Seasoned Japanese Tutor

Alex Toshiaki M.

Great Tutor!

Alex is a great Japanese tutor who has allowed me to learn Japanese at a comfortable yet rapid pace. He has increased my confidence when speaking, writing, listening to, and reading Japanese.

SHARON, 9 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Amazing Japanese Tutor

Toshiaki-Sensei is an amazing Japanese tutor who has been very helpful in my Japanese learning journey. He taught me many important concepts and thoroughly explained many helpful grammar features, common kanji radicals, and kanji stroke orders. On top of that he helped me improve my conversational skills which is something I often found myself struggling with but his tutoring session provided many good opportunities to practice under his guidance. As a result, I was able to consistently receive the highest grades amongst my classmates in my highschool's AP and Honors Japanese courses allowing me to skip a year of college Japanese classes. When it came to projects and speeches I often found myself asking Toshiaki-Sensei for feedback. He even once helped me prepare a small speech that I would later present during a school trip at a Japanese high school in Japan. Also despite me occasionally showing up nearly 20 minutes late or not showing up at all (I'm still super sorry for doing this and I would like to sincerely apologize again), he honored the full 1 hour lesson or offered to move the lesson free of charge which is something I am very thankful for. His tutoring lessons have helped me significantly improve my Japanese and I found his teaching style to be very helpful.

Erika, 91 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Tutor responded:

Thank you Brandon san for such wonderful comments. Your words are very encouraging and rewarding. Japanese language is one of the most challenging languages to learn, but your diligence paid off. Your effort was evident in your writing and your skill of composing sentences using new expressions. I'm so happy to hear your accomplishment and achievement in your Japanese study at your high school. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing my student succeeding in the language I tutor. Good luck with your continuous Japanese study at your college!

I look forward to continuing my studies with Alex

Alex is very conscientious, knowledgable, and prepared. I thoroughly enjoyed my lesson and look forward to continuing my studies. He was able to surmise my Japanese level quickly and adjust his approach to present me with challenging yet useful information.

Steven, 167 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Prepared and Organized

Alex is a very organized teacher. He emailed me worksheets of simple Japanese phrases and a hiragana practice sheet before our first lesson. We went through some basic greetings and vocabulary, and he helped prepare me on what to expect for our next lesson. I am satisfied with how the first lesson turned out and look forward to our next.

Hannah, 14 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Tutor responded:

Thank you so much for such a wonderful comment, Hannah! I find it very encouraging. I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson! :)

Great First lesson

Greetings, vocabulary, hiragana writing.

Trevor Masao, 11 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Tutor responded:

Thank you for the positive feed back! It's very encouraging.

Good Humored Conversationalist with Teaching Experience and Ability

This was only the first lesson, but Alex-sensei went through the material very thoroughly and explained the concepts well. Even the parts that were review for me he either explained in such a way that I more deeply understood them or completely (and for the better) changed how I thought about them. Also, he was very nice to talk with! And incorporated my interests in the language/culture naturally and well. Looking forward to more lessons!

Sam, 247 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Tutor responded:

Sam san, thank you very much for your wonderful feedback! I find it very encouraging. I try my best to incorporate your interests in the Japanese lesson. I welcome your advice anytime to meet your needs. Alex M.

Excellent Tutor

Alex is a competent, careful, and very diligent Japanese tutor. He is great at integrating different concepts, including some that are skipped or glossed over in the textbook. Highly recommended.

Eugene, 296 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Tutor responded:

Thank so much for encouraging feedback, Eugene san! You are one of the most enthusiastic students. It's great to know you value your lessons :)

Experienced and Knowledgeable

As someone who had not spoken Japanese with anybody prior to our lessons, I would recommend Alex Sensei. The lessons are well structured and customized to one's progress. It's easy to fall into the trap of being over-confident when primarily studying from a textbook because you are not forced to interact and the exercises can be a bit formulaic. Alex Sensei provides me with that interaction coupled with immediate feedback. He also provides me with supplementary exercises such as transcribing previously unfamiliar katakana (a tough exercise). His sense of humor helps too.

Christopher, 50 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Tutor responded:

Chris san, thank you very much for such a wonderful comment! Receiving a such comment from you is very encouraging. It's always rewarding to see my students enjoy and learn from my lessons. I'll continue my effort to improve your Japanese for each lesson.

Good Tutor

I really enjoyed our first meeting. Alex was very kind and helpful tutor. He was encouraging and even as I made mistakes. I think I can learn a lot from working with him.

Onyebuchi, 2 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Tutor responded:

Thank you for your wonderful feedback Onyebuchi! It's always very encouraging to hear a positive feedback from a new student. I do my best to let you learn and understand Japanese in the most efficient way possible.

Experienced and effective tutor

I have recently started receiving lessons from Alex, and have found him to be an excellent tutor. He strikes a good balance between pushing you to think, read, and speak at a natural pace (i.e. fairly quick) and giving you time to process a new word, difficult passage, etc. It's important to maintain the pace so you can cover everything you need in a lesson, and it's good for mental agility, too, in my opinion. He is quick to correct without making you feel as though you've been interrupted (it's important to get the feedback but also maintain the flow of what you're reading, for example). We speak only a little English during our time, which is obviously important, and he does not slow down his speech for me. It's my guess that he tailors this to the student's level, but at least for my level, I think it's helpful for improving my listening skills. Alex is clearly very experienced, and it shows in his ability to make good use of an hour's lesson. Each time I leave feeling as though I got two hours of instruction, practice, and feedback in a single hour.

Cat, 45 lessons with Alex Toshiaki

Tutor responded:

Thank you so much for such insightful and encouraging comments, Cat! I always observe my student's pace and skill level so that I can tailor the lesson for each student. I'm happy to know my method is working for you. You already have wide knowledge of words and culture of Japanese. That makes my job easy as a tutor. Your comprehension is quick and your retention is excellent. It's really luxury to have a student like yourself.