Hello fellow Japanese students,
is anyone else here learning the language and possibly lives close to Kyoto?
My experiences with studying Japanese abroad are really good so far. I registered at a Japanese language school in Kyoto and after 1-2 months I was already able to communicate with people in Japanese (the level was low, I admit, but they usually understand what you're trying to say). So far, after 4 months of studying the experience has been great (the teaching methods are really good). You also get to learn Japanese culture which is very hard to understand when you're not experiencing it first-hand.
Personally I can definitely recommend visiting a language school in Japan if you're serious about improving your Japanese, or even starting from 0 (like I did). Did you have similar experiences? After how many months were you able to communicate with native speakers (basic grammar)? How was your learning curve?
I'd be interested to get in contact with people who are also learning Japanese, preferably close to Kyoto.
Drop me a message if you're interested.