Meet Kai, a dedicated freelance Japanese teacher from Miyazaki, Japan. Loving anime, singing, and tennis. Kai teaches Japanese online, aiming to enrich lives through language, and passionately shares his culture to help students enjoy and embrace their learning journey.
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Interview – Japanese Teacher in Japan
- WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
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Japan
- PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF!
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I am Kai. I work as a freelance Japanese teacher. I have studied abroad in the US, Canada, and Mexico before. So I speak English and a little bit of Spanish. I started going to the gym and it became one of my hobbies. I like watching anime, singing, and tennis.
- TELL US ABOUT THE CHARM OF THE CITY YOU ARE CURRENTLY LIVING IN.
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I live in Miyazaki prefecture, located on the southeastern coast of Kyushu. It is famous for beef, pork and chicken. Especially Miyazaki beef. There is a lot of delicious food here that you can not eat in a big city such as Tokyo or Osaka.
My favorite is CHICKEN NANBAN, Miyazaki cuisine. You can call me chicken Nanban nerd since I eat it almost every week. CHICKEN NANBAN from other cities is totally different food from what we eat in Miyazaki. So if you want to eat it, please try it in Miyazaki. And Miyazaki is also well known for surfing and golf.
- WHERE IS YOUR LOCAL RECOMMENDATION IN THIS CITY?
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If you are a foodie and you like meat, this city is a good place to visit. If you like Japanese culture and nature, there are beautiful shrines here such as Udo Jingu and Aoshima Jingu. If you are looking for a cafe where you can feel at home and maybe looking for friends, I highly recommend the cafe called 6 RACCOON.
- WHEN AND WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TEACH JAPANESE?
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I started this in 2022. I learned English and Spanish and it expanded my world. I realized that language is not just a language. It enriches your life. So I wanted to help people learn the Japanese language and to be able to experience more things in Japan. But more than anything, I want people to enjoy Japan.
- HOW ARE YOU TEACHING JAPANESE NOW?
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Online Japanese lesson, Social media (Instagram, TikTok, Youtube)
- Instagram : @kaikai_japanese
- Tiktok : @kaikai_japanese
- Youtube : KaiKai Japanese
The main thing on my Instagram channel is the Japanese situation lesson. I always try to think like Japanese learners, not Japanese native speakers, and make a skit for videos. The purpose of it is to make people less afraid of doing tasks in Japanese.
- WHAT DO YOU FIND ENJOYABLE ABOUT TEACHING JAPANESE?
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Every time I see my student improving their Japanese. Some of my students went to Japan after taking my lessons. After the trip, they told me that they used the phrases and words that they learned in my lessons and they were able to have a little bit of conversation with native Japanese speakers. One of them had a little bit of conversation with people at izakaya. Knowing that their Japanese skill has been improved and they experience more things because of my lesson motivates me a lot. Hearing my student’s story and perspective is interesting and I enjoy that as well.
- WHAT DO YOU FIND DIFFICULT ABOUT TEACHING JAPANESE?
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- Writing hiragana, katakana and Kanji in a beautiful way. Some people struggle with writing since there are stop (tome), upward brushstroke (hane), and sweeping (harai) in Japanese characters. I noticed that problem and currently, I am working on a new project for teaching how to write Japanese characters beautifully.
- Nuance Sometimes we can not translate things into Japanese because of the culture and how people think. For example, Otsukaresama. To fully understand some words, you need to know more about Japan. It is not easy but I think it is a fun part of learning Japanese.
- Not having enough time I also created a video for Japanese learners. There are a bunch of things that I want to share and teach. But we only have 24 hours in one day.
- WHAT DO YOU THINK IS IMPORTANT WHEN LEARNING JAPANESE?
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You don’t need to be too hard on yourself. If you push yourself to study Japanese every single day and do everything perfectly, you might get burned out and not be able to enjoy it. If you like anime, just start picking up some words from it. If you like music, why don’t you check out the lyrics and start mimicking? The important thing is that you remember why you started learning Japanese enjoy the Japanese learning journey and stay consistent. That is why I always try to make my students and my followers enjoy learning.
- WHAT IS YOUR DREAM?
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I want to grow my community and make an environment where people can enjoy learning Japanese wherever they are. And they travel to Japan and share that experience with others and others will get interested in Japan. It is like a virus but in a good way.
- MESSAGE TO OUR FRIENDS WHO ARE STUDYING JAPANESE.
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Don’t forget why you wanted to start learning Japanese. Learning a language is not easy at all. I struggled to learn English and Spanish. I still make mistakes when I speak English. So I understand how people feel about learning Japanese. It is okay to make mistakes. It is okay not to be perfect. But remember, don’t just ignore the mistakes. Learn something from it because that is the best opportunity to improve your Japanese.
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