Studying Japanese in Beijing

[sailorphyn]

I'm going to spend nearly a month in Tokyo (December) and would like to study some Japanese before I go. Any suggestions for schools that offer Japanese lessons or tutors? It would have to be after work or on the weekends. I saw this: http://www.riyu.net but it seems classes have already started and 8 hours on the weekends a little bit to 厉害for me!

[carlo]

I tried to do the same a couple of years ago. The problem with these classes is that the teaching style is often very 'Chinese', in the sense that the (non-native) teacher goes over the grammar points and the class reads the dialogue aloud, like children memorizing 三字经. In the end I bought some books and VCDs (very cheap and easy to find) and found a Japanese neighbour willing to meet once a week over coffee.

[roddy]

Does Diqiucun offer Japanese lessons? I seem to remember that they do, but would have been a couple of years since I saw that. They might have a more international bunch of students and therefore maybe a better teaching style.

[hunxue]

Japanese is rather popular so you won't have any trouble finding free grammar resources on the web. Pick up a copy of JWPce for a lightweight dictionary/wp app and go find some Japanese students. There are tons of Japanese students at BNU and my spoken Japanese has drastically improved in the few weeks that I've been here. If you're in the market for books, I suggest "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar." It's only published in Japan, but it's an invaluable resource if you plan to study Japanese in-depth.