Japanese Language Classes in Kobe: Studying at Lexis Japan

Written By Hayley

Long story short, I had a great time studying at Lexis Japan and feel as though I walked away with considerably more knowledge about the Japanese language despite only attending for three weeks. The teachers and other students were lovely while the environment was great for learning—and that’s coming from someone who has more anxiety than most when it comes to language learning and attempting to speak in front of new people. 

As someone who also has prior teaching experience and specialist training in teaching additional languages, I’ll be sharing my overall thoughts on the experience and help shed some light on what life might look like for an enrolled student.

All in all, my review of Japanese language classes at Lexis Japan in Kobe will include the general structure of classes, a detailed account of my first day, suggestions on enhancing your learning experience, the teachers, my critiques of the classes, the social connections within the school, what to do if you miss class, and even nearby lunch suggestions.

General Structure of Lexis Classes

Unlike many other language schools I researched in the Kobe and Osaka area, Lexis Japan allows students of any level to join classes basically at any point in the year. The way this works is students are grouped into classes based on their current skill level from A1, A2, A2/B1, B1, and finally the end goal of B2. For reference, these are NOT the same as the JLPT levels. 

While private classes are available, most students join group classes which can range from 2-20 students. There are generally more students at the lower level classes while those with intermediate skills may find themselves learning with only one or two other classmates. 

There are morning and afternoon classes with the latter being optional. The morning class runs from 9:00AM until roughly 12:15PM and has a built-in break around 10:00AM. The afternoon class starts at 1:15PM and runs until about 2:30PM without a break. While all students will attend the morning classes, the afternoon class is optional as it consists mainly of review and additional practice. 

I heard mixed reviews on whether the afternoon class was worthwhile with some saying it was super helpful as a beginner while others suggested self-studying or practicing with locals to be a better use of time. I personally only attended morning classes, and I felt they were sufficient when paired with self-study methods.

The basic structure of a class from Monday to Thursday was typically as follows:

  • A morning greeting

  • Homework check

  • Basic skill reinforcement if needed (ex. Reading or writing hiragana/katakana)

  • Dictation practice

  • Review vocabulary as a class

  • Learning new grammar and applying vocabulary through an Ask & Answer format

  • Break time 

  • Paired conversations

  • Additional speaking practice, usually requiring you to get up and talk to new classmates

  • Assigning of homework to wrap up the class

Fridays are a bit different as these are speech days and you are expected to prepare a short speech as your homework on Wednesday or Thursday. The teacher will provide corrections and then you present it a minimum of three times: the first time is a practice round with the peers in the same level of class, the second time is in front of everyone enrolled at Lexis plus all the teachers, and the third time is in a small group where students of varying levels are mixed together and then classmates must formulate ask questions about your speed for you to answer on the spot. There are no afternoon classes on Friday, and instead there are cultural activities that range from trips to local museums, plum blossom viewings, karaoke, or sightseeing around the city. Full-time students can join for free while part-time students are asked to pay a small amount if they’d like to join (usually ¥500).

Occasionally, there will be additional speeches whenever a student is departing.  These speeches are just presented by whoever is graduating, and while it's expected the more advanced students present in Japanese, you are also able to share your gratitude and say good bye in English. 

Each class focuses on a new topic that follows the assigned Marugoto textbook. There are corresponding vocabulary sheets provided with the textbook as well as worksheets that are completed in class. For each topic, you go through the new vocabulary as a class and then work on learning how to ask and answer common questions. The teacher will demo asking and replying to the question and may even ask students to respond individually before having students pair up to practice asking each other.

If the day’s topic is time, you would learn how to count to 12 and then work through how to ask what time it is now vs what time it is in another country. You’ll then learn how to answer the question in various ways, learn how to differentiate between 5 o clock and 5PM or 5AM, and then how to say basic phrases like “I eat breakfast at 7AM”. The next day you may learn a follow up lesson where you can build on the previous day’s vocabulary and grammar. For example, you might learn how say “It took x amount of time to get from A to B“.

