It's a hobby, my language study. Earlier in the year I was studying French, Spanish and Japanese at the same time but have taken a break from French. It was too much. I have a tutor for both Japanese and Spanish. I meet them once a week (virtually and otherwise.) Each country gives a series of tests you can take to prove your proficiency. Spain has 6 levels and I am studying for level 3. Japan has 5 levels and I am studying for the first level. Strangely, Japan is the only country that doesn't test your ability to speak.
Masako, my Japanese teacher, was born and raised in Fukuoka Japan but has been living in Brooklyn the last ten years. I meet her every Thursday night for two hours, face to face. We use a textbook and workbook. It has taken me almost a year to get to chapter 11 and the book only has 12 chapters. When I'm traveling we meet over Skype, which works well. We can see and talk to each other and type back and forth.
She is a fair but tough teacher. She expects me to learn the vocabulary on my own. When we meet, we focus on grammar and speaking. Since I'm a beginner we speak in English when she is explaining something but then we switch into Japanese to do the exercises. I have a lot of homework every week and I have to write it out by hand, no computer allowed. I have a 2nd grader's competency with the writing and that is probably being generous. I will be in Tokyo for a week in early February and am eager to see if I've progressed in the real world.
My Spanish teacher Laura lives in a small town in the north of Spain. We only use Skype and the lesson approach is different. We use the level 3 proficiency test and when I don't do well on a certain area we study that. The level 3 test includes reading, writing, listening as well as an oral component. You have to give 5 minutes speeches based on a topic they give you 15 minutes to prep for. We focus on that a lot since it is the most difficult part of the test. The best part is that Laura doesn't speak English at all. So, if I have a question or a word I don't know she explains it to me in Spanish. Spending a lot of time in Costa Rica helps - I get a lot of real world practice.
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