Teen Winter Program (lesson + activity + homestay + local interaction)

Local Life Japan is an amazing Japanese school, and my time there was so fun and enjoyable. I felt really taken care of and included in all of the activities, classes, and the culture in Kobe and Akashi!
I was picked up at the airport by a member of staff, who was immediately really warm and welcoming. She brought me to my homestay family, and I felt very at home right away. The homestay was completely organized for me by the school — the process was very smooth, and I didn’t even realize Local Life Japan worked with homestay organizers separately! I had no trouble at all with that process.
The classes were also very fun. They were quite small, and tailored to the students, with textbooks, notebooks, and pens provided. The building was comfortable and easily accessible straight from Akashi Station, and you could buy snacks, drinks, and ice cream in the break room outside the classrooms, or at the convenience store right down the street. The staff also organized activities every day, and we got to see a lot of the local culture and meet people! We also went to restaurants as a group fairly frequently.
I’m also coeliac and I have mobility issues, as in I need to use a cane sometimes and often can’t walk long distances, and the staff were really accommodating for both! They spoke to restaurant staff to make sure I would be able to eat the food, and they organized activities that let me avoid walking too much. I was really pleased with their help!!
Overall, the experience was just perfect. I had an amazing time and my only regret was that I couldn’t stay longer. I’m planning to return in August, and I can’t wait to do it again!

First of all Akashi was a fantastic location for my week’s visit. It a small, friendly town in which you get to know the locals. The school itself was also excellent. All of the teachers and lesson were engaging and the teaching material was presented at just the right level and a very high quality. We had many trips outside to practise our conversational Japanese and I really appreciated this as a useful boost to my learning. Out of the excursions, I particularly enjoyed the Kareoke. I did not stay in the school housing as I was accompanied by a family member, but from what I heard from classmates it was really good. We stayed at Hitomaru Kadan, a local Ryokan, which I would also recommend highly. In summary, my experience of Local Life was vey positive and I hope to return in he future.

The classes were sometimes really frustrating because most teachers would just tell us how to do it, but never when to use it or what it means in English. Whenever I asked I got an even more confusing answer, so either I understood from the start, my classmate explained it or I didnt get it at all.
The teachers were all really nice, they tried to hold conversations even though I didnt understand them.
The location was good, close to a station and lots of convenience stores nearby.
The facility was also great, and I liked how every room had different air conditioning.
The activities were mostly fun, but it would have been nice to be able to choose or help decide what to do, instead of just being told 'here this is what we're doing, come'.
The housing was amazing, I loved everything about my host family, my room, my way to school, I couldnt have asked for anything better.
Overall I really enjoyed the time I spent there.

The location of the school was fantastic, as it was very close to the station and a lot of restaurants and cafes. Akashi park was also close. I loved walking through it when I had the time. The school common area has both air conditioning (which is important when the days are 35 degrees) and wi-fi, as well as snacks, manga and switch games so there were plenty of ways to spend the breaks between lessons. The teachers were very kind and fun to talk to, and had great recommendations for lunch places in the area, as well as weekend activities. They would also help when we had a problem.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of people for most of my stay, which meant that it was difficult to tailor the lessons to the people present and some people were in classes that were ill-suited for them. Though Local Life Japan did their best to fix that. The textbook had some errors in it and some exercises were confusing enough that even the teacher did not know how to do it. Personally, I would have liked more speaking practice rather than sticking strictly to following the book, but I guess it's an individual thing. We had a different teacher nearly every day which allowed for some variety in teaching styles and let another teacher offer explanations if the students still didn't understand.

A lot of the activities were very fun, like the art aquarium we went to (it was gorgeous, and had a lot of sealife I had never seen before) or fruit picking and calligraphy. However, some activities were poorly planned, or did not work with large groups of people, especially when 11 year olds were mixed with people over the age of 20. For example origami, where no one really knew how to create anything other than a crane.

I got matched with a fantastic host family, that did their best to include me in their family and took me on trips during the weekend, while cooking delicious dishes and talking to me during the weekdays.

Overall, it was a very fun experience that I do not regret.

We had a wonderful three weeks' trip, and we are sure will see you guys next time.

Die Schule ist toll. Sehr gut gelegen mit schönen, hellen Klassenräumen. Das Mobiliar ist gepflegt und neuwertig. Das beste sind die Lehrer. Sehr aufmerksam und geduldig. Meine Hauptlehrerin war fantastisch. Sie hatte immer ein offenes Ohr für mich, egal welche Zweifel und Sorgen mich plagten. Als mid Fünfziger geht das Lernen einfach nicht mehr so einfach. Meine Lehrerin wusste aber immer, wie sie mich motivieren kann. Ich werde nächstes Jahr für mehrere Wochen dort wieder hin gehen. Für mich ist Local Life weit mehr als „nur“ eine Schule. Ich habe meine Lehrer alle in mein Herz geschlossen. Diese Schule ist das Beste das mir passieren konnte.

The school is located close to the train station and the instruction provided is very clear so finding the school is not hard. The surrounding of the school is also good where you have various options of nice foods, shopping area and even a market area to explore with.

The classes are designed for you to speak more Japanese thus building your overall speaking ability which I found it very useful. The one week class improve my overall Japanese speaking ability and of course increase my interest to further my Japanese learning journey. The teachers are all very nice and patience to guide me throughout the class to learn new grammar, words and also practicing speaking with me which improve my confidence in speaking in Japanese.

The activities available are also interesting. As the school is not too far from Himeji / Kobe / Maiko / Awaji Shima etc, there’s plenty of interesting activities/sightseeing you can do with the school or on your own. And you will have the teachers (the locals) to recommend you activities/things to try on when you are around that area.

Highly recommend to those who are looking for a place to learn speaking Japanese and immerse yourself in the real Japanese culture/life.

Locations:
Location of the school is very central and good to find
Location of my homestay family was also in a good distance to school, without long walks

Classes and teachers:
The lessons were well prepared and a good mix between learning new things and practicing talking. Every single teacher was amazing and responded to my needs - I cannot wish for more :)

Thank you so much, for teaching for me, though I was the only student. I really appreciate that!

Afternoon Activities:
All Afternoon activities were adjusted to my interests, so I was very lucky! We went to Himeji and Kobe city, to art and architecture related museums and even for dinner together. The activities were a good combination with the classes in the morning, to get to know Japanese culture and language.

If I would stay for more than one week, I would ask to maybe shorten every second activities a little to get home earlier, to get more time to rest. Because of all the new impressions and the three languages (Japanese, English and german) I was extremely tired every evening. I think a little time to rest between school and evening time with the family (just half an hour - to one hour) would have been perfect.

Homestay family:
What a lovely family I had! They were so helpful and showed me so much about daily Japanese life! We always had breakfast and dinner together and one evening they took me out for dinner to one of their favorite restaurants to eat Okonomiyaki. That was a great experience, though I wished my Japanese language were better, so I could talked more with the other guests. The mum also made me every day lunchbox with was soooo delicious!

The school is located close to the train station, which makes it convenient to travel to.
The classrooms are clean and cool. The teachers are kind and accommodating and try to push you to use more japanese when possible to help build more confidence. The activities avaliable were nice and interesting. Housing wise, it was a nice experience living in a japanese household and eating japanese home cooked foods.