Other than to proceed to the next skill level, there are no tests or graded assignments. Each day homework is assigned in the form of a short paragraph, and you simply need to use the vocab and grammar learned that day. Beginners can submit work in romaji for the first week but are expected to transition to using hiragana and katakana by the second and third week. Homework is later corrected by the teachers and is simply meant to be a practice tool for students and not a form of assessment for the teachers.

 

An example of my homework describing what can be found in my room. I also presented this for the Friday speech.

 

Breakdown of the First Class

Prior to your first class, you’ll receive a welcome email outlining the basic expectations of the school, a map with photos, and some useful tips for those visiting Kobe for the first time. The email will also request you to arrive 30 minutes early on your first day.

On the very first day, you’ll be greeted warmly by the staff members at the front desk before being asked to take a seat while they prepare some forms. There are different forms depending on your age, so make sure to double check you’ve received the correct ones as they somehow mistook me for being under 20 years old (a nice compliment for someone approaching 30 I guess). 

The forms outline reasonable agreements, but there is one clause about allowing the school to take your photo and use it for promotional purposes, so if you’re uncomfortable about this, you’ll need to verbally tell them because there’s no way to opt out on the form itself. 

After filling out the forms, I was asked to move to the student lounge and was seated with three others joining that day. A teacher came and introduced the rules of the school and then showed us around the floor so we were familiar with where to find the washrooms, the student kitchen, tea station, etc. 

The school’s rules included having no food or drink in the classrooms, using phones only for dictionary apps and with permission, waiting for the break to enter the classroom if you are 15+ minutes late, and treating learning spaces as designated as Japanese-only zones. 

Despite this, I found none of the rules were heavily enforced as newcomers were able to speak English to fill in the gaps when communicating and more than once teachers allowed students to bring drinks into the room. I was also constantly translating words on my phone without asking and a few times someone would walk in even though it was 30 minutes into class. If students started to chatter in English in a way that wasn’t conducive to learning, then the teacher would usually redirect them which I appreciated.

 
 

The first class was a bit daunting as the group of fresh newcomers got placed in a class full of other beginners who had been learning for several weeks already. The teacher wrote our names on the board in hiragana and then asked each of us individually if we had any prior knowledge with hiragana or katakana. Those who were starting with absolutely no knowledge were asked to sit at a separate table and tasked with learning to read and write hiragana. Myself and one other were able to read hiragana and katakana but couldn’t write from memory, so we were given a set of flashcards to read to each other while the others had their homework checked by the teacher.

The teacher introduced herself in Japanese before asking the class to introduce themselves, starting with the advanced students who easily shared their name, age, country of origin, and occupation. Students ranged in age from 16 to 42 and came from all over the world including Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, France, and America. 

Thankfully, I had asked a friend who speaks Japanese to help me learn a few phrases in the event this exact situation happened, so I was able to share my name, my status as a Canadian, and that I worked as a photographer. Others who were starting from zero were able to share their name in Japanese and then the teacher allowed them to share more about themselves in English. 

I started the first class paired with one other new student to read words written in hiragana while other students finished previously assigned work. The other two newcomers were tasked with learning the sounds and identifying hiragana. We later went through vocabulary words as a class with the teacher holding up photo cards, providing the proper pronunciation, and then asking us to repeat back.

Following this, the teacher started writing notes on the board with everything being in romaji or hiragana. Even with some experience reading hiragana and the associated romaji, I felt a bit like I was drowning the longer the lesson progressed since we rarely received direct English translations and much of the teaching was done verbally with the basic grammar skeleton on the board and my half-filled in vocabulary sheet serving as my life vest.

When it came to practicing conversation with other students, I was able to ask a question but often stumbled when it came to responding. I kept trying to refer to my notes, but they were such a mess and many of the words were unfamiliar, so it felt quite overwhelming. My assigned worksheet was half empty by the end of the practice session, but there seemed to be no expectation to have it completed. Homework was assigned right before class ended, and then the teacher swiftly departed. As the instructions had been stated in only Japanese, I was forced to ask a classmate to explain what had just been assigned.

