able to hire some real teachers.
Otherwise lower the price. The quality that you are offering right now is barely worth 50 EUR/Week but for some reason you are asking for roughly 300 EUR/Week for the full-time course.

-- !!Your quality does ABSOLUTELY NOT match the price!! --

was really really fun, i wanted to extend but my airline wouldn't let me change my flight.

Kobe is a pretty convenient spot as its not crowded like the major cities.
teachers are extremely friendly.

no complaints, the "Japanese plus" class that starts after lunch seems to be a bit of a goof around class, more speaking/listening practice during this time would've been nice but i think its up to the students to talk to each other that way so not really something the school can do much about.

i intend to go back next year

My experience as a student was different than most; I was only there one week whereas it appears that most students attend for an average of two or three months. I had lived in Japan for two years, 40 years prior, so my objective was to improve my language skills and correct mistakes I had been making for all those years. Overall, it was a fun but challenging, good experience. There are a wide variety of ages and abilities among the students, but it is a small enough setting (perhaps 25 total students) that everyone gets to know everyone a bit.

Lexis Japan's placement tests (submitted prior to arrival) and placement interview (done on arrival after the welcome/introduction) helped them place me in an appropriate core class. (Only me and two others). They rotate teachers, so you get a variety of exposure. All teachers and staff were friendly and experienced locals. Location and facilities in Kobe's Sannomiya area are awesome. I didn't use their housing since I could stay in a nearby (10 minutes' walk) business hotel for less money. However, it appeared students I met who where in a group housing facility clearly benefited from that experience. Lunch was 45 minutes: many students bought reasonably-priced take-out from the bustling Daimaru basement bazaar next door; others chose from of the hundreds of restaurants located in the Chinatown area located across the street.

There was a short presentation to welcome and introduce new students on the first morning to the daily schedule and rotation of classes, but I felt it was slightly inadequate. A reference sheet that describes the different classes, times, activities, schedule, rotation and expectations of the week, tailored for each brand-new student (since each student, once placed, has a different rotations) would have been helpful. Of course, after a few (confusing) days, one figures it out.

I really enjoyed my experience in Kobe, Lexis Japan. It was overall a great experience. The class in which I was studying with was very nice, we had a very good atmosphere, the students were all very friendly. The teachers were very kind, they are passionate about their job, the teachers also have a lot of patience,. The location of the school was in a building near Motomachi station. For me, I think that it was pretty far away from my homestay because I had to take every morning 30 to 40 minutes of metro to arrive there. But otherwise, I wouldn't change anything on the location. The school's facilities were excellent, they had the perfect items for the best study possible. The activities in the afternoon have great contents, it was excellent, the students can experience a lot of new things with the activities. I personally preferred the kobe beef eating experience. And last but not least, the housing was wonderful. I stayed at the homestay for 3 weeks with a friend of mine, we both loved the food and the environment that the homestay mother gave.Overall, I enjoyed everything in this experience with Lexis Japan.

The staff was always very friendly and I felt welcome from the first Minute. The class they selected for me was correct. The only disadvantage was that it was in the middle of a four weeks course. If would be better to mark the beginning of courses on website.

I spent a month in full-time intensive Japanese at Lexis Kobe. I stayed with a homestay family in a suburb. I enjoyed the family, but it was a long commute, about 40 Kilometers. I had indicated that I liked dogs and cats but I found living with 3 small dogs to be hard because of the noise. My biggest problem was that I was only allowed to shower from 5pm to 11pm, and the reasons for this were not explained very well at first. It turned out that they wanted to allow the shower area to dry all day. I adapted, but it was not to my liking. The family were friendly and helped my Japanese. The room itself was spacious. Every morning at 6:30 I was treated to the ringing of the gong in the room next to me, the Bhudda room.

