Akari

Angela L. from San Carlos, CA

Akari Sensei is a professional, patient, and detailed-oriented tutor. I had two sessions with her because I needed to prepare for a job interview in Japanese. In the first session, she asked questions about my proficiency level and what I liked to work on. Close to the end of the session, she asked me to prepare for my biography with my professional background in Japanese. During the second session, we went over the content in my biography. As I was reading my biography, she carefully took down notes including grammatical errors and word choices. She shed light on the right grammatical sentences and asked me to re-read the updated content again. Then she went to correct me with proper intonation. I did it and went home to review and re-read the biography. It turned out that the interviewer asked me to talk about myself in Japanese and I was able to comfortably go over my biography. I'd highly recommend Akari Sensei.

Yaokai J. from Mountain View, CA

Akari Sen-sei is very well-prepared into the lessons, and was able to go at my pace, which was probably a lot faster than what she usually does. She was very accommodating with time and was willing to do the extra mile to set up tests as checkpoints upon request. I greatly enjoy lessons with her and I would say that my Japanese skills have significantly improved with less than 10 tutorial sessions. The homework sheets helped greatly as well.

Shweta N. from Cupertino, CA

I am learning business Japanese from Akari sensei. She is a great teacher. She knows her subject material extremely well, is organized and structured with her lessons, flexible with lesson scheduling (which is extremely helpful for busy professionals) and is encouraging and patient. I highly recommend her.

Julie D. from Cupertino, CA

Akari-san is all-around wonderful! I am moving to Japan to teach English and had never studied Japanese before, but in two short months, I have learned so much. She is very flexible with meeting times/places, and is always very patient. The textbook we used (Genki) is very well written and understandable, and I plan to continue studying with it even after finishing my tutoring lessons. Akari-san makes sure to move at a pace that is good for you, making sure you understand the concepts before proceeding. One thing I especially liked, is that she uses as much Japanese as possible, instead of using English as a crutch, which I believe helps you pick it up faster. And since she is native to Japan, she was able to provide insight about what life will be like there. I highly recommend her to anyone looking to learn Japanese!

Maggie T. from San Mateo, CA

Akari is very patient and always willing to answer questions. She's also very good at explaining some specifics about Japanese culture in addition to the language. Her explanations have been very helpful so far and I'm looking forward to continuing my lessons!

Vivian K. from Palo Alto, CA

I am preparing SAT II Japanese right now and Akari is always understanding and never gets frustrated during our lessons. She is very helpful. She helps you find the easiest way of doing things.

Cris Y. from Portola Valley, CA

I've had a couple lessons with Akari. She is very nice, patient, and supportive. She responds to emails very fast. She answers my questions and corrects my pronunciation very patiently. She is very flexible on the lesson plans and I got to choose what I want to learn about. She is very knowledgeable about both Japanese language and culture. She is such a great tutor because she is not a pretentious person who looks down on the students, but an easily accessible friend who I can always go to if I have any questions about Japanese. She knows a lot about Japanese Pop culture and it was so fun to talk to her about the Japanese dramas and actresses I love!

Christine W. from Burlingame, CA

My child loves her Japanese lessons with Akari-san! Akari is very patient and takes the time to explain why the Japanese language works the way it does.

Raymond A. from Palo Alto, CA

During the first 3 weeks of being tutored by Akari-sensei, she has already helped me solidify my barely-even-elementary understanding of Japanese. She wanted to make sure that we were moving at a pace comfortable for me, which is great for when I don't understand certain things. I usually have questions too, and she always answers them thoroughly when she is able to. I think one thing that helps a lot for me is that Akari-sensei knows about the things younger people are interested in, the pop culture in Japan, etc. It's a whole lot easier to talk about something involving things like that or to ask questions related to something I heard while watching anime, or listening to a song, that I wanted clarification on.

Saori C. from Palo Alto, CA

Akari is a very good native speaking tutor, who is patient with my middle school aged son, tailoring her tutoring according to his skills.

Nicholas F. from Monterey, CA

Akari-san is an excellent Japanese tutor! Not only is she very flexible in terms of meeting times but she is also a very skilled Japanese tutor. She took a very dense Japanese text about the call market in Japan (Money Market) and together, we went sentence by sentence dissecting not only the kanji (both meaning and readings) but the overall reading comprehension by letting me re-summarize words or phrases with my own Japanese vocabulary. She also pointed out repeating grammatical trends to enforce concepts. Akari-san prepped the text in advance. She looked up vocabulary words in Japanese to help with the meaning. Apart from her great tutoring services, she showed up promptly (before the lesson started) and left a mode of contact in case I have any problems or questions! I have no doubt in my mind that Akari-san will help you no matter what your level of Japanese is (beginner to advanced) and help you reach your language goals! I highly recommend her! I have also tutored with several Japanese tutors in the past and I can say that Akari-san is hands down one of the best I have ever worked with!

Doran K. from Monterey, CA

Akari was very to easy to reach by email and was prompt to our first meeting. I was very excited that she was a native Japanese speaker, so she is able to help, correct and advise me on all my school work. I highly recommend her.