Background
Originally hailing from Belgium, Nadine came to Tokyo to fulfil her dream of working in a Japanese architecture firm. She landed as a staff candidate at Sou Fujimoto architects and she was later offered a permanent contract. It wasn’t only the company that she impressed though; she went on to tie the knot with a Japanese man she had met while living here.
Although she wanted to, work had left Nadine with little time for studying Japanese. Her free time was to be further curtailed though when she discovered that she was going to have a baby! Being pregnant however meant that she would also receive maternity leave. Nadine decided to use some of this time to study Japanese.
Study Japanese at Coto Japanese Academy
Nadine studied in an intensive group course for four months. She loved the friendly atmosphere of Coto Japanese Academy and the balance of activities that the teachers offered. Most importantly though, the improvement she made was dramatic.
“Until then, although I had gotten used to life in Japan, there were still a few things that happened around me that I couldn’t understand. So I kind of felt trapped in my own little space. Since finishing my course, it’s like that space has suddenly opened up.”
She could finally understand day to day conversations that were going on around her: in the office, in the train and on the street, and even the smallest things like understanding the kanji on her washing machine made her feel like she was living in a completely different world to when she had started studying Japanese.
Next Step
Nadine feels like Japan is becoming her home and wants to continue to improve her Japanese until she becomes fluent enough in the language that she can handle all the tasks that having a young family in Japan brings.
Read my testimonial in Japanese!
Click this link to read about Andrew’s experience at Coto Japanese Academy!