What’s New At Bunka?
We Focus On Getting You Conversationally Ready FAST!

Elementary 1 to Intermediate 4

Pre Advanced to Advanced

Business Japanese


Only our *in-person courses are SkillsFuture & UTAP Eligible at the moment! Click on the button below to find out more about how you can use your SkillsFuture credits & the UTAP funding with Bunka.
*In-person Elementary 1 – Intermediate 4 are SkillsFuture eligible

Why Bunka?



Why Bunka? Because…
- Our teachers are all native speakers of Japanese and registered with the Ministry of Education.
- We have our very own textbook created by our team of teachers with over 35 years of teaching experience condensed into an interractive and contextualized curriculum that is most suited for Singaporeans.
- The present polite form is introduced together with dictionary form.
- Explanations of the grammar are in English
- We have a small class size, with a maximum of 12 people in each class.
- Hiragana is introduced in Elementary.
- Students are engaged in role-playing real-life situations as the main character such that speaking, listening writing and reading are all covered.
- Many visually attractive illustrations make the content easier to remember.
- The language used closely adheres to daily life.
Hybrid Classroom Format
Ever since COVID-19 happened, the world has changed drastically and Bunka has adapted as well. We have adopted the use of ZOOM to conduct our classes both online and In-Person. This allows you to choose where and how you wish to study – Online or In-person!
Hear What Our Students Think
- Mizusaki Sensei
- Toguchi Sensei
- S.Suzuki Sensei
- Hatano Sensei
- Nakajima Sensei
- Ashida Sensei
- Takeuchi Sensei
- Isomura Sensei
- Kojima Sensei
- Suzuki Sensei
- Shimada Sensei
- Isono Sensei
Mizusaki Sensei
“Sensei injects fun and laughter during lesson, at the same time she is strict to check and ensure we all speak grammatically correct Japanese. Sensei also makes sure we learn the right expressions and mannerism to avoid getting misunderstood by native Japanese.
Sensei’s emphasis to converse naturally well in Japanese is equally important. Enable to write and read Japanese is inadequate indeed.
A very dedicated Sensei with passion. 😘”
– Rosalind LIM
I like her cheerfulness n also her teaching. She is a delicated teacher and is very informative. She knows her students strength and weaknesses. She makes the class interesting and I look forward to attend her physical class every week. Thank you.
– Cathy Low
Being in Mizusaki sensei’s world, her explanation and delivery of Japanese language is perfect. She brings her culture as a japanese, plus add on of Singapore “style” which makes it easy and enjoyable to learn/understand.
– Sheryl lee
Sensei is engaging in terms of delivery, challenges us to think on our feet (constantly) and plans the lessons content to help strengthen the areas that we are weak in.
– Cheryl Phua
She’s very knowlegeable and explains concepts well with good examples. I enjoy her lessons because I can practice expressing my thoughts in Japanese.
– Karen Lam
Toguchi Sensei
I really like how Toguchi sensei constantly pushes the class to speak Japanese through small conversation about our daily life. And while it’s easy to put the same level of expectation on the whole class, I appreciate how she takes into account our comfort and skill level, and pushes each one just a little beyond their comfort zone. She’s really bubbly and shares a lot about japanese culture if something comes up in the class’ conversation, and also takes a lot of interest in the local Singapore things we mention. That makes classes feel like a very warm place, with laughter and learning about each other, on top of the language.
– Foo Peiying
Toguchi Sensei is very friendly and is crystal clear when teaching and explaining things to us during the lesson. She lightens the mood of the class with some jokes making lessons more enjoyable. She also puts enough focus on each and everyone of us, even those joining online, which helps us progress together as a class.
– Hasheer Aslam
Toguchi Sensei is very perceptive and understands the strenghts and weaknesses of her students. She encourages interactions which also brightens the mood during lesson and makes the effort to include everyone whenever a question or new learning discovery is raised.
– Lee Yao Hui
Sensei recaps what was taught the previous lesson at the start of every class. She also works on our area of improvement and constantly monitors your progress. Sensei is also friendly and I feel safe and comfortable in her class.
– Angela
Toguchi-sensei has been my sensei since Intermediate level. I always enjoy her bubbly personality and the energy she brings to her classes. She is also very perceptive and always tries to make sure students in the class follow the conversations.
