I participated in every culture classes (except the manga/anime one) and I am very satisfied of each one!
Which events or activities did you find the most satisfying and why?
I participated in every culture classes (except the manga/anime one) and I am very satisfied of each one! It was some great time, and the historical class conducted by Tanaka san before each one was very instructive.
What were the most productive and interesting aspects of the program for you? The least interesting and productive?
The most productive and interesting would be the fact of hearing understandable Japanese (for our level) during the 3 hours class per day. It has definitely been a major point in my overall Japanese improvement. The least would probably be the studies structure. It was very "school like" and I am not sure that it is the most effective method for an intensive program.
What did you find most valuable in the Culture Course?
The combination of historical explanations on the morning, then the trip on the evening was a really good thing. I loved them all.
Any comments or tips for prospective/new KCP students?
I went into lvl 1 (lowest level of studies in KCP) so my advices will be for lvl 1 students only. Before KCP advices: > If you can do the "Heisig - Remembering the Kanjis" book, you'll be free of any kanji work for the entire term, higly recommended. But it takes an horrible amount of time, so do it only if you have 1 year before departing. > Really important, I would suggest to buy the Minna no nihongo and do the lessons 1 to 5 before coming to KCP. As KCP classes are a bit intense, if will free you the first 2 weeks, allowing you to get in the rythm smoothly. > Learn hiragana and katakana omg, it takes 1 week and if you don't do it, you'll be instantly behind. During KCP advices: > Don't relly only on the KCP stuff, write down every single vocab you don't understand in your daily life in Japan (including class) and learn it. > USE ANKI (the application) to remember your vocab. If you don't, you'll have hard times learning japanese (or any other language). > Look at grammar stuff right and left when you don't understand a thing, and get yourself a great grammar support (ex "Bunpo" app on smartphone). > Meet japanese friends, talk with them, do language exchange (1 time your language, 1 time japanese), you'll see it's incredible. > Listen actively to simple podcasts (ex: spotify "Let's Talk in Japanese!", work on the N5/N4 podcasts) Level 1 in KCP has around 650 vocab words, but by getting everything relevent you hear you'll have around 2500 at the end of the KCP term. As a recap I will just tell my own experience of learning Japanese and I hope it will motivate you to work hard! I did "Remembering the Kanji" in a year, before coming to Japan, and went through the first 5 lessons of Minna no nihongo in my home country. I ended up in level 1 of KCP classes because I COULDN'T speak Japanese. My level was more a "0" than a "1" at this time. During the first month of studies in KCP, I almost couldn't understand a thing (even IN class). Was hard time but I was getting vocab and started to look up at grammar stuff. In the middle of my term in KCP, I really started to learn the vocab (went over ~1000 words during golden week), and my Japanese started to look like something. At this time too, I made 3 japanese friends and started to talk with them. Last month of KCP was pure happiness, I was understanding things, could say anything I wanted (of course with an awfull awfull Japanese and a lot of patience from the interlocutor, but being able to say what you want is overly satisfying). I spent my last 2 week-ends with these Japanese friends, with full day in Japanese. Of course please note that this 3 months where 24/7 working times, head in books, vocab and conversations with friends. (but the last one is cool isn't it?) I read a lot of reviews depicting the "hard work KCP is", but I didn't feel it that way. If you come with hiragana/katakana/kanji (last one is a bit harder sorry) knowledge, and you follow this kind of "learn as much as possible as you are in Japan", KCP will really only be an enjoyable place where you can hear easy Japanese 3 hours per day (plus where you can speak with super super friendly teachers). As an exemple, I didn't spent much more than 30 min per day on KCP homework during my whole semester. (But don't get wrong, 100% of my time was consacred to Japanese studies). Anyway, I hope it will help someone, please either it be at KCP or somewhere else, coming to Japan is an incredible experience, take any single minute you spend in this wonderfull country to discover the language, culture and to meet people!