The first day was pleasantly enjoyable despite me feeling a bit confused, and I was able to grab lunch with some of the other new students.

The student lounge area at Lexis Japan

Suggestions for Improving Your Learning

I'd highly recommend setting a study schedule outside of class that involves reviewing what you learned that day and then also spending time looking ahead at the next chapter. It became much less stressful when I arrived to class with the vocabulary sheet already filled in because then I could focus on listening to the proper pronunciation instead of scrambling to write down the English translation. It's also much easier to learn when it's not your very first time seeing the new vocabulary and you know what to expect.

The questions you'll be practicing in class and the proper responses are also typically found within the textbook, so I'd spend about an hour each night looking over the sentence structure and possible answers which made conversation practices much smoother the next day. I also found this allowed me to ask clarifying questions in class and overall was just less stressful. 

I also found that having two notebooks was really helpful when learning. The first notebook was where I could write messily and just get thoughts and information down during class. I would typically write just the romaji or English in this notebook since it was easier for me and often I'd add on notes or corrections based on class discussions or teacher input. After class, I would rewrite the notes into my second notebook, and this version was always neater, more organized, colour coordinated, and also had the hiragana. 

Finally, I would encourage you to write more for your homework assignments. Many of my classmates were fine to just 3-5 sentences, but I tried to fill the page and work on implementing new grammar points or playing with what we learned in class to make th sentence a bit more complicated. This might look like trying to see if sentences could be combined, adding in a more advanced adjectives, playing with new vocabulary, switching the sentence structure, etc. While this took me much longer, I found the corrections on the homework to be extremely helpful as I'd get direct feedback from the teacher. I also found if I wrote questions in the margins of the homework sheet the teacher would write a reply back, allowing for some personalized learning. 


Additional Info on The Teachers

The first thing to note about the teachers at Lexis Japan is that they are all lovely people, and the words passionate, supportive, and patient all come to mind when I think about how to describe them. Everyday they displayed a genuine interest in helping foreigners learn the language and also went the extra mile to really connect with students so that it felt akin to learning with a friend. Despite being extroverted, I'm usually the type who fears speaking in class and rarely asked questions in university outside of private office hours. Despite this, I felt totally at ease while stumbling through conversations at Lexis and felt encouraged to ask question as I never felt any judgement from fellow classmates or teachers.

While every teacher is lovely, it should be noted that teachers rotate between skill levels, so you never really know who you’ll be learning from until you walk into the classroom. We had a different teacher four days in a row only to have the same teacher working with us for half of the next week. I’m not really sure how this gets determined, but they’re usually informed on what was taught the previous day so it doesn’t cause any significant issues.

It was great interacting with different teachers, but it is worth noting that some people may find it difficult to adapt to the different teaching styles each day. For example, some teachers seem to follow the textbook formats more closely while others are open to exploring topics that stem from tangential questions. Other differences can be noticed in the amount of visuals used or how often the teacher decides to utilize the whiteboard. 

Some Critiques of the School

Please keep in mind that many of the issues I mention below are fairly common issues that one might encounter in any learning environment and there is always room for improvement. I was pretty satisfied with the education I received, but nonetheless here are a few of my critiques for language learning at Lexis:

First of all, the beginner classes tend to have the highest concentration of students which means it can be harder to get the individual help that is often required when first learning a new language. I noticed this during conversation practices where some students would struggle to converse with each other and so they would either practice incorrectly spoken sentences or just stop speaking entirely and wait for the teacher to be free. Ideally, you'll be able to utilize technology to help bridge the gaps in understanding.