– Jun Song
S.Suzuki Sensei
Always enthusiastic, makes the learning such a joy and can challenge us without it ever being too much pressure! Both Toguchi Sensei and Suzuki sensei have been fantastic teachers and I’m really excited to keep going with Bunka! Such high quality teachers!
– Joe
Very encouraging and full of praises (which is important because there are times we may not give correct answers even though we have learnt it for one year), proactive in coming up with exercises and activities to let us practice the usage
– Michael Lee
S. Suzuki sensei is energetic, fun and engaging. She uses examples which are very easy to understand. She sometimes draws and act so that we can better relate to the differences in certain functions/words/sentence structure that we learned.
– Desmond Kwang
She is cheerful & encouraging during lessons. It is also beneficial that she understand the local culture, colloquial etc to help us understand certain Jap terms which helps us to understand further.
– Tan Yoke Choo
I have been learning from S.Suzuki Sensei from Beginner 1 until current Intermediate 3 and I have so far enjoyed every single lesson with her. A thoughtful teacher who puts thought, fun and humor into how she clarifies our queries and presents examples to us. Her lessons are engaging and she is very patient with everyone in class, always encouraging us to try.
– Yen Ling Tan
Hatano Sensei
She is very patient with students and make sure we understand every steps in the E1 course. She is funny and keeps the entire 3 hours lively. It was my sincere pleasure to have her as my first Japanese teacher.
– Jihoon
She is very friendly and engaging, which helps me understand the language better. Great teacher.
– Berji
Friendly, clear in her teaching. Explains concepts well and ready to answer our questions
– Ooi Hui Ying Sylvia
Nakajima Sensei
“Nakajima Sensei is humorous and engages the class well with conversational practise. Everyone gets a chance to speak up and no one is left out. I like that we learn how to apply the words and phrases we learnt in the context of realistic real-life settings. Instead of just marking our homework and returning it back to us, our homework is gone through in class and our mistakes can be corrected on the spot with proper explanations. She speaks really quickly and doesn’t really use English to explain, so I had a difficult time at first, but I’ve adjusted and am now really enjoying my lessons 🙂
– Rachel Yohannan
She uses realistic scenarios to provide a better understanding of how we should use Japanese in a conversational manner which I find extremely helpful. She’s also very patient in explaining to us key terms which we’re unsure about and also throws in very interesting facts about Japan which I’ve never known about.
– Nicole Yue
I’ve been taking Nakajima Sensei’s lessons since Elementary 1, and I really love her teaching style. Aside from covering the textbook content, she creates opportunities for us to practice speaking on fun topics, and carefully answers any questions we have. She also shares about Japanese culture and makes an effort to remember small things about us (our favourite food, hobbies etc.).
– Lim Qing
Nakajima Sensei makes class a ton of fun. She speaks fast which helps improve our listening comprehension and is patient with us when it takes some time to understand. She cracks a lot of jokes and always makes us laugh. I always enjoy going to class!
– Jordan Hamada
She answers all our questions with enthusiasm, likes to laugh together with students, and is of course extremely proficient in Japanese . She is also very committed to helping us learn and improve our Japanese.
– Eric quek
Ashida Sensei
Ms Ashida is very sweet, kind, understanding and really really friendly. Super Kawaii! She has gentle vibes which really help me feel confident enough to speak in a language that i am not yet fluent in, though im very concious of my wrong pronounciations etc. her lessons are always very fun and i look forward to them! Also find it very nice of her to share more about herself eg, where she is from and such 😀
– Shafaq Rizwan Khan
Ashida Sensei has been very patient and helpful in my Japanese learning journey. There would be times where she wouldn’t mind repeating an explanation so that we may get a proper understanding of it and she also tries her best to explain the english equivalent of a Japanese phrase or word for our ease of understanding. She would answer emails regarding my quarries if I were to have any. Overall, I enjoyed my lessons with her as she provides a fun and interactive environment despite it being an online class.
– Jauzan Darwisy Bin Adan
Very kind and patient!
– Lin Yi Xuan Jean
She has a lot of patience in giving examples and explaining to our questions. She is also very creative and professional in her teaching.
