Pyaess Japanese Language School

Enrolled to Pyaess to learn Japanese! Always interested to learn but didn't have the time or money for it! Finally, sometime last Nov, I went down to sign up to start my Japanese class in Jan! I paid $250 for the course fees and registration. I also received 2 books for the class.

I am starting from Level 5 Elementary 1. It's on a weekday from 6.30pm to 9.45pm. Completion of level 5 will take 30 classes! 

-After first lesson-

Soo.... There are 2 teachers who will teach the class, 1st section by 1 teacher and 2nd section by another teacher. I have no idea what is the purpose of having 2 teachers as they are teaching more or less the same thing. However, this was good for my situation as the first teacher (no idea what is her name cause she did not introduce herself) is unable to teach us. Why you ask? Don't worry, I'm going to list down for you.

1.   After taking attendance, she started the class immediately to read out the hiragana words without telling us which page and book she is reading from.

2.   The text she was reading from didn't even have the English pronunciation of the words so we were just repeating what she said with totally no idea where the words are coming from (halfway through, we realised that the other book had the English pronunciation, so we refer to that).

3.   Basically, no clear objectives were given on what we are learning before she started her 'a, i, u, e, o'.

4.     Perhaps I should have written the pronunciation before class, but this is my first language class, I was not informed anything and I didn't prepare anything. I expected to write the pronunciation while the teacher goes through with us. However, the teacher went through the words and phrases very quickly. She says once, we repeat once, then she move on to the next word.

5.   Some other students are also rather confused with the class procession. One asked if this is an elementary class and another asked if this is how the future classes will be held. Somehow, the questions led to saying that we don't recognise hiragana so we are having difficulties following her and you know what the teacher said to us?

She said that this depends on one's ability; some people go to advance class still cannot recognise hiragana. Is this a piece of joke? If I continue to be taught by you, then the one that studied till advanced class still don't recognise any word will be me! 

One classmate immediately asked the teacher that students will take JLPT, how can they not recognise hiragana. The teacher amended her words and says that she meant the students sometimes forgot the words or what, so need to ask the teachers what is the word. 

Hello?!? We not children anymore, think we don't know how to identify bullshit when we hear one?

However, during the lesson, she did admit she is a new teacher. But I believe to become a teacher; there should be a certain standard. You need to plan for the class and know what you intend to teach the class. Being a new teacher is no excuse especially when you are taking a elementary class where most students will have zero skills and knowledge about Japanese language.

6.   Anyways.... After which, she proceeded to use the textbook which is ALL in hiragana, with NO proper instructions on the page number and she started reading out again. Again, insufficient time for me to write out any pronunciations. Also, she is not explaining what the phrases mean. The students are just supposed to repeat what she read with no understanding.

7.   More questions were raised and it led to her passing out a worksheet which is supposed to be our homework. The worksheet shows us how to write hiragana and allows us to practice writing. Somehow, she thought that by letting us try writing 2 of the hiragana will help us in understanding her class better.

Sorry to say but after that, I gave up on listening to her class. I would have just walked out of her class, however I know there will be another teacher, so I just continue wasting my time staying in her class. I was not the only one who stopped paying attention to her; my classmate beside me started writing the hiragana worksheet and playing with her phone. I, too, started to complete the hiragana worksheet as well.

-During break-

Finally ended the torturtous lesson with nothing gained. I decided to talk to the admin staff managing the class to see if I can change classes or change the teacher. Again, it's like speaking to a wall. She didn't finish listening to our issues before getting defensive on us; kept telling us that our class has not ended and that there is still another teacher.
I'm like so we are supposed to come here for a 3hrs lesson only to wait for the 2nd teacher to teach us the whole session? I rushed here after work with no time for dinner, paid money and spent time to learn Japanese, only to be taught by a teacher who can't even teach (I didn't say that to the staff lah.. just wanna rant out.. continuing..).
Whatever, since it seems she is unresponsive to what we want, we went in to wait for the 2nd teacher; hoping that this teacher will be better before I demand a refund.

-Second session of class-

The teacher came, took our attendance and introduced herself to us by writing on the whiteboard her name; in hiragana (i think) and English (1 point for her!). Her name is Noriko.
Noriko sensei went through with us briefly on what the other teacher was supposed to be teaching us. She went through the vocab words; she would say once, we repeat, she will say the English vocab of the word then say the Jap vocab again, and we repeat. This gave me sometime to write in the pronunciation I missed out previously.

After completing the vocab words, she wrote both hiragana and EL to teach us to introduce ourselves in Jap. Noriko sensei gets all students to say out the greeting and correct student's incorrect pronunciation one by one. I have to say she is very patient.
Next, she took out a picture and stuck it to the whiteboard. 4 people with their name, age, nationality and occupation are written and we are taught to correctly answer her questions. Again, each one of us need to answer her questions individually. I felt I learnt something from her lesson. I was able to understand her and reply her in Jap!

We received another set of hiragana worksheet as homework to practice writing.
By the way, Noriko sensei teaches while standing and uses the whiteboard, but the other teacher just sat down. Another point for Noriko sensei!

-Overall-

My plan is to eat dinner before going class for future sessions. Go for class by 7.30pm just to submit my homework and get the new homework from the teacher. Don't need to rush so much and deprive myself of food!

If I were to give a rating for Pyaess, I would only be able to rate it individually.

First teacher (hopefully will get her name sometime with the progress of our classes): 0/5. I'm sorry, that's the rating for now until I find some redeeming points. However, I am not really going to attend her lessons much, so that might be difficult.

Noriko sensei: 5/5. Very patient, really. And I learnt some Jap language after learning none.

Recep staff: 2/5. She was quite friendly when we register but she don't have the capability to manage students' complaints and issues. During the class, there was also some issue with 2 students from Sat class and came to our class. She thought only 1 student was rescheduling and attending today's class.

P.S. Sorry for any Singlish that appeared due to my rantings >.<