Quentin Codevelle wrote: > Hi Richard, > > Thanks for sharing what you lived in the academy. > I wondered if some students left the acadey before the end of the > course...Because I had a teacher when I was apprentice who told me > that when he went to the academy, a greek tuner wanted to go back > after 4 days of work there. Dont know about that. They did talk about some arab guy that had to be sent home after just a few days a few years back. He couldnt tune at all as the story went. Most times tho if people are not well enough qualified to run through their mill, they are allowed to complete but are not invited to come back for the next level. They do their best to be encouraging, polite, and helpful regardless. > > How many technicians were attending the course with you? Has everybody > (who went to the end of the course) been graduated? Everyone that attended in June passed and graduated. Two of us got <<A>> grades, most of the rest got <<B>>, and there was one student who had a hard time with tunings and I am not sure whether that person was invited back. That person did do very well on regulation and beggining voicing tho... so perhaps all went well there too. > > Quentin > I think what you are basically asking is whether or not its really worth while to go to the academy. Just like with other such <<schools>>, my answer is a resounding yes. You may go there knowing most of what they have on their curriculum, and you may even be very well accomplished. But anytime you put yourself on the school bench it is in the end up to you how much you learn. Here is a top notch learning environment with accent on basics, standards, and an understanding of relationships. If there are things you need to learn, you will learn them, and if you have a good working knowledge from before, they will force you to focus on doing what you can do even better, even faster. The only real impediment is the language one... but it turns out to be not as big a problem as you might think as so much of what you learn here comes from the practicing of the basic routines you are shown. Lots of hands on work, lots of hands on teaching. Where words become a problem, visual alternatives take hand. Above all tho... the Japanese have this thing about respect..... if you go in there thinking you know everything.... well... they will respect that and leave you too it. You wont learn much that way... but you may get certified if thats what you are after. If you get the opportunity to go... dont think twice... just make sure you can tune well and have a decent working knowledge of basic grand regulation. They arent teaching miracles here... just good old staple effectivity and accuracy. Cheers RicB
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