Teachers

Rie Ariga : Principal of Livelogue Japanese

Rie has been teaching Japanese for 30 years in Tokyo and internationally, in Vietnam, Hongkong and Taiwan. She taught in colleges, in Japanese language schools and in corporate training courses. She also was in charge of a teacher’s training course at a NPO in recent years.

In 2002, she launched her Japanese academy in her house. Since then she has been focusing on teaching in private lessons. The foreign students visited the house are varied from business people to their family members including school children. Many teachers who agreed with her philosophy have taught in the course of Livelogue Japanese. The teachers are well educated, well experienced and well motivated as a JSL teacher.

Rie has earned a degree in linguistics and teaching Japanese as second language. She holds a certificate of teaching Japanese competency test from JEES.

Teacher’s review

Name (Age)

Occupation

Native language/Nationality

①Learning objective

②How teacher helped to your achievement

③How was the teacher and the lessons

Ben (40s)

Language teacher

English/Welsh

①To get more out of living in Tokyo

②By helping me to understand the grammar of Japanese and to be able to navigate Tokyo more easily

③Rie-sensei brought some articles from the Japan Times during the pandemic which helped me to understand not only the situation we all faced, but also how Japanese works as a language in such situations. Rie-sensei and Masa-sensei also tailored lesson content to the subjects that interest me.

I feel honoured to have been able to spend nearly 4 years in probably the most wonderful country on the planet. I also feel it an absolute honour to have studied with Rie-sensei and Masa-sensei over that period of time. They gave me great insight not only into Japanese language, but also into Japanese culture and psyche. Both of my teachers made lessons engaging, interesting and most importantly, fun.

Delphine (30s)

Former banking/ Mother of four children

French & English/French

①I wanted to explore why my Japanese colleagues who spoke excellent French & English and I had such different interpretations of simple instructions resulting in so many mishaps.

②I started my Japanese learning with a 3h a day, 5 days a week course in a school for a year.

However I wanted to maintain / improve the standard reached and expand my vocabulary. Ariga-sensei’s lessons based on a text that we would explore & discuss was what I needed in my journey to enrich my kanjis / vocabulary & practice fluency.

Chloe(11yrs)

6th grade

French&English/

French

①I was bored at school so little intellectual stimulation. I had lived in Japan since I was 3 and had very limited Japanese.

②I took about 3hours of classes per week. I ended up continuing with my Japanese studies upon our return to London a year later and passed my Japanese A level with flying colours. I was the first “gaijin” president of her University Japanese society in the UK.

Alastair（30s））

English/British

Product Manager

①Being able to navigate Japan, understand basic Japanese and learn about Japanese culture and history.

② The teaching from Rie and the other tutors helped me learn sufficient Japanese so that I could live, work and travel throughout Japan successfully. Their focus was on teaching Japanese that was both practical and theoretical, in order to build a strong understanding of the structure of Japanese while ensuring that what was learned was easy to put into practice and helpful for day to day life. In addition, the lessons provided specific context about Japanese culture that was invaluable!

Being taught the history of kanji and why certain symbols represent certain things was fascinating. Additionally, Rie taught the “Te” form well and demonstrated the multiple different ways that Te can be used, which increased my language abilities hugely!

③ I feel very grateful to my Japanese teachers for their hard work in teaching me! Rie and the other teachers made learning fun and informative, which allowed me to learn Japanese and enjoy living in Japan. They ensured that I had the tools to cope with a complex language whilst making the lessons enjoyable and interesting. They frequently did further research after lessons to answer my questions on the history of the language and the country and investigate specific idioms and sayings, which showed huge dedication and increased my understanding of Japanese. I would recommend them to other Japanese learners.

Aly (30s)

English/American

Teacher in the states/ Mother of two children

Ariga-sensei was wonderful for me and my little family. She always adapted the lesson to address whatever I needed at the moment. Sometimes, that was Japanese. Sometimes, it was about shopping or cooking or Japanese traditions. I have warm memories of learning to make chirashi sushi with Ariga-sensei to celebrate Hina Matsuri with my daughter. She even printed kid-friendly recipes in Japanese and we’d translate them together! I still have the recipes today!

G. I loved my time with Ariga-sensei. It was a truly happy time for me and my family, made even happier by how much she helped me to learn how to live comfortably in Japan with my little ones!

English/American

(40s)

Housewife

①communication

②Progressed according to interests. Beneficial for shopping and directions

③Grateful!