Kazuo was highly recommended to me as a teacher and he has fulfilled, if not exceeded, my expectations.
His lessons are stimulating and fun but at the same time quite intensive so I always feel that I am getting the maximum out of my time.
My one and a half hour lesson passes like five minutes!
Maryse Gray (Corporate Law - Herbert Smith)

My wife and I have studied separately with Kazuo-san for eight months in preparation for our relocation to Tokyo.
His lessons are fast paced and demanding but never too demanding. The lessons are tailored to suit the individual student.
My wife is a linguist and takes to languages easily.
On the other hand, learning languages has never been easy for me. Teaching Japanese to someone like me requires different skills than teaching Japanese to a skilled linguist such as my wife.
Kazuo-san has handled both tasks extremely well, thereby demonstrating a remarkable range of teaching skills.
My ability, after only a few months with Kazuo-san, to read and write Japanese (in both hiragana and kanji) and to understand and speak it, far surpasses my initial expectations.
He has also provided a strong foundation in Japanese grammar that I am sure will prove to be a good basis for my future studies when I arrive in Tokyo.
To my vast surprise, I have greatly enjoyed my lessons with Kazuo-san.
He has set a difficult, if not impossible, standard for my future teachers to meet.
Kazuo-san is a remarkable teacher. I recommend him to any student without hesitation.
(January 2006)
Kazuo san, I miss the challenge and pleasure of your lessons. I am too lazy with my current teacher who is too polite to tell me that.
(December 2006) Bernard Nelson, Partner, Latham & Watkins

I started studying Japanese in January 2010 as a hobby. I had no previous knowledge of the language, had never been to Japan and had no idea about the culture, nor knew any Japanese national. I chose Udagawa Sensei because he was described as demanding by other students on his website, and all student reviews of his teaching were detailed and compelling.

After 10 months of studying, I knew enough Japanese to obtain an ‘A’ in the first level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (N5).
Thanks to Udagawa Sensei’s rigorous teaching methods, not only can I read and write hiragana, katakana and c.150 Kanjis fluently, but I have also mastered basic grammar and c.800 words of vocabulary. In addition, Sensei’s lessons are entirely in Japanese, which was difficult at first but hugely helpful for listening and speaking practice.
I now understand most of a basic conversation and can speak about simple matters with Japanese nationals.
This is also greatly helped by Shimbokukai, which are dinners regularly organised by Sensei. They take place in a Japanese restaurant, and students and Japanese nationals invited by Sensei have a conversation in Japanese, which becomes easier with Sapporo beer, as the evening goes by.
Udagawa Sensei will spare no effort to keep his ? intense ? 2-hour lessons both structured and varied. ?This includes watching DVDs, accent practice, grammar and vocabulary practice, short insights on aspects on the Japanese culture, short story reading, etc. I now continue my lessons with Udagawa Sensei with great enjoyment and am slowly progressing towards the far away dream of speaking pera pera Japanese.

Stephanie, Business Development Manager 12 March 2011

An invaluable chance to practice what we had learnt, but also a very enjoyable evening!
I attended my first Shimbokukai having completed about 10 lessons, and just before a first trip to Japan since my starting to learn with Udagawa-sensei.
As you can imagine, it is hard not to feel slightly nervous going into an environment where to begin with you know only one other person, and that is your teacher who is telling you in no uncertain terms that you can only speak to the others in Japanese!
I was struck almost immediately, however, by the friendliness and supportiveness of everyone there, both native Japanese speakers and students, and the fascinating range of backgrounds, interests and abilities present.
Helped by some excellent Japanese food and beer, I can say without reservation that I came away not only with a bit more confidence in my own ability to speak and understand Japanese, which had begun to develop through the lessons, but also with a sense of having spent a really nice evening out with people who I would happily meet for a beer and some good Japanese conversation any time.
It really provides the best form of encouragement to see what other students have achieved.

Simon - October 2011

My girlfriend and I arranged to have lessons with Mr Udagawa after I accepted a job in Tokyo and we had decided to move to Japan.
We only had two months available before moving, and obviously wanted to learn as much as possible in this short time. Mr Udagawa first explained to us that the best grounding for learning is to first understand and be able to read and write in Japanese.
He also provided us with a good understanding of how sentences are constructed, and the use of particles within Japanese.

