Registration Opening Soon

IMPORTANT

When signing up for our courses, it is required to register for a free account with our online educational platform, JVTA Online. Once registered, you will be able to see all available courses not only at JLMI, but also at our visualmedia translation academy! Thank you for understanding and we hope to see you in class soon!

Course Description

This course is perfect for JLPT N4 – N3, students who have taken a formal class or two but still don’t feel confident conversing with native speakers.

We cover casual conversation skills and common topics that come up in everyday life in Japan. Taught bilingually with audiovisual content from popular reality TV shows in Japan. We focus strongly on verbal communication skills (speaking / listening) and each session culminates in conversation practice, presentation and immediate feedback from native speakers.

This is an intermediate conversation course that will help learners put into actual use all of the grammar and vocab they have studied up until now. Using realistic situations and conversational styles found in anime, manga, realityTV, music and movies, instructors will guide students through examples, roleplays and provide realtime feedback. A great course for those who have plateaued after studying on their own and desire more realistic and practical training.

Course Goals

This course will take you through different social situations and show you how to navigate them casually, clearly and hopefully, successfully.

After taking this class, you will be able to do the following:

construct compound and complex sentences
react appropriately and quickly
ascertain opinions indirectly
ask more nuanced questions in a casual way
coordinate social activities
express your emotions without relying on gestures
have a fantastic time while also learning

Additional Info

All JLMI courses take place 100% online. In order to attend a class, you will need a device with internet connectivity. Smartphones and tablets are perfectly fine, but in order to interact more easily with media content, chat features and digital handouts, we recommend a computer.

JLMI cannot issue any refunds once a course has begun. Please carefully confirm the times and dates for each class before signing up. All times and dates are listed in JST.

For the security and privacy of all persons involved, course recordings will not be available to anyone under any circumstances. We offer real-time interactive lessons, not to be mistaken with on-demand content. Thank you for your understanding.

Course Instructors

Originally from the US, Bill moved to Osaka in 2007 with zero Japanese knowledge whatsoever. Thanks to that experience of studying to survive and practicing with the super slangy dialect of the Kansai region, Bill has a unique grasp of the language that has opened so many different doors for him from voice acting jobs to hosting live events, from performing for Japanese comedy audiences to officiating weddings. He believes that the goal of language learning is not to be fluent and pass for native but to be comfortable enough to share ideas with native speakers and use language as the tool it is to accomplish one’s goals.

Elina is a graduate of JVTA, staff of JVTA, and freelance translator. Born in the US, even though Elina is Japanese herself, she studied the Japanese language like any other international student. Her background and her love of anime will help guide you through the intricacies of the language.