Recession bites local Japanese classes

[TheEnglishKnitter]

Just voicing my annoyance.
I enrolled on a local uni course for a Japanese night class, paid and got refunded - class cancelled as I was the only enrollment.
So... I enrolled on a local Japanese night class run by my local council - class cancelled because there were only 4 students enrolled and to make the class finacially viable 10 students are required.
so... I have enrolled at a local language school, recommended by my local council for an evening class - I find out on Friday whether I will be refunded!!!!!!!

This is really annoying because as a Mum, day school is out, home study is leaving me fluent in reading and writing but conversationally sparse (I'm not big on the CD's). And the class has to be local because bedtime for my son is 7pm and I really can't leave too much before then because bedtime is a bit of a fuss. I am a Mum first and a student of Japanese second.

Grrrrrrr, Is anyone else finding Japanese just isn't the popular course this year? I'm putting it down to the biting recession and assuming potential students are choosing more relevant classes or choosing not to take night classes.

[Shiroisan]

My University didn't even offer evening courses as an option because they thought it would never fill.

This isn't to say that Japanese isn't as popular as other languages though. At my school only 11 people signed up for Intro to chinese, but for intro to Japanese all 50 spots were filled.

I have the exact same problem as you, my reading and writing is totally up to par but my conversation is surely abysmal. It makes me nervous because I'm going to a complete emersion language school in 9 months, and the "placement test" is a written test. So I'll probably be placed in a level totally inappropriate for my listening/speaking skills.

[Snowflake]

Where I live now, I haven't been able to find any offerings of reasonably-priced continuing-ed or adult-ed classes in Japanese classes. In the case of this town, I don't think the recession is a key factor -- as far as I know (I've only lived here for 3 years) they didn't seem to offer any even when times were better. Everything I've seen has been in the thousands-of-dollars range for a 12-week course and I just can't justify sending that much (even if I could afford it!).

I thoroughly understand and empathize with the desire to get speaking practice.

[TheEnglishKnitter]

Looks like my third attempt is also going to be unlucky. This just isn't the year for Japanese.
I live in West London, zone 2. I cant go central because I have a child and cant get a sitter early enough in the evening, but I am shocked that in the whole of West London, classes are a non starter! I can drive to classes that have parking within a 20-minute radius (5-miles) of my flat and I still cant find any. (the only 1 I know that was still offering places starts ridiculously early in the evening, they might as well call it a late school day class because it certainly isnt an evening class.

So, back to independent study - Japanese for Busy People... I do worry about the lack of conversational practice though.