I’m Rieko Nishio, the Principal of JaLS GROUP, and we started the school in 2012. I have always had a passion for teaching Japanese language and culture and I trained to be a Japanese teacher at a professional school where I became a licensed teacher. Afterwards, I taught Japanese in Tokyo, before moving to Vietnam for 2 years. I returned to Japan and gained further experience in marketing and sales before moving to Malaysia to teach Japanese. Throughout my time teaching Japanese, I met many students and heard their stories. I found that students studying Japanese abroad often had a passion to learn the language because of their love for the culture, the people, and an appreciation for the Japanese way of life.

However, when I taught in Japan, I also met students who lost their love the language after moving to the country. Many of them had found it difficult to make friends or told me they felt like there was a wall between them and the Japanese community. Japan was oftenly not what they expected it to be. After hearing about these experiences, I decided to move back to Japan and create a different kind of Japanese language school. Our hope is that our students will be able to become part of the Japanese community, rediscover their love for Japanese life, and enjoy their language learning journey. JaLS has been running for a number of years, and we have many stories from students who have enjoyed every moment of their time here - this makes us more passionate about developing our school and community even further! Why not come and join us in Japan this year?