Am I on a deserted island here??

I can’t read any signs or explanations.

Even if I ask for help, I can’t understand what the other person is saying.

So I ask several people the same thing.

I get on a train but can’t get off at the desired station.

The shower at the reserved accommodation only has cold water.

I can’t enter shops where I don’t know how to buy things.

Even if I know how to buy things, their English is too fast for me to understand.

When I ask to use the toilet at a shop, I repeat a phrase several times.

If I pay for a meal without knowing anything, a  waiter takes extra money as a tip.

Each day passes by walking, eating, and sleeping.

It felt like I was on a deserted island.

Am I absorbing English now??

I can understand the signs on the roadside more and more.

When I get lost, I can ask for directions.

I can give up my seat on the train for others.

The shower has hot water.

I can enter shops I don’t know.

I can ask if English is too fast, and if it doesn’t work, I just let it go.

I can ask to use the bathroom with no effort.

I give the tip before it is taken by force.

It feels comfortable to spend the whole day speaking English.

Let me explain a little about how I ended up like this.

Alone in a foreign country…

While searching for my life’s goal, I ended up living overseas as a way to broaden my experiences.

However, there was a reality waiting for me there that was so harsh that it went beyond being just difficult – it was funny.

I couldn’t do anything. Really, I couldn’t do anything at all.

For the first time since leaving Japan, I strongly felt that the only place I could live in this world was in Japan, this small place that I called home.

But then I met some wonderful people!

They are my friends, classmates, and teachers.

I first made friends with a Korean at a billiards hall.
Then, I met classmates at a language school who also struggled with English.
I also had a kind teacher who was patient with my poor language skills.

Since meeting them, my life changed dramatically.

A shocking change in my English

After meeting them for about a month, every time I went out into the city, I found myself able to understand more and more at an incredible speed.

From that point on, speaking English felt so much easier and I soon found myself able to live my entire day in English without even realizing it.

Furthermore, I felt like my sense of belonging had expanded beyond just Japan to the whole world.

It was at that moment that I made it my goal to replicate the shockingly transformative experience and joy of learning English in Japan.

How to improve English in Japan?

After a 3-month overseas experience, I returned to Japan feeling like a completely different person.

I was hooked on the joy of improving my English and the new sensations.

But I wondered, how did I have such an experience?

How was it possible to feel like “I can already speak English” in just 3 months?

That was the starting point.

Do we really need to go abroad or study abroad to become fluent in English?

Is it impossible to make significant progress in English in Japan?

These questions were the beginning of everything.

10000 hours of studying English

For the next 10 years, I experimented with various methods to find the most effective way to learn English.

Tried memorizing entire dictionaries, grammar books, shadowing, repeating, reading aloud, writing in English, instant English composition, English conversation, pronunciation practice, and writing correction.

Also taught English for 7 years and studied at a graduate school in the U.S. for 2 years, where I obtained a master’s degree in English education as a second language.

Spent approximately 10,000 hours on learning English and about 1,000 hours on training, and read several hundred books on English learning.

When asked about hobbies, I answered “studying English”. When I was sick, I studied English in the hospital.
(I realize it sounded scary…)

I spent most of my time “studying English.”

I believed that if I studied hard, my English would definitely improve even in Japan.

English is not improving in Japan!

No matter what I tried, I couldn’t have the growth experienced during the 3-month abroad. (Something is missing…)

My knowledge may be increasing, but I didn’t have a sense of getting better at actually speaking English day by day.

Does this mean that I can’t acquire English unless I am rich enough to afford studying abroad?

There are people who acquired English with incredible effort, but is this the only way?

Everyone hopes to speak English

One day, one of my former students came to me  and told me seriously that he would study abroad to become able to speak English.

Then, as an English teacher, I realized that I had not been able to offer anything useful to my students in terms of actually acquiring the language.

I knew that I had to face this reality and make a change, otherwise nothing would change in the future.

Even if I fail, the failure will make a difference for many people in learning English.

SSUP is a school where children can learn to speak English

After several more years, the prototype of SSUP was finally born.

It provides a 3000 to 5000-hour English immersion environment.
Students can learn and play with peers of the same English level.
It has excellent teachers who can provide bilingual education.

SSUP has all the necessary elements for students to become proficient in English.

Even while living in Japan, children can learn to speak English at SSUP.

We welcome children who want to improve their English, or start learning English.

Try our trial lesson and experience SSUP for yourself!