The Story of Class 3 of the YWCA Summer Intensive Course 2006
On Friday we (Class 3) finished the Summer Intensive Course at the YWCA with a short play. For those who don’t understand Japanese it is the true story of what happened in class 3. この劇は実話に基づいていた 
Arigatous go to Ed (the script-writer), Yamamoto-sensei who translated the script, and my fellow classmates Lisa, Romen, Nami, Fon, and Julien. Special arigatous go to all the audience for laughing throughout (we paid them to) and Tamura-sensei for helping us rehearse.
We had a fun time doing the play and I hope you enjoy it. (Your money will be refunded if you don’t) 
Ah .. this was priceless .. very entertaining.. lol
hmm.. you can say i never seen this side of my uncle.. lol .. very interesting plot.. even though i never really understood it, except a few words here and there from watching one piece in japanese.. lol ..
Good work!!! Keep it up !!!
that’s cool! thnx for the video, dude!
Nikita (Class 2)
Thanks Ian, good job… it’s a nice “souvenir”…
Arigatou gozaimashita
Julien (class 3)
Good to see the show again and again..Keep in touch!!
Fon (Class 3)
本当にたのしかったね。 I was so nervous that day that the whole thing seemed over in a flash, so it was good that Ed brought his camera to record it.
Let’s all stay in touch and keep our Japanese level high. またね！
I’m trying to find out more about Japanese schools in Japan. I was wondering, what is the workload like during the Summer Intensive Course? Is there an examination at the end? And do they teach in Osaka-ben?
Also, I’m 20 (21 in Sept) and have done a couple of years of university but have not completed a course. Would there be opportunity for me to get a little bit of part time work at a language school if I have a working holiday visa? I’ll have my senior first aid, a little experience doing assistant teaching, experience from volunteer work for a youth service and I also organise activities for an annual camp here in Australia.
I understand this blog was from a year ago but I hope you can still help me with my query.
Hi Amanda,
The workload for the first couple of weeks was quite heavy. It sort of tailed off at the end due to us students slowing down. We also spent time rehearsing for the above play. There wasn’t an exam at the end which was a bit of a pity as it would have been nice to see how much progress we made. And almost no osaka-ben was used. Some of our class were from other parts of Japan or different countries so it would have been unfair if there was.
If you get the working visa, things are pretty flexible with work. You can work part-time and study. It is always easier if you stick to the bigger cities if you come independently i.e. without the support of JET program. Finding work in Tokyo or Osaka will not be a problem but teaching can be hard at first. A good friend and I got stomach cramps from the stress at the start but it got easier after the first month.
One thing I do recommend, is to take regular lessons. I’ve noticed that the most progress is achieved by students taking daily lessons. You don’t have to take a full time course but an hour a day with a qualified teacher will do wonders. It is the next best thing next to taking a full-time course (which runs to about a million yen plus living expenses).
I am in search of a new language school myself, I’ll post any results on my other blog (http://livinginosaka.net). In the meantime I am taking lessons from Japan Online Institute (http://www.japonin.com) which are fairly cheap and you can pick your level. Even if you do come to Japan, it might do you good to take some lessons with them in preparation.
Hope this helps. Good luck!