You are also at a disadvantage if you join a class that is halfway through the textbook as is what happened when I arrived. Most likely the teacher’s attention will need to be split and it may result in overlooking necessary aids for those who just joined. For example, I did not receive (or even know it existed) the “Useful Phrases for Beginners” handout until the end of my first week, and so while I was learning how to say “I shower at 7AM” by the third class, I had no clue how to ask the teacher to repeat herself or to express my lack of understanding. The phrases were also never practiced with the teacher which would have helped with proper pronunciation. Rather than jumping in head first, I would have preferred to have some kind of intro lesson that went through how to say basic Japanese phrases that were relevant to the classroom or meeting new people.

Disjointed pacing of the lessons was another consequence of joining the beginner class halfway through the textbook. After a week of learning with the beginner class, we actually got separated into a second beginner class (i.e. the A1 class became A1-a and A1-b) and then spent two classes trying to reorient and review. Not the worst situation, but it was a bit perplexing to me that they didn't just start all the newcomers in a separate, smaller class. Of course, these issues could be resolved if you enrolled at a different language institution with a linear learning system or if you’re willing to start by paying extra for private classes, where you’ll receive a teacher’s full attention, and then transition to the group classes.

Next, the classes aren't necessarily tailored to individual experiences or needs. If you plan to move to Japan the lessons will be helpful as much of the vocabulary will cater towards Japanese culture. If you're just learning casually, then this may seem unhelpful when some of the first words you learn are “housewife” and “newspaper” and “company”. It may also be unnecessary to be able to tell someone you have many shrines and temples in your city if you come from somewhere that lacks these monuments. To be fair, the school does advertise itself by saying “Learn Japanese like a local” so I don’t necessarily see this as a problem and more just something for people to consider when they are selecting a learning institution.

You may also be somewhat unsatisfied if you are looking specifically to improve your writing as the classes seem to rely more heavily on verbal communication, although studies do show that language learning is best done when you're working to improve speaking, writing, and reading in unison, so this isn't really a problem unless your hope is to study for some kind of specific written test.

Another point that is usually debated when it comes for language learning is the use of the learner's dominant language (or in this case just English even though for some this was also their secondary language). The lessons were predominantly taught in Japanese and translations were not always provided as students were often expected to understand through gestures or context. Even for certain conversation activities, direct translations were not always provided which got to be a bit confusing when it came to understanding what exactly was being said. For example, at one point in a lesson I was unsure whether I was saying…

  1. Which hobby do you like?

  2. What are your hobbies?

  3. What hobby do you do?

  4. Do you have a hobby?

While these questions are similar and lead to roughly the same response paths, you can see how it might be problematic when trying to figure out vocabulary, sentence structure, and grammar. Eventually I was able to figure out the difference between what or which, the lack of distinction between singular and plural nouns, and different verb uses, but it usually required me to ask a Japanese-speaking friend or self-study at home.

Of course translating between languages can be tricky since sometimes there’s not exact equivalent, especially with Japanese sentence order being quite different from English, but I still felt the teachers could have paused to provide more clear translations. Additional printed worksheets with question examples and sample responses could also have been worthwhile as sometimes it was difficult to follow what was written on the board once the lesson had progressed.

Finally, I did sometimes question whether time was being used effectively in some situations. I personally felt that going through new vocabulary often took longer than it needed to (sometimes up to 40 minutes) and that there should have been more emphasis on having students arrive with vocabulary sheets pre-filled. 

The speeches on Friday were another contentious point for me as they were useful in that you got to hear more advanced students speaking and could practice responding to questions from a live audience with teacher input, but it honestly felt a little overkill to have to share the speech three separate times. I think I would have preferred having the practice attempt be presented to your skill level class on Thursday, then on Friday have a mini review lesson on asking questions followed by presenting and answering questions to a predetermined group with mixed skill level. 

Overall, I would say none of these are major issues and honestly I think the school does a really good job of handling a constantly rotating roster of students at different skill levels. There were no glaring problems with the classes or school structure, and I think being able to have fun and connect with others while learning made up for some of the lesser inefficiencies.

