A Day at YAMASA

A student's day

Monica（Switzerland）

SILAC Short Intensive Language Acquisition Course・AIJP Academic Intensive Japanese Program

Enrollment	April, 2013
Purpose of study	Increase my level of Japanese so as to be able to speak more with my friends.
Goals	I am aiming to increase my level in the Japanese Proficiency Test（Currently holding N4).

I am able to practice speaking natural Japanese in small groups without the use of normal textbooks.

I studied in the SILAC program in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Now I am currently studying in the AIJP program. After graduating in 2010 I returned to Switzerland and continued my study but I constantly thought about returning to Japan to improve my Japanese at YAMASA.

I had a lot of conversation practice during my study in the SILAC program.
In SILAC teachers would choose themes that the students wished to study and we would practice speaking about the chosen themes.
With only a few students in each class it gave plenty of opportunities for each student to speak.

I was able to practice natural ways of speaking, those not found in usual textbooks.
Because Japanese people actually use the language I had learnt in SILAC when I had conversations, I was able to quickly understand what was being said to me.
Class mates would also express their own opinions in Japanese.

I had many different nationalities in my class, including students from Taiwan, America, France, Italy and Sweden among many others.

I am now studying in AIJP after finishing the SILAC course.
Here I am able to study grammar, writing and reading comprehension, among others, which is very useful.

A typical day for me at YAMASA

8:30 Leave for school

It takes about 12 minutes to walk to
Yamasa from my Yamasa apartment.

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9:00 Lessons

Morning classes begin at 9:00 each day

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During lesson breaks
I have lighthearted conversations with
class mates from different countries.
Conversations are always in Japanese.

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12:00 Lunch Time

I have lunch at the nearby Kurumi Cafe.
It has a relaxed atmosphere and a view of a beautiful garden.
I love being able to eat the healthy food.

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15:00 Self study

After lessons have finished I review the days content.

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I also use the computers available to do review.

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