Lexis itself has a good system of teaching. The teachers and staff are very friendly and genuinely want you to succeed in learning Japanese. The lunch break is 45 minutes, which might be a little less if the teacher feels like taking a few extra minutes at the end of the morning class. I like to go out to lunch, and found myself very stressed trying to make it back in time for afternoon classes. Some of the afternoon classes were of limited value because they cannot introduce new material as that would leave the part-timers out of the loop. So the afternoon is dedicated to review and culture. I felt it hard to concentrate in the afternoons, and one day, having been delayed in leaving by a teacher who insisted that we get a dictation right before we could leave, I decided to not return to afternoon classes. I enjoyed my first relaxed lunch and came back to Lexis, but refused to enter the classroom. Instead I studied in the lounge. This was a subject of many questions, and I told them that I was paying them, not the other way around, and that if they wanted me to be on time they needed to provide me with better afternoon lessons Other students had dropped out of them completely, meaning that it was just me and one other student, due to the same concerns. They reacted by upping their game and giving more challenging and interesting lessons.

The best way to approach Lexis is to not commit to too much of it. There are other students who had paid for six months of full time and got burned out. One of them dropped the afternoon classes and basically lost the money. I felt that by taking a month and then going traveling I was able to enjoy it to the maximum. I am writing this at Lexis, where I still come to visit and use their resources, so I feel that it is a great place but once you pay you can't get a refund. Whereas, if you want to continue or add afternoon classes, that is easy to do.

I have friends who have stayed at DK House, the other accommodation option. The rooms are small and it requires a small commute. For the ten days that I am back in Kobe I have rented a one-room apartment very close to the school for $454 via Air B and B, so I think that might be another option. Living with a family was a good experience, but having to commute and always communicate about being home for dinner, etc. was limiting.

I did not participate in many activities but the few I was a part of were fun. I met a lot of great people, even had the great experience of forming a band and tonight we will be playing a show here in Kobe. Throughout all of this, the Lexis staff have been wonderfully supportive, making flyers for us and encouraging us to have fun. Making music really helped with the stress of trying to learn so much Japanese and they understood that. In contrast, when I did the CELTA, which is admittedly more intense, I was told to put my music interests on hold so that I could study.

I fell in love with everything about Lexis Japan. The location, my classmates, the teachers and staff. Kobe is a city that I would like to live in the future as it's not as jam-packed and busy like Tokyo or Osaka, not too small like many countryside cities-- it was just right. The people were friendlier, more open and the city itself had a warmer vibe than many other cities I've visited. The classrooms were engaging, fun yet challenging as we couldn't speak any English once the sessions have started. This method has greatly improved my Japanese and I wish I could use it more here where I live (California). The teachers were very kind and patient as everybody is there to learn Japanese, they slowed their pace down so we can understand their instruction. They would even put personal anecdotes so the students can get a further understanding of the topic we were studying. The staff was unforgettable as they were the ones we would see first thing in the morning to greet us and the ones to see us off after the end of the day. They will even participate in after school activities which made it even more engaging and enjoyable. They even helped new students get around town easily by purchasing convenient train tickets or going to the local "Daiso". I will never forget this experience and I am already looking forward to going back as a return student later this year.

The first day that I arrived I was happily welcomed and met couple other new students that I was going to study with. The teachers were great. At first before arriving I was afraid I wouldn't learn much or what to expect from the three weeks I stayed, but after those three weeks I spent there it was all worth the money!

The school itself asked me for a testimony, so here's a copy of it:

First, the location is great : Kobe in general is a very pleasant city and so is the convenient Motomachi area which is easy to go to (thanks to the numerous train, bus and metro stations) and is full of shops and restaurants, and close to the enjoyable harbor area.

Then Lexis Japan school's premises are new, thus modern and clean and thanks to being on the 9th floor they are bright, and there's enough space for one not to feel squeezed in the classrooms or in the lobby.

Now for the most important part, I really enjoyed each day of the almost 100 days I spent there because the staff there were as friendly as helpful and teachers were really competent – whether about pure language skills or cultural ones – and friendly as well.

I especially appreciated the fact that classes were not overcrowded with students and that we had 3 or 4 different teachers each week, which brings nuances despite each one was following the same program of course.

I can only recommend anyone wishing to learn Japanese language and culture but also experience Japan everyday life to come and study at Lexis Japan.