Giny wrote:
> I am often asked by Dutch students of our Japanese Cultural Centre
> in Amsterdam where we teach Japanese to Dutch people (beginners to
> advanced) , about  good Japanese language schools in Tokyo.
> When I lived in Tokyo  the Naganuma School was a good school.
> Does anyone know whether they still are good or whether there is
> perhaps a survey or so  about good language schools in Tokyo?
>
> Giny

No one can be bothered to reply, eh? Apparently not relevant enough to
fj.life.in-japan?

Anyway, your post caught my eye, but unfortunately I can't help too much.
The Naganuma school still exists, though they changed the name years ago,
and my understanding is that it isn't nearly as good as it used to be.
Sorry, but I can't even recall the new name. I managed to get some of the
old Naganuma textbooks, and felt they were quite solid. I studied
conversation at a bunch of schools for some years (but currently only study
reading). ALA (Ichigaya) and Nichibei (Yotsuya) were probably the two most
consistent in terms of quality teaching for the money paid. I think Nichibei
called the Japanese part the Japanese Language Institute. I'm inclined to
recommend the YMCA because they are consistently inexpensive, but the
quality of the actual class will be very much luck of the draw. All of their
teachers that I've met were pretty "sincere" (as on the English-teaching
side), but some of them were much more effective teachers than others. For
beginning students, most local government sponsor free basic Japanese
classes given by local volunteers.