Both in-person classes in Hamilton, New Zealand or live-instruction via Zoom.
Individual Tutorial sessions are offered on a one-on-one basis and subject to instructor availability. You can begin your lessons at anytime of the year. Please contact us if you are interested (using the Contact menu bar item on our home page.)
This course is offered as either an in-person course at the EarthDiverse Centre in Hamilton, New Zealand or live-streamed via Zoom if you live elsewhere.
As this is an individual tutorial, our Japanese 1-on-1 sessions are tailored to your level and we can focus on whatever you are most interested in.
• If you are a beginner, or already speak or read some Japanese, we can focus solely on your needs at any level. Whether you need some extra help, wish to learn to read and write in Japanese, or if you already know some Japanese we can help you get to the next level. We also can help native Japanese speakers who who do not know the written scripts.
• For new learners, we focus on learning the Japanese scripts and basic reading and writing capabilities. This tutorial can also introduce basic introductory grammar & vocabulary and gets students speaking with some basic conversational ability.
• You let us know what you need and we'll provide individually tailored sessions to your level. Once you are up-to-speed you can consider joining one of our ongoing Japanese courses or continue with individual 1-on-1 tutorial sessions.
• Simply contact us about your interest and Yurika will get in touch with you to set up a Zoom call to discuss your needs and to choose an appropriate time for your lessons.
Week by week new material will be posted throughout the duration of the course. Video recordings of each weekly session will be posted here after 1-2 days after each class.
EarthDiverse Course Information
EarthDiverse Zoom instructions
Japanese writing practice sheet
Depending on your location, this class can consist of either in-person sessions at the EarthDiverse Centre in Hamilton, New Zealand or streamed live via Zoom.
This 1-on-1 tutorial course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend live classes in Hamilton, New Zealand. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:
Attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time.
Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time.
Watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.
Live Zoom sessions and video recordings
• In addition to our in-person classes in Hamilton, our courses offer distance learning options for those unable to attend classes in-person. Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living outside the Waikato. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.
• Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.
• Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.
Those who cannot make the class meeting day and time via live Zoom sessions may consider accessing this course through the weekly recorded video sessions. Class videos are usually posted within 1-2 days of each live class session and are available for your own personal learning on a day and time of your choosing.
• This course has no assignments, quizzes, tests or exams (unless you'd like these!).
• You will not need to purchase any additional course materials.
• All classes encourage questions and group discussion.
• PDFs of class presentations and video recordings of each session are posted 1-2 days after each session for the duration of the course. You are most welcome to come, sit back, relax, take part in and enjoy the discussions!
• If you’re attending in-person, course fees include tea/coffee/snack at each session. Help yourself!
• Missed classes can be rescheduled upon advanced consultation with your instructor.
• Please email or text your teachers if you are unable to attend any specific class session.
• Guests of registered participants are welcome to attend a single session without registering.
All materials are included in the course fees. These are developed by our instructors and distributed as PDF files on the course webpage
• Course materials are provided to all registered students as digital materials made available to you on the course webpage for download (accessible after registration). There is no need to purchase any additional textbooks for this course, although you may choose to do so to supplement your learning.
• You will only require a pen or pencil, a notebook for taking your own class notes, and a loose-leaf binder.
• Any notes that our instructor writes on a digital whiteboard are posted to the class webpage on your dashboard as a PDF file so that you can print these out at home and add them to your own notebook.
A keen desire to begin or continue your Japanese learning in an individual tutorial setting.
• There are no prerequisites for this course.
• We accept students aged 10 years and above.
Simply click on one of the payment buttons at the very top of the page, OR scroll to Pricing Options where you can choose Waged (part-time or full-time workers) or Unwaged (students, retirees, unemployed). You can also chose to pay in full when you register, or split your payment into two equal payments, the first when you register, and the second equal amount is automatically charged to your credit card a month later. We accept all major credit cards, along with Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also pay by Direct Deposit, but you'll need to email us for our bank information. Credit cards are easiest.
Generally no, but we can add them if you'd like!
Simply let your instructor know if you won't be able to make a class. You’ll be able to watch the video recording on our website and download any class materials 1-2 days after each class session. That way you can stay up-to-date if you can't make a session due to a scheduling conflict or illness. Please note that if no-one shows up for a class (our classes are generally small), instructors are not obligated to reschedule, in which case they may record a session for you, or reschedule a make-up class for a later, mutually-agreeable time, usually at the end of the Term.
PDFs of class presentations and video recordings of each session are usually posted 1-2 days after each session for the duration of the course. If we've been sleepy on the job, or if our video editing elves are mucking about, send us a reminder! This can happen during our Term breaks!)
Only our registered students have access to the course materials through logging in to our website with a user name and password. Our course materials are not available to the public.
For most languages that we currently teach we have Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced courses available. Each category of learning (i.e. Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced) consists of 8 New Zealand School Terms over two years (four Terms per year). Each Term generally consists of 8 consecutive weekly sessions. As there are 4 Terms in a school year in New Zealand (equivalent to a Calendar year) the first year of study would be Language 101, followed by 102, 103 and 104. The following year you would take Introductory Language 201, 202, 203 and 204. In the third year of study you would move up to Intermediate levels 301, 302, 303 and 304, and in the 4th year, Intermediate Language 401, 402 403 and 404, and so on through Advanced levels 501-604. In some courses (e.g. Hindi, Urdu) we are teaching courses at more advanced Conversational levels or reading Literature, and these are available as needed and if students wish to continue their learning. Feel free to start and pause your learning whenever you want or need to. When you register you're only paying for the current Term and you're not committed to advancing. You can always rejoin a similar level again later. Talk with your teacher if you have any extenuating circumstances.
If you're a new language learner and plan to start from scratch, then register for any of our beginning Introductory Language 101 courses. If you are a continuing student register for the next class in the series. If you're unsure, or if you already have some background, drop us a line and we can have an appropriate instructor arrange to call you to help you determine the best level course for you.
When you first register for an EarthDiverse course, you'll get an emailed receipt, followed by an automatically-generated Welcome Email that contains information about the course you've registered for, confirming class location, website log-in information, Zoom Meeting IDs and additional instructions. If you don’t receive this email within a minute or two of registering, please check your Junk mail box. It may also be possible that you've made a small typo when you first entered your email address during registration (this happens often!). If you haven't received anything. drop us a line via our Contact page and we'll be happy to resend you your Welcome email.
Great question! The personal information we collect is ONLY so that we can stay in touch with you when we need to (e.g. a class is canceled or postponed, a teacher is ill and needs to reschedule, our quarterly newsletter with course information sent before each Term begins). We DO NOT share any of your contact info to any third parties and your information is only used when necessary or for us to contact you. When we need to cancel or postpone a course we will send both an email and a text message to your phone to make sure that you receive the information in a timely fashion, as classes can be postponed at the last minute.
