Review: Native Camp – Take Unlimited, On Demand Japanese Lessons

Native Camp Japanese
Need more Japanese practice? This service offers on-demand access to native Japanese speakers - but it'll cost ya.

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I’m always looking for ways to improve my Japanese. These days, I’m particularly focused on bringing my speaking skills up to the next level.

That’s why Native Camp Japanese caught my eye. The service, run by Native Camp Inc. in Japan, originally started as an online English language school for Japanese speakers. It now also offers lessons for Japanese learners on an on-demand, all-you-can-learn model. I gave it a spin to see if it was worth the (rather steep) monthly fee.

(Note: Unseen Japan has no sponsorship or affiliate relationship with Native Camp Japanese.)

On-demand lessons

Regular readers know I’m a big advocate of services that connect you to Japanese teachers no matter where you are in the world. You can get in several hours of Japanese speaking practice every month with a native speaker even if you don’t live in Japan.

While I love these services, given my packed schedule, it’s often hard to book a time slot in advance. Even when I do book one for later in the day, sometimes I find I’m too exhausted to make it. The result is that I often get in less Japanese speaking time than I’d like.

Native Camp Japanese operates on a different model. Instead of booking and paying for lessons in advance, you pay a flat monthly fee of USD $199. Then, when you have between 10 and 25 minutes in your day, you can take a lesson immediately with whatever teachers are online and available.

The flat fee also gets you unlimited lessons. You can take as many lessons as you want in a month. You can even take multiple lessons in a day.

Native Camp works on a standard computer desktop. There’s also an app for both iOS and Android so you can take lessons on the go.

A variety of lesson types

Before launching a class, Native Camp Japanese lets you set the type of lesson you want to take from a set of “textbooks.” For beginners and intermediate students, these are basically PDFs embedded into the site that focus on grammar or vocabulary for either casual or business conversation. There are also textbooks for those preparing for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT).

Native Camp Japanese - textbook selection

For upper intermediate and advanced learners who want to talk about more complex topics, there are the Free Conversation and Daily Topics “textbooks.” Daily Topics is a great feature – it’s a list of YouTube videos, with associated Q/A materials, about some interesting topic pertaining to Japanese culture.

The “textbook” itself is a link to the video with a short summary in Japanese, plus a series of slides containing questions to spark conversation between yourself and your teacher. It’s a great little idea and a nice way for intermediate learners to bridge the gap from learner-centric materials to enjoying native Japanese content.

For advanced learners, there’s the Free Conversation topic. You can either ask your teacher to select a topic (this usually ends up being small talk), or you can recommend a topic to discuss.

I spent a week using Native Camp Japanese with the Free Conversation – Student topic option, discussing topics that I’d been writing about for UJ. I have to admit, I got hooked on the freedom of starting a lesson whenever I had time during the day.

After five days, I was able to get in around two hours of Japanese speaking with various teachers. That’s more than I’d normally get in with scheduled lessons.

You can generate a certificate of attendance for your Native Talk Japanese usage, which can be useful if you’re using it as part of a larger formal program in Japanese.

About that price…

Native Camp Japanese works well enough. There are some rough spots on the site. But the video functions work well, and the site’s easy enough to navigate.

I also found there was always a teacher available. Around mid-morning and mid-day for me, there are usually around 10 teachers on standby. However, this may be very time zone-dependent, and I may have an advantage living in Japan, where most of the teachers reside.

The issue for many will be the steep price. At $199/month, it’s a heck of a commitment. The question is: How does this compare, price-wise, to other services like Preply (affiliate link), where you book one-hour lessons in advance?

On Preply, the average cost for a one-hour lesson is USD $15. That means, for $199, you could purchase around 13 hours of Japanese conversation from a tutor there. To get the same pure value on Native Camp Japanese, you’d have to take a 25 minute lesson every single day of the month.

Mind you, this assumes you view the services as purely equal. The ability on Native Camp Japanese to jump right into a lesson of between 10 and 25 minutes whenever you have time is a huge value add – at least for me. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

All in all, I find Native Camp Japanese good value for the service it provides. It’s given me more opportunities to practice my Japanese than I’d have otherwise.

Native Camp Japanese offers a seven-day free trial for new members. Give it a try and see for yourself if you think it’s worth the cost.

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