Japanese Coaching, Built for One Professional at a Time
For more than twenty years I have taught one kind of student: working professionals, one to one. Executives, diplomats and professional athletes — not classrooms, not language-school groups, not a course you join partway through.
Your goal. Your schedule. Material written for your week. Everything here is built around a single person, because that is what the work requires.
Japanese Coaching, Built for One Professional at a Time
For more than twenty years I have taught one kind of student: working professionals, one to one. Executives, diplomats and professional athletes — not classrooms, not language-school groups, not a course you join partway through.
Your goal. Your schedule. Material written for your week. Everything here is built around a single person, because that is what the work requires.
20+ years of one-to-one coaching | Executives, diplomats and professional athletes | Registered Japanese Language Teacher (登録日本語教員) | Former contracted instructor, U.S. Consulate General Osaka-Kobe
Around five hundred students, almost all of them one to one.
Professionals from global technology, finance, pharmaceutical, consulting and automotive companies.
20+ years of one-to-one coaching | Executives, diplomats and professional athletes | Registered Japanese Language Teacher (登録日本語教員) | Former contracted instructor, U.S. Consulate General Osaka-Kobe
Around five hundred students, almost all of them one to one.
Professionals from global technology, finance, pharmaceutical, consulting and automotive companies.
The Gap You Already Know
You have studied. You recognize the grammar, and you know the words. But in the moment — in a meeting, at a counter, over dinner — the Japanese does not come out.
That is not a lack of effort, and it is not a lack of ability. It is the stage where your knowledge has outgrown your use of it. Closing that gap is the entire purpose of this program.
Who I Work With
I teach professionals.
That is the one thing my students have in common — not their level, and not their reason for learning.
Most of them work for global companies
where the office language is English and Japanese is never strictly required. They study anyway: to be in the room when things are decided, to speak with their team without going through someone else, to live in this country rather than beside it.
Their levels run from complete beginner to near-native.
Their goals run from ordering confidently at a restaurant, to chairing a meeting in keigo, to passing N1. All of it is welcome here. What does not change is the standard of the coaching — and the fact that every lesson is built for one person.
This is a good fit if you:
work as a professional and want Japanese that holds up in real situations
want a program built around your life, rather than a syllabus you have to keep up with
are willing to spend some time on Japanese between lessons
Lived with Japanese for years, but never studied it? The Family Table Course is a ten-lesson program built for exactly that. →
The WELC Method
1 — The lesson is designed for one person
Your first session is a deep-dive needs analysis and level check. From it I build your roadmap: Daily Life, Business, JLPT, or any combination of the three. Pace, difficulty, lesson style, and the balance between speaking, reading and writing are all set by you — and revised whenever your situation changes. A new project, a transfer, an exam date: the program moves with you.
2 — The book is chosen for you, and the lesson goes beyond it
Most programs pick a textbook and ask the student to fit it. I do the opposite. Your course books are selected for you after the needs analysis — one or more, matched to your level and to what you need Japanese for — and sent to you around your second lesson. They give the work its structure and its progression.
But no published book knows that you have a presentation next month, or that you keep getting stuck at your child's school. When something in your own work or life calls for Japanese, I write the material for it and we work on it in the lesson.
This is only possible one to one. It is why I have built my teaching around it.
3 — Every lesson leaves you something you keep
The vocabulary and expressions from each session are turned into a digital flashcard set and sent to you after class. Nothing stays behind in the video call, and you never have to write things down while you should be speaking.
A few minutes of review a day is what moves a word from "I have seen that" to "I can use that." Over a year, this quietly becomes the largest part of your progress.
4 — If you are aiming at the JLPT, you see the whole route
For students preparing for the JLPT I build a roadmap that runs from today to exam day — several months, or a full year. What is covered when, which skills are built first, where the checkpoints fall, and what you should be able to do by each one.
You always know where you are and what remains. For someone preparing around a demanding job, that visibility is what removes the anxiety — and what makes it possible to keep going.
How It Works
Session 1
A deep-dive needs analysis, a level check, and a demonstration lesson. We agree on your goal and on how you want to work.
From Session 2
Your course books arrive — chosen for you, not assigned in advance — and the work begins. Each session is 55 minutes, one to one.
After every session
Your digital flashcards arrive.
Whenever you need it
The roadmap is revised. Your Japanese should follow your life, not the other way around.
Private Coaching
I take on a small number of private students at a time. Each engagement is arranged individually, begins at twelve sessions, and is quoted once I understand what you need.
Every engagement includes:
55-minute one-to-one sessions
One or more published course books, selected for you after your needs analysis
Digital flashcards after every session
Original material, written whenever your own work or life calls for it
A roadmap, reviewed whenever your goals change
Email support between lessons — one question a week, answered within two working days
A first-session satisfaction guarantee
Validity periods are deliberately generous: travel and busy periods should never cost you sessions.
Practical Details
Scheduling
Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (JST). Cancellations and changes are accepted up to one hour before your session.
Satisfaction
If your first session does not convince you, you may request a refund of the remaining balance within 24 hours of that session.
Tell me what you need Japanese for.
Send a short message about your work, your current level, and what you want to be able to do. I will reply with an honest view of what is realistic in your situation, how I would approach it, and what it would cost.
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