Where should I study Japanese in the Bay Area?

November 24, 2008 11:44 AM

Where should I study Japanese in the Bay Area? I work at EA and one of my co-workers is visiting from Japan. I'm conversationally fluent but still feel my grammar and vocabulary is really rough (plus, I'm as illiterate as a peasant).

Where should I study Japanese in the Bay Area? I work at EA and one of my co-workers is visiting from Japan. I'm conversationally fluent but still feel my grammar and vocabulary is really rough (plus, I'm as illiterate as a peasant).

I live in Redwood City in the South Bay, so if the class met during the work week it would have to be close. I could commute farther on the weekend.

Thanks in advance for your help! I sincerely appreciate it.

posted by ebness86 to education (3 answers total)

The Japan Society of Northern California offers language classes in SF, SJ and Palo Alto.
posted by jamaro at 11:53 AM on November 24, 2008

Note, if you can choose, learn your Japanese from someone of the same gender as you are. Gender differences in Japanese are complex and deeply structured in the language so it's just easier if you learn from someone of your same gender.

What happens sometimes is you have a non-Japanese guy who finds a Japanese girlfriend (either in Japan or outside of Japan) and that guy then starts talking like a girl, which you don't want to do unless you consciously want to sound feminine.
posted by gen at 7:11 PM on November 24, 2008

The Japan society seems like my best bet. I'm marking this as resolved and I'll update once I've taken classes there.
posted by ebness86 at 2:25 PM on December 1, 2008