Leeds Japanese Language Study Group 2026

Hello.

My name is Masaru, but you can call me Josh if you like. I've taken over as the organiser of this group this year. I'm a native Japanese speaker (or Kansai-ben to be more specific), and I'm hoping to meet people and help them learn Japanese.

I'm trying to organise weekly meetings for this group. Everyone is welcome, from complete beginners to advanced learners. Beginners are especially welcome — no experience needed.

Beginners please just join. We will practice how to introduce yourselves and a little bit of hiragana and katakana writings.

Here is my idea for the advanced learners this week: I'm thinking to ask you to discuss when, how and why you got interested in Japan and/or Japanese language. We will practice some writing on this topic as well. If you prepare a bit that will help, although it is not a requirement.
If you have any other ideas please let me know.

To be an organiser I had to start a monthly subscription at meetup.com. So I will be asking donations of £2 per attendance to cover this cost, although it is completely optional. It will be really nice if you come along and join us. Feel free to bring your friends.

The meeting will be at Parkside Tavern on Merrion Street (LS2 8JE, https://www.parksidetavern.co.uk/) on Wednesday, 11th of February. We'll start at 18:00 and plan for 90 minutes. We are likely to be seated upstairs.
Sorry for those who expressed preference for other days and times but it looks like Wednesday 6pm works the best.

If you have any questions or just to show your interest, please feel free to message me.

See you on Wednesday!

All the best,
Josh

[Below are the old descriptions. I would keep these for now.]

A meeting to practice conversation, share study tips and generally chat about learning Japanese. Absolute beginners welcome, there'll be plenty of advice to help you out!

I've made some changes to the event and hope to host these more regularly!

What to bring
Speaking
Try to prepare a short piece of writing in Japanese beforehand to read out during the session, the topic can be anything but here's some prompts to help you out

• Your plans for the weekend
• Tell us about your last holiday
• Tell us about a gift you have given/received

If you're happy to, please add to this doc after the event so others can have a read

Show and tell
Bring something to discuss with the group related to learning Japanese like an article, a book or a movie recommendation, anything you've found useful

Neither of these are required but try to bring something along if you can!

Hope to see you there!