– Cindy Lau
Takeuchi Sensei
Sensei Miyoko san is a engaging teacher and I like that she explains the origins of certain words. She also shares with us recommendations, history and culture facts of Japan, making her lessons very interesting and I look forward to it every week.
– Rachel Thong
Patience in teaching and making sure we understand. She also does revision for previous Topic to refresh us in the content.
– Yap Chin Hong
Takeuchi Sensei is patient and shares great stories related to class. Love her friendly teaching style and am waiting for her next E3 online class! 🙂
– Teo Danlin
Clear teaching, good pace, fun, very patient and encouraging, obviously care for her students 🙂
– Esther Ng Eet Ming
Detailed and explains well to help us understand the grammer concepts.
– Claris Chong
Isomura Sensei
Isomura Sensei is patient and approachable. She creates a friendly learning environment, making online learning easy and interesting. She also encourages conversation in Japanese and takes time to correct where necessary.
– Jena Tan
Ms Isomura is very patient and is willing to answer all questions and explain things in details.
– Xueqi
Kojima Sensei
Kojima Sensei is very patient and nurturing. She explains things very clearly and takes extra effort to guide us without giving us the right answer right away. I really enjoy E1 & E2 classes with her.
– Melanie Lim
She is very experienced in both English and Japanese. Especially bunpo explanation in English. We are perfectly understand what she taught. I would say she is the best Sensei I ever had. Thank you so much for teaching us.
– Chui Tack Yin
Sensei emphasizes more on communication skill that makes the class becomes interactive.
– Nur Ain Binti Ismail
Friendly and personable. Also patient when answering the class’ doubts.
– Gan Ying Cheng
Suzuki Sensei
Everything! Sensei is patient in teaching and encourages her students. She does her best to liven the class thus her lessons are always interesting. It’s unfortunate that she’s leaving but I hope someday she can teach at Bunka again.
– Chia Kar Ling
Suzuki Sensei Elementary 1 Sunday 0930-1230 : Sensei is patient and very clear in her explanation; she promotes active interaction in class, making the learning atmosphere fun and interesting.
– Yap Sze Hong
“Suzuki Sensei was my Elementary and Intermediate Teacher. She is by far one of the best teachers who actually makes sure everyone understand the grammar point. Lessons were well-prepared and easy to understand. Thanks to Suzuki Sensei, my foundation has gotten better. I really like her teaching method as she uses scenario-based teaching. I’m a big fan of such teaching as I can imagine and understand the situation, and when to use certain grammar point correctly. She is attentive and even takes note of frequently asked questions from students who happened to find certain grammars points are quite similar. ♡♡♡
I didn’t feel like I needed to drag my foot to school. Rather, I kept looking forward for her next lesson instead.”
– Chan Li Yi
Great teacher, materials are well prepared. Contents taught is very clear every lesson, making learning Japanese language easy and fun. Will perform recap of previous lesson to make sure we remember contents from previous lesson before moving on to more difficult contents. Lesson pace is very well maintained, not too fast and not too slow, great for beginners like me. Highly recommended! Banzai!
– januar wijaya
Suzuki sensei is very patient and encouraging. Her always smiling and outgoing personality is a big plus! I will definitely like to sign up to Elementary 2 and hope Suzuki sensei will be teaching the same class.
– Dorrine Kew
Shimada Sensei
Shimada sensei is accommodating of our questions and answers to her best ability using various examples. To add on to the curriculum, she includes other commonly used verbs, nouns, and adjectives to make it more conversational.
– Clarence Tan
Supportive, dedicated teacher who makes learning Japanese interesting! The rounds of conversation and getting students to think on the spot, about how to come up with questions or variations of answers on the fly, are very helpful for revising the application of particles and vocabulary. Thank you Shimada Sensei 🙂
– Yiqing
She explains concepts clearly, precisely, and ensures that everyone understands before moving on. Also, I appreciate that she tries to improve our knowledge retention, by asking us questions and bringing in concepts from previous lessons. Lastly, she is meticulous, evident from her teaching, and the way she grades our homework (e.g. correcting our hiragana/katakana strokes).
I took E1 with Shimada Sensei, and enjoyed myself a lot. I intend to continue taking her classes.
