Now is the best time to see colored leaves!
Some students have been trying to go to Kyoto to enjoy this beautiful season with colored leaves, but they have been having difficulty finding a place to stay because many tourists are also visiting there.


Our students went to a Japanese garden in culture class yesterday and enjoyed walking around and looking at trees with colored leaves. Some of the leaves looked gold due to the sun light and some looked light pink. They were all beautiful and calmed our minds.

This is Robert-san, a student at Genki Japanese Language School. He served 6 years as a Korean linguist in the US Air Force. He later received a commission as an Intelligence Officer and was accepted into the Air Force`s new Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP). After eventually acheiving a 3/3+ on the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) in Korean, he was one of few in the program to be selected as a cross-trainee into a second language - Japanese!


He started learning Japanese in May 2012, and came to GenkiJACS for 4 weeks from October. It is his first time to come to Fukuoka.
His Japanese has improved so much in the short time that he has been here!!!!! He loves Genki Japanese School, people in Fukuoka and Japanese food.

This is one way that you can learn Japanese - through the Air Force!

....takes a lot of time and energy!

Our former student Raico-san, who is from Switzerland, came to GenkiJACS for 6 months in 2010! He fell in love with Fukuoka, the people, Japan, etc, so decided to come back again this year. He came to study with us for 2 weeks this fall and started a long term course at our partner school from October!


He often comes to GenkiJACS to study on his own after school. Other students who go to the partner school also often come to GenkiJACS. It is always nice to see their progress in Japanese!

Students' visit always makes our day!

Look at Raico-san studying hard!

Today some students from Genki Jacs went with students from the Media and Film School to do some filming in and around the IMS building. The videos were about language misunderstandings and differances between Japanese usage of English words and how foreigners might use those words. In particular issues with the request for a "Body check" and the Japanse loan word (actually German) baito. Afterwards the film students treated the Genki JACS actors to dinner at Joyful. We were very impressed by the prowess of the Japanese actors. While filming meant opurtunities for pictures were limited, after the video is produced, we hope to be able to link to it from our site here.

A-kun drew some great pictures for his manga class last week. Here he is drawing:


And here's the final product!

There’s an amazing thing about GenkiJACS: the students keep coming back, again and again! For most people, visiting Japan is a once in a lifetime experience, and we always try to keep that in mind when dealing with students – this may be our only chance to show them how great Japan is, so we have to try our best with each and every student. However, there are some students who don’t just come back to Japan again, they choose to return to study at GenkiJACS, instead of visiting somewhere else in Japan.
We’ve been accepting students from overseas for three and a half years now, and in that time we’ve had more than 800 people study with us from overseas. Of those, three people have come to study with us four times. Four times in less than four years! This fact still amazes us. So, we would like to take this space to offer a special thank you to those three students: Susan, Alan, and Rod. In particular, Rod quit his job to study with us for half a year this time! We are deeply appreciative of the sacrifices these students made to study with us, and the responsibility we have to give them the best experience and education we can.
Another six students have studied with us three times in three years. Finally, more than 70 students have studied with us twice. So, in total, almost 10% of GenkiJACS students return to study with us again! The teachers love to see students come back, partly because it is a statement from the student that they enjoyed their time with us, but also because it’s great to see old friends again! And just in case any former GenkiJACS students are reading this, don’t forget we offer 10% tuition discounts for returning students…

(Note: the statistics above are from an automatic search of our database, and may not be exact counts. For example, two variations of the same person’s name would be counted as two students.)

A very belated congratulations to former student Peter Gee, who was married to his Japanese fiancee in Fukuoka in December! He gave us permission to post his lovely message and photos, so here they are:



Hi Everyone!

These are a few pictures of my wedding from last Saturday in Fukuoka. The ceremony was beautiful, my wife was even MORE beautiful.
We had a ceremony in a chapel at first (all of the orders given in Japanese, of course), then we had the reception filled with speeches from family and friends to wish us luck in the future, followed up by the nijikai (second party), and a sanjikai (third party). Unfortunately i broke my promise of controlling my alcohol intake by the end of the san jikai and was really drunk. Lucky for me, my wife is very forgiving.

Anyway, I wanted to say thank you again to everyone for making my experience at Genki JACS so enjoyable. The flowers on my last day and the card were so thoughtful.

Thomas-san: if I ever visit Roche in Basel i would love to visit you =) Good luck in Switzerland and I hope you had a nice flight home.
Makus-san: I have no doubt that you will find a Bijin in Fukuoka. Going to rainbow plaza will speed up the process exponentially, trust me! Please be nice to the teachers and no chair throwing!
Patrycja-san: Enjoy your time in Fukuoka until March! It would be cool if you become a translator for Japanese to Polish and vice versa.
Mitsuko-san: You`re leaving soon too aren`t you? I hope you`ve fully recovered from your cold by now and are enjoying your last days in Japan until you go back.
To all of my energetic and helpful teachers: The fun atmosphere you created in the classroom and the natural way you all taught Japanese was exactly what I was looking for in a Japanese school. I am sorry I won`t be able to stop by the school with my wife before I leave but I will be sure to say hi the next time I am in Fukuoka.

Take care everyone,
Peter

今日は中級会話のクラスでつくった俳句を紹介します。
We would like to introduce the Japanese Poet which the intermediate conversation students made.
＜作・オレックさん＞
・秋の風　柳の歌は　サギが無視
(Akinokaze yanaginoutawa sagiga musi)
・カラスらは　地平の山を　見て話す
(karasurawa chiheino yamawo mite hanasu)

＜作・J　さん＞
・柳の葉　風に吹かれて　動くんだ
(Yanaginoha kazenifukarete ugokunda)
・池の水　光を反射　輝くね
(Ikenomizu hikariohansha Kagayakune)

＜おまけ・・・ゆうじ先生作＞
・葉をのせて静かにゆれる　ビルの影
（Hawonosete　Shizukaniyureru Birunokage)
・指先を　真っ赤に染めた　裸の木
(Yubisakio Makkanisometa Hadakanoki)

いかがでしょうか・・・・？

またまたクリスマスカードが届きました。2006年に勉強したスペインのポーラさんとそのご主人より、そして今年の夏にオーストリアからきたアンドレアさん＆クリスさんからです。
ありがとう！！

もうすぐクリスマス！ということで、続々と以前GenkiJACSで勉強してくれた生徒さん達より、クリスマスカードが届いています。
本当に懐かしく、愛しい、素敵な生徒さん達です！！ライアン、マユミ、レベッカ、マルコさんありがとう＾＾　メリークリスマス！

Christmas is coming soon!! We have been receiving Christmas cards from formar students!! Thank you so much,Ryan,Mayumi,Rebecca and Maruko san. Merry Christmas to you too!!