Most importantly Mr Udagawa showed us how to conjugate verbs and adjectives in numerous different ways, giving us a good foundation to continue learning and to allow us to learn new vocabulary, form sentences and hold conversations by following these rules.

Having now arrived in Japan, we really appreciate the structure and content of our lessons and the methods used to teach us. We are able to communicate with Japanese people, and comprehend signs and menus, often completely.

Ben Sekulowicz-Barclay

Dear Kazuo-sensei,
We were given our GCSE marks today, and to my joy I received an A*.
It was thanks to your teaching and time that I was able to achieve this result, and so I thank you muchly!
I simply hope I can do the same in the AS exam...
Again, thank you~
Claudia
(Claudia studied Japanese with me for about 50 hours from 2008 to 2009 before she sat GCSE Japanese with an oral test included.)
May I add my sincere thanks for all your help and clearly excellent tuition; Claudia is delighted!?
She enjoys learning with with you and I'm sure will continue to do well under your guidance.
(Claudia's father)

The lesson materials are "Very varied and interesting. A good balance of all aspects required to study and learn a new language."
The lesson speed " was 'tailor made' to my learning speed."

Tom Law

I started to learn Japanese with Kazuo sensei since May 2011 after I decided moving to Japan next year. Since my mother language is Chinese, so Kanji is not a problem for me, but Japanese grammar is definitely a big challenge. Kazuo sensei’s Japanese lessons are very helpful and interesting; he always shows me lots of Japanese video clips, which is so much better than simply learning grammar from textbooks.
Also, Kazuo sensei always organizes some gatherings for his students to practice speaking with native Japanese speakers, which was fun and very useful to improve speaking.
I feel my Japanese has been significantly improved after taking Kazuo sensei’s lessons: I passed the JLPT level 5 exam that I took in July, and I achieved a good mark, especially I got a full mark of listening.
Yuan - 10th October 2011
(Yuan is going to sit N3 this coming December, and I assume that she would pass this lower-advanced exam then.

Having lived and worked in Japan for three and a half years, you might think that passing AS-Level Japanese would be a walk in the park. However, I’ve been back in the UK for almost 6 years now and the kanji just seems to fade by the day!
Cue Kazuo-sensei!
Kazuo-sensei is an excellent teacher; he checks exactly what your objectives are and then assesses your level of Japanese to see how much work is needed.
In my case, I needed an additional AS-Level for an application to university and had very little time in which to prepare (only a couple of months). Japanese seemed an obvious choice, since I had already passed the 2-kyu exam whilst living in Japan, but looking at the AS-Level past papers, I discovered that I would have to write an essay as part of the 3 hour exam and it was then that I felt I needed some guidance in the form of Kazuo-sensei!
Essay writing was never my strong point at school, but Kazuo-sensei helped immensely.
He set me a few essays to write on various topics and then highlighted the key areas in which I most needed to improve.
Having been fluent in spoken Japanese, it became very apparent that I was often writing as if I were speaking, and there are many spoken words and grammatical constructions that are not permitted in proper, formal written Japanese.
After laughing at some of my colloquialisms in my essays, I worked hard at home (though I think Kazuo-sensei might debate that!) and sat the AS-Level exam in May 2006.
I needed to get an A-Grade for my university application and kept my fingers crossed that my work hadn’t come too late.
Results day arrived and would you believe that I achieved 300/300 in the exam?!

I couldn't believe it either! I was so extremely happy at my result and it most definitely would not have been achievable had it not been for Kazuo-sensei’s classes.
In summary, I highly recommend Kazuo-sensei as a Japanese teacher, no matter what level you’re at. Kazuo-sensei: makoto ni, arigato gozaimashita!
Gillian Northard

J4A's aim is to enhance mutual understanding between non-Japanese and Japanese through language tuition, a homestay programme, interpreting and translating.
For further information, ring 0794 101 8017 (London ) or email to Kazuo Udagawa