I'm in my late 40s and I've started DMM Eikaiwa

Hello, this is Masa, in my late 40s.

In last month's article, I wrote about my experiences with several online English conversation services, but at that stage, I hadn't decided which one to sign up for.

And so, out of the many online English conversation services available, the one I decided on is, quite simply, DMM Eikaiwa.

It has been about two weeks since I officially signed up for DMM Eikaiwa, and today I reached 200 hours. It's tough to find the time for daily lessons, but I'm hoping to keep up a pace of about three days a week.

I had been thinking about starting online English conversation for a long time but couldn't quite get myself to do it, but I've finally started. I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but I want to continue at least until I quit my current job.

In this article, I would like to write about my impressions since starting DMM Eikaiwa and points I didn't notice during the trial lessons.

The quality of the teaching materials was better than I expected

First, about the materials.
In my past comparison article on online English conversation, I wrote that they were average, but after using them for these two weeks, I found them to be very easy to use.

When I first saw the DMM Eikaiwa materials, there was only English text, and I thought it would be tough for a beginner, but when I looked closely, I realized that the translation button is OFF by default, so it only displays English at first.
By turning this ON, English and Japanese are listed side-by-side, just like in other online English conversation materials.

Also, discussions appear here and there, so there are times when you have to speak your own opinion.In my case, I prepare my answers during the preparation stage and try not to look at them as much as possible during the actual lesson, but in reality, the instructor asks two or three additional questions, so I have to improvise there. These two or three exchanges are very important for building conversational skills.

These "discussions" exist at every level of many materials. Therefore, I think DMM Eikaiwa is structured in a way that makes it difficult for lessons to end up just reading the text aloud or listening to what the instructor says, which is common in other online English conversation services.

If the instructor has a user rating of 9.9 or higher, you won't have a major failure

Next is the quality of the instructors, and I found that if you choose instructors with high ratings, you won't really have any complaints.

In these two weeks, I had lessons with people who all had ratings of 9.9 or higher for the first time, and regardless of whether they are male or female, highly-rated instructors are proactive in their lessons.In the case of DMM Eikaiwa, the rating scores and comments are open, and you can see all the impressions of other people's lessons, so I think if you refer to those comments, rating scores, and the instructor's video greeting, you won't have a major failure.

By the way, even at DMM Eikaiwa, there are a lot of instructors from the Philippines, and perhaps it's a characteristic of Filipinos, but many of them have very little English accent. Also, I once took a lesson with a man from Malaysia, and he also had a native-like pronunciation. On the other hand, instructors from India do tend to have a bit of an accent.

The recording function is more convenient than I thought (but you can't listen to it on an iPhone)

Finally, the recording function, which is only available on DMM Eikaiwa among inexpensive online English conversation services, was great. I mainly listen to it for review to check parts I couldn't catch in the instructor's speech or to check my own pronunciation, and by listening to the English I speak objectively, I can see areas for improvement, and ideas for words I want to use next time come to mind.

A disappointing point is that I cannot listen to these recorded audios on my iPhone; you can only listen to recordings on a PC or Android. It seems it was announced that it was under development when the recording function was first introduced for iPhone, but I wonder if the development priority is low since it's still not available after a year and a half. Well, I only listen to them when I'm reviewing, so it's not a problem, but I do wish I could listen to them while commuting.

By the way, RareJob also released a recording service in October, and it seems the recording function can be used for some instructor lessons. However, since October, RareJob's prices and menus have changed, making it about 1,500 yen per month more expensive than DMM Eikaiwa, so I think DMM Eikaiwa is currently the only online service that includes a recording function at the lowest price. If you want to use a recording function for online English conversation, I recommend DMM Eikaiwa.

That's all for my impressions after using DMM Eikaiwa for two weeks, but the nervousness I felt in the early lessons is fading, and I feel like I'm starting to enjoy the conversation, even if it's broken. However, my English ability won't improve just by having fun with easy topics, so I hope to improve my skills by talking about themes that are a bit more challenging. Also, I'll talk about online English conversation topics again if something comes up.

That concludes "I started DMM Eikaiwa in my late 40s." See you next time.

P.S
If you are thinking about starting DMM Eikaiwa, please feel free to use the referral code below. You will receive three extra lesson tickets to use freely, in addition to your regular lessons.