My Testimonial
Written by Pieter Leon Roodt
Hi, I am Pieter Roodt. I am a trueborn Capetonian and have spent my life almost entirely in Cape Town. At present, I am a university student in the fourth year pursuing studies for the Honours degree in Business Science and Information Systems.
I have always been subconciously fascinated by Japanese pop culture since I was a preschool child. I was exposed to and grew up with interesting stories related to Ninjas and Samurais as well as some children’s shows such as Pokemon and Power Rangers (Although I believe the latter is an American production, its concepts and stories are based on a similar show originally created in Japan). After I entered a local high school, I started to enjoy reading manga and watching many anime series in various forms of medium. My personal appreciation of these primarily served to broaden and deepen my interests in Japan and its culture.
However, it was only when I finally finished my pre-university schooling years that I considered learning the Japanese language in a more serious manner. After a few half-hearted attempts to learn it by my own efforts and also fortunately having an opportunity to visit the country on a 3-weeks holiday, I decided to search for a Japanese language school or tutor in Cape Town who could provide me with a more organised approach to master the language. That was how I luckily came across the school, namely, Cape Town Nihongo Kai.
I have been a learner under my Japanese teacher, Keigo-sensei’s guidance for roughly 3 years and it has been an absolutely great experience to learn the language at the school. Through the different levels of the study courses, I have shared many lessons with various people. And, thanks to this, I have made many new good friends!
At the school, I am currently learning in a group of 5 members including myself. The lessons of our class are always very interactive and therefore full of fun! I feel lucky to be in this class of a higher level (LEVEL 4, Upper Intermediate Level) where every member’s proficiency is high enough that everyone in the class can freely talk and discuss almost any subject in Japanese. That is probably one of the reasons why the lessons often appear to turn into something more like an enjoyable conversational meeting with friends, rather than formal and straightforward sessions.
Initially in the group, I was probably one of the members with the lowest level of skills and acheivements in Japanese. Possibly though, it may have been the luckiest thing that happened to me at the school. To be able to study with these keen learners freshly encouraged me. They were very kind and patient with me whenever I struggled in the class environment and I have learned a lot from just being together with them in the class. I saw their amazing and ongoing passion for the study of Japanese and that kept inspiring me to try even harder in my own studies.
I believe this is just a great example of how well the learning structure works at Nihongo Kai. I witnessed other fellow learners in different level courses at the school who share the same regular sessions becoming great friends and learning from each other. The atmosphere in the classes is overall a good mixture between having fun with plenty of humour and occasional jokes with the classmates and a seriousness in meaningful learning. I believe this is mostly due to Keigo-sensei’s spectacular teaching methods! He is truly one of the best teachers I have ever encountered. He is always on the ball with each of his students’ progress and carefully and continuously evaluates their strengths and weaknesses.
My impression is that he applies a very interactive style of teaching. He closely engages with students so that he can encourage them to try their best. The courses also have thoughtfully structured and arranged syllabuses which make sure that every learner can steadily acquire a solid understanding of the language from day one.
Since I became one of the senior level students, Keigo-sensei has given me an opportunity to pursue an apprenticeship to teach as an assistant tutor in a few classes of the introduction and beginner levels on a weekly basis. Teaching other learners has been an interesting additional way for me to further develop my own skills in Japanese. I have made even more interesting new friends and connections through this experience as well.
Personally, my experience at Cape Town Nihongo Kai has been extremely positive! All the people I have met at the school are awesome. The teacher is great to me. I have achieved tremendously through learning the language and it has been excellent in many different aspects. I would like to happily encourage anyone who is interested in or who is just wondering about learning Japanese to join this school with no hesitation!
End of May 2010
Pieter Leon Roodt
Copyright (C) 2010 Cape Town Nihongo Kai. All Rights Reserved.
