JCS Japanese Language School

JCS Language School is an established language school and has a big student base. Every year when they have beginners class intake (for the normal class), their school premises at Bugis will have a long queue that goes from their Level 5 office, down the stairs to ground floor and longer, by 1 hour before admission registration starts. I still remember that I have to wait another 6 months for the normal class, as I couldn't go on the registration day for the intensive class and I have to slowly climb up the stairs (while in the queue) on the registration day for the normal class.

There's another private Japanese language school that I know. In comparison, that school require 14 months of 3 hours per week (not counting the breaks in between each 2-month class) to prepare you for JLPT N4 test (2nd level out of 5 levels) but JCS needs 2 full year (including mid-year and year-end) of 2 hours per week (or 1 year if you go for intensive class of 4 hours per week). But the fees are wide apart too - JCS only $1.2k while that private school is $1.8k.

JCS also organise conversational class and other Jap class (eg preparatory class for JLPT) on non-regular intervals. So if you have more than $1.2k to spare, those classes will help you more towards understanding the language. Or you can also just go for those classes instead of the standard year-long lessons (5-year syallabus).

JCS has mainly lady Japanese teachers. Singaporean teachers form a minority - I do not know about the other private Japanese language schools, but personally I like JCS's availablility of non-native speaker teachers, as I feel it is easier for a beginner to learn from a non-native speaker, as they tend to appreciate your difficulties better and thus can explain the language in a way better for you to understand.