Guillaume (France)
Q. When did you decide to come to Japan?
At first, I planned to go to Japan for travel years ago but after meeting Japanese people in America, my mind changed and in 2020/2021, I took the decision to go study in Japan.
David (USA)
Working for a Japanese social media company
I came to Japan in January 2021, and after one year and three months at ARC I left the school to start working for a Japanese social media company.
I had already studied the language before, but when I came to Japan, I wasn’t that confident in my language skills, and ARC helped me a lot to progress.
I passed the N2 the past December, and I would have not been able to do that without the school.
Q 1. What was your experience at ARC like?
I’ve studied for two terms in the Standard Course, and that’s where I really studied the Language, the grammar and sentence structure, and once I got pretty familiar with Japanese, I moved to the Business Class, the Business Japanese is a little bit more difficult, but it was a great experience. You learn the language but also the mindset, and for me, that I want to stay in Japan forever, it was really an important part of my life.
Q 2. What did you like most about the school?
What makes ARC so special, is that the teachers are so much invested in the students. Teachers and students become almost as friends.
You really learn together, grow together, it was an incredible experience, from start to finish.
Q 3. What is your current job like?
I’ve just started working so it’s early to say. I’m doing marketing for a Japanese social media firm, I was able to find that job thanks to my Japanese skills that I’ve learned in the Business Class. The process was grueling at times, but studying at ARC really helped me develop the knowledge that I needed to communicate in Business Japanese.
Zhang Kunjie (China)
Waseda University Graduate School, Graduate School of Education
Q 1. What did you major in?
I majored in Japanese Studies.
Q 2. How long did you study Japanese before coming to Japan?
As a student in the Japanese Language Department of my University, I studied for about 2 years and a half. I got close to N2 level at the time.
Q 3. Can you give us an example of your daily routine of when you were in the Japanese Language School?
I had classes in the morning, and my part-time job in the afternoon. In my free time days, I would stay home to study for my specialization. In the evenings, I used to train my listening and pronunciation skills.
Annarita（Italy）
Business Japanese Class, employed at a premium hotel
Q 1. When did you start job-hunting and when did you get your employment offer?
I started preparing last year (2018) in February, then came to Japan on the student visa in September, and started the real job-hunt as I entered ARC. In November, I got my employment offer.
Q 2. How did you look for job offers?
At first, I got in touch with a recruiting agency online, had a first consultation and was introduced some opening in different companies. When I started preparing back in Italy, I registered on some job-hunting websites and researched online the companies I was interested in, and sent my resume to those with a solid reputation. I also did some video interviews, but I mainly had interviews with the companies I applied to once I got to Japan.
Q 3. How many companies did you send your resume to?
About 25 companies. I applied for jobs in the hospitality industry, apparel and translation.
Nicholas (Indonesia)
Business Japanese Class, employed at a production firm (Engineer)
Q 1. When did you start job-hunting and when did you get your employment offer?
I started job-hunting around September 2018; the employment offer arrived by late November.
Q 2. How did you look for job offers?
I joined job fairs and registered on recruitment websites.
Q 3. How many companies did you apply to?
About 12 companies, and got favorable offers from three of them.
Ma Yifan (China)
Business Japanese Class, employed at a cosmetics distribution company (sales department)
Q 1. When did you start job-hunting and when did you get your employment offer?
I started job-hunting right after I entered the Business Japanese Class in October 2018, and received 2 offers. The first one on November 30th and the second one on December 27th.
Q 2. How did you look for job offers?
I mostly went to job fairs. I went to about five of them.
Q 3. How many companies did you apply to?
I have not really counted them. But I think I filled in between 20 to 30 entry sheets.
Lim Mira (South Korea)
Business Japanese Class, Front Office
Q 1. What were you doing before coming to Japan?
After graduating form university, I studied Japanese for about a year in a cramming school. I did not have any working experience.
Q 2. Why did you choose to study in Japan?
I wanted to work for a Japanese company and started to learn the language. I believe that if your Japanese is good enough, you can try to look for job opportunities in Japan. So, so widening my career options was my motivation.
Q 3. Why did you choose ARC?
As I was already thinking about employment, the presence of the Business Japanese Class was a big factor for me. ARC has a Business Class with a consistent curriculum, so it was an easy decision.
Liang (Taiwan)
Q. When did you decide to come to Japan?
In Taiwan, the most studied foreign language is English, but Japanese is next. Taiwan and Japan are neighboring countries and share part of their history and cultures. Taiwanese people love to travel to Japan and many Japanese TV shows air in Taiwan. I make no exception and like many aspects of Japan, so I decided to come here to study.
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Gioi (Vietnam)
Nihon University Graduate School, Science and Engineering Faculty
I started learning Japanese before graduating from University, as I was already thinking of coming to Japan to study. I researched a lot about Japanese language schools. Luckily, the school I attended in Vietnam partners with ARC. At the time, I attended ARC presentation session and learned more about the school. What was particularly interesting to me, since I was planning to do my graduate studies in Japan, was the availability of a Graduate School Preparation Class. That was made me go for ARC. Before deciding, I researched for other schools too, but reviews on ARC classes and teachers were good. Now that I have graduated, I can confirm I did the right choice.
Xesco (Andorra)
Q. Why did you choose to study Japanese in Japan?
When I was very small, I remember being interested in martial arts. From the age of five I started practicing karate, and dreamed of being able to train in a Japanese dojo one day. From there, I became interested in Japanese music, history, food, anime and manga, hoping to be able to live in Japan, my biggest dream. That is when I first thought it was important to be able to understand Japanese and started to learn it.