Hats off to the AJALT volunteer Japanese language instructors

Ajalt is the "Association for Japanese Language Teaching". A lot of the free Japanese language classes run by volunteers around Japan have some support from or use resources from AJALT. You may have come across the book Japanese for Busy People. It is one of AJALTs most famous resources.

The volunteer Japanese language teachers in my town use this book.  As did the volunteer Japanese language teachers in Mito City when I used to attend a Japanese language class regularly the second time I moved to Japan. However, for the last eleven years I have not attended language class. Despite that, the very kind volunteers of the town's international association, which also doubles up as the Japanese language teaching association, always invite me to their non class events.

That is how I ended up being at a AJALT meeting today. I did not know until today that the volunteer Japanese teachers in my town are part of AJALT. These busy volunteer teachers willingly gave up their precious time for free to gather and discuss many aspects of Japanese language teaching. And as part of that six foreign residents in the area, myself included, were invited to join an hour of their day long seminar for discourse and discussion.

I was deeply impressed by how much these volunteers dedicate and commit their time, energy and resources. I am moved by how much care and consideration they take in teaching foreigners to speak Japanese. And I am extremely grateful that these services exist, for free, for the benefit of foreigners. 

Wherever you are based in Japan you should be able to find a free Japanese language class run by volunteers within commutable distance. After today, I think I might try and make a couple of classes every now and then. Unfortunately, the day they meet doesn't suit me for regular attendance.  Do you attend your local voluntary run Japanese language classes? Have you found them useful?