– Jovi
Shimada sensei tries her best to answer our questions and goes at a pace that is just right as I have classmates who attended makeup lessons and mentioned that the other teacher was too fast and ended earlier.
– Esther
She is very approachable, patient and understanding. She teaches at a very good pace and goes through everything to make sure everyone understands. Please open another E2 class under her!
– Nadia
Isono Sensei
Friendly, positive and good in English.
– Amy
He is thorough and clear of what he expects of his students and wants them to learn.
– Hadi Asyaari Bin Ahmad
It is not easy to teach a weekday class for those who have just come in from work. I appreciate that Isono Sensei keeps that class engaged with his energy and interactions, inclusing telling us about himself and asking questions about Singapore and English words in relation to the subject material. It keeps us engaged in thinking about the material in relatable scenarios, and keeps the morale up by getting to know our teacher and classmates with his questions.
I’m happy to be able to continue learning under his guidance and taching style, and hope this feedback is useful to him.
– Minzy
Teach patiently and giving guidance if there is mistake.
– Soo Chung Yee
Energetic, good time management.
– Angeline Koh
16週間の授業は楽しいです。たかつか先生は親切で面白いです。始めは難しいですが、たくさん学びました。本当にありがとうございましたね、先生!
16 fruitful weeks with Takatsuka-sensei. The PA1 class might have seemed difficult and intimidating at the beginning. Sometimes we did not even understand what sensei was asking. For example, he asked, “I am asking a question and you are…?”After quite a while then only we knew he wanted us to use the passive form and say “I am being asked a question.” But after a few weeks, we found ourselves on track and making progress. Sometimes when we could not answer a question sensei will use his method to help or “push” us while minimising the use of English. I would say a regular revision of intermediate-level grammar would be helpful. Overall, it was a great class!
Also, thank Ms Angelica and admin team. They are informative, helpful and efficient (much better than my previous school’s admin).
I’ve been studying with Bunka for 2 years now and every lesson has always been fun for me. Japanese is not an easy language to learn but my 先生s never fail to make learning Japanese fun for me and evidently, my classmates too.
Recently, I’ve just joined Mizusaki 先生’s pre-advanced class and although I was intimidated at the start, the following lessons became much more enjoyable as I got used to her teaching style that was geared towards thinking out of the box and being transported to “Mizusaki World”, which I feel is a creative way to learn Japanese.
If you’re pondering over which school to choose out of several Japanese language schools in Singapore, Bunka focuses on conversational Japanese so if you’re seeking to use/ hope to improve your Japanese for communication purposes, Bunka’s the one for you!
Judging from past reviews, everyone has different experiences during their time with Bunka but one advice is to experience it yourself before basing your conclusion on those reviews
I wanted to start to learn Japanese as we love everything about Japan and travel there often. As I work from home I preferred a mid week day time course and it took a while for me to find one available.
I started with Elementary 1 in August 2017 and was very fortunate to get Mizusaki Sensei as the teacher. Usually, she only teaches much higher levels but was training some of the newer teachers at a lower level.
I was quite worried about going back to the classroom but I shouldn’t have been. Mizusaki Sensei has a wonderful teaching style, making the whole learning process so relaxed. I never once felt stupid even though at times I struggled and I love the way she cracks jokes which makes you feel so relaxed.
I was lucky that our classmates continued through and got to the end of Intermediary one with the same classmates which made the learning process much easier too.
Unfortunately, I had to leave Singapore at the end of Intermediary 1 but that’s in order to take a year travelling around Japan. With all of the knowledge I’ve learned from Bunka and Mizusaki Sensei, I will go to Japan with basic knowledge and much more confidence to help when I arrive.
I’ll forever be grateful to Bunka and Mizusaki Sensei for this great experience!
So far I’ve completed Elementary 1. I’m continuing till advanced. I feel the course pace is quite fast, you’ll need to study after every lesson. Also, their method used is highly effective. I can see the patterns in Japanese (especially grammar).
Bunka is a good school for people who focus on learning conversation which is really what I am looking for.
It does not have homework which is a pro and cons depending on people. I do not think we can really rely on once a week class to master a language which the school can give tips on how to study outside class.
Defo LEGIT as heck. The teachers BLEED Japan!