Making Social Connections at Lexis

For those worried about making friends, the school provides plenty of opportunities to form meaningful connections. Naturally, you’ll make bonds with classmates simply out of necessity as everyone is struggling through the same problems while being forced to practice together in class, but there are also lots of opportunities outside the classroom. 

Many students arrive early in the morning and will chat while eating breakfast and you’ll also have 10 minutes to mingle during the break. It’s also very common for students to make plans to grab lunch or spend time studying together once classes have ended.

If you’d rather grab lunch on your own, there are also weekly social activities on Wednesday and Friday that all students are welcome to join. These activities range from sightseeing local spots, karaoke, anime viewings, kimono rentals, and even conversation practice with locals. Students are also known to plan their own outings and may send a group invite to the Lexis WhatsApp. I found weekends were the best time to strengthen connections, and I would often meet up with classmates to visit board game cafes, shop, grab dinner, and sightsee in Osaka or Kyoto. In fact, some of my fondest memories during my three weeks in Kobe included study sessions and dinners with fellow classmates, so I’d highly recommend connecting with your peers even if that’s not your primary objective in joining Lexis.

 
 

It is also good to remember that the ages of students can really range and you may find yourself interacting with classmates who are as young as 16 years old. Getting together to chat over drinks is very common in Japan, especially with so many establishments offering discounted rates for all-you-can-drink menus, but you do need to be mindful about participating when minors are invited as you don't want to be breaking any Japanese laws.

As a final note, I had also read reviews online about Lexis while trying to decide if I wanted to enroll, and I recall reading a few complaining that the school was just a place for young people to flirt and get into relationships. I can honestly say there was none of this happening when I arrived, and instead it seemed like people were just genuinely enjoying their time connecting with others from different cultures while seeking fun life experiences in a foreign country. If you’re hoping to find romance, it’s not necessarily impossible while studying at Lexis, but it’s certainly not the priority of those attending.

Missing Class

If you need to miss class for whatever reason, you simply need to email the school saying you'll be absent or text the Lexis Japan WhatsApp group if you're fine with everyone in the school knowing. There are no consequences for not attending other than feeling as though you're wasting money and missing out on some learning. It's always best to ask a classmate for the notes and to review the chapter at home or else you may be lost the next class. It’s also acceptable for you to complete the assigned homework to be submitted the following day for corrections. The school will not refund you for any missed classes, and this even includes weeks where there are national holidays.

Lunch Suggestions Nearby

If you’re wondering where to grab some lunch, here are a few places within 7 minutes of the school:

If you’re wondering where to grab a cup of coffee or sit down to study, you can also check out my blog post on my favourite cafes in Kobe!

Overall 

If you’d like to know a bit more about Lexis Japan, you can also check out the Lexis Japan Instagram page where the staff post the most recent social activities and several other updates including upcoming major events or holidays. You can also head to the Lexis Japan website if you want to learn more about the classes and rates being offered.

Not only was it a nice change of pace, but it was honestly exciting learning something in class only to overhear the new vocabulary being used in natural conversation out in public. I was sitting at a café and felt completely elated when I realized that I could understand a good portion of the conversation between two locals who were discussing a Wednesday to Friday work schedule and the everyday needs of a cat. I also learned way more in those three weeks than I would have if I tried to just self-study for the same amount of time.

After getting to know my classmates, I came to discover that there were many reasons bringing people to study at Lexis. The majority seemed to be learning casually and for fun, many of the high school students were part of the exchange program, a few wanted to compare the Japanese program to Lexis Korea, one guy hoped to learn Japanese to teach his incoming baby, and another large portion were testing the waters to see if moving to Japan could be a viable option for them. Regardless of your reason for joining the school, you’ll certainly improve your Japanese language skills, gain a deeper understanding of the local culture, and make some lasting memories along the way!

Hayley
Previous

A Curated List of Study Cafés in Kobe
Next

Exploring Kanazawa: A Peaceful Alternative to the Overcrowded Kyoto