Tomotaro Akizawa is a creative and engaging instructor of Japanese as a Second Language. I worked with him in Summer 2008 as a fifth-year student of Japanese at the Middlebury Summer Japanese Language School. He makes excellent use of technology in the classroom. For example, one of our regular activities was to listen to current news and take dictation. As a group we would figure out what was said while he encouraged us to make use of our knowledge of grammar and syntax to predict what type of content was about to be said. This sharpened our listening skills while giving us visual confirmation of what we’d heard because he projected the final transcription on screen. Also, in class we came up with group notes, complete with word-processing and kanji, which he would forward to us by email at the end of the school day. These techniques and resources were very useful to us, especially in the intensive study environment of the summer school. My experience as his student made me wish previous teachers had made use of his techniques – then my listening comprehension would have improved more quickly during my second and third years. Lastly, Tomotaro offered generous office hours and participated in all the extracurricular activities with lots of enthusiasm, so as a group we felt we really got to know him outside the classroom. I recommend him to anyone who is serious about mastering Japanese to full professional fluency.

Tomotaro Akizawa is a creative and engaging instructor of Japanese as a Second Language. I worked with him in Summer 2008 as a fifth-year student of Japanese at the Middlebury Summer Japanese Language School. He makes excellent use of technology in the classroom. For example, one of our regular activities was to listen to current news and take dictation. As a group we would figure out what was said while he encouraged us to make use of our knowledge of grammar and syntax to predict what type of content was about to be said. This sharpened our listening skills while giving us visual confirmation of what we’d heard because he projected the final transcription on screen. Also, in class we came up with group notes, complete with word-processing and kanji, which he would forward to us by email at the end of the school day. These techniques and resources were very useful to us, especially in the intensive study environment of the summer school. My experience as his student made me wish previous teachers had made use of his techniques – then my listening comprehension would have improved more quickly during my second and third years. Lastly, Tomotaro offered generous office hours and participated in all the extracurricular activities with lots of enthusiasm, so as a group we felt we really got to know him outside the classroom. I recommend him to anyone who is serious about mastering Japanese to full professional fluency.

Tomotaro Akizawa is a creative and engaging instructor of Japanese as a Second Language. I worked with him in Summer 2008 as a fifth-year student of Japanese at the Middlebury Summer Japanese Language School. He makes excellent use of technology in the classroom. For example, one of our regular activities was to listen to current news and take dictation. As a group we would figure out what was said while he encouraged us to make use of our knowledge of grammar and syntax to predict what type of content was about to be said. This sharpened our listening skills while giving us visual confirmation of what we’d heard because he projected the final transcription on screen. Also, in class we came up with group notes, complete with word-processing and kanji, which he would forward to us by email at the end of the school day. These techniques and resources were very useful to us, especially in the intensive study environment of the summer school. My experience as his student made me wish previous teachers had made use of his techniques – then my listening comprehension would have improved more quickly during my second and third years. Lastly, Tomotaro offered generous office hours and participated in all the extracurricular activities with lots of enthusiasm, so as a group we felt we really got to know him outside the classroom. I recommend him to anyone who is serious about mastering Japanese to full professional fluency.