Japan

Hi I am an American about 19 years old. I still have 4 years of college ahead of me. When I get out of college I would like to get a working visa, and move to Japan. So my question is are any of you Americans who live in Japan. If you are I also would like to know how long it took you to learn to read, write, and speak Japanese well enough to live there. I know you don't need to know Japanese to live in Japan, but I want to and need to know if I have enough time to learn. Also I am aware every one learns at a different pace, but at least I can get an average. Finally how did you learn Japanese through book, college classes, Internet, software ext. Please don't say any thing nasty about how I am following some fad, I have wanted to move to Japan since I was seven years old, I just sadly haven't done any thing about it till now.

I'm not entirely sure but I think Komuso Tokugawa might be an englishman living in Japan. His singing rocks too.

IM him inworld. I don't think he frequents the forums.

You can also ask Takamura Keiko.

ty I will ask him

Well I live in tokyo born here...........IM me inworld

It took me all of 5 minutes to learn enough Japanese to be able to live here. Supermarkets are wonderful places where teh spoken word is not needed at all. Assuming you are like 99% of the foreigners here, your job as an English language regurgitator will require maybe 10 minutes of Japanese language study to be functional.

You say you have 4 years in which to learn Japanese. Thousands, maybe millions, of people learn enough Japanese in that time period to be roughly equivalent in Japanese ability to a Japanese 4 year old kid. It all really depends on how much time and dedication you have to studying Japanese.

If you want enough Japanese for dating/social purposes, again it's impossibel to say. It obviously widens your potential dating pool, but on teh other hand, you being proficient in Japanese can also be a turn-off, as it would make you insufficiently exotic. Yes, it sounds nuts. I could tell you some nuttier stories than that though.

Don't kid yourself that Japanese ability will get you a better job fresh off the boat. It might get you a better job after a few years if you also have a masters degree in a useful subject (nope, Japanese doesn't count) and near-native ability in Japanese (figure on at least 5 years of study for that). It may, somewhat tenuously depending on the employer, make the difference between being accepted for a McJob and having nothing.

Having blond hair and blue eyes, a degree, and a positive attitude, are far more useful than Japanese if you are serious about getting your foot in the door straight out of university.

I hope this hasn't put you off too much.

and having a pretty smile !!

hi ward.................i have this guy inworld right now

i have the right answer for Dawan :

1- you come back to Second Life home page.
2- you search in the lower right side, there are 4 little flags
3- you clik on the third flag, the little white one with a red point just in the middle
4- go on !! good luck !!

lol

i was joking... but not so much...
perhaps you will be abble to be immersed in japanese second life...
your idea to find japanese friends is a good begining.

I would love to meet Japanese friends in SL, and thanks to this forum I have already been inspired to take my first step at learning the language.

Well its early in the morning here I better get some sleep lol

I believe there's a group for people learning Japanese on SL..

But learning Japanese is a great thing to do anyway, because it really makes you think about all the little assumptions you were making while speaking English and probably didn't even notice.

time is not the same in second life,
the steps could be very little.

it should be wonderfull to visit a second Tokyo, being abble to read all the shop lights and to understand radio .
a dream ?

And, Yoda like talking Japanese sentence structure you end up

The reality is more likely that there are more foreigners in business, IT, and financial services here than there are teaching english, just to keep things accurate.

I'm Australian btw ... and thanks for the vote of vocal confidence Cottenteil!

I'm still a nOOb getting my head around Japanese again after having just moved here recently, but there are plenty of good tools and resources to help learn ...if you have the discipline. Timewise it really is up to you.

http://www.declan-software.com/japanese/index.htm is quite reasonably priced software, if you pick up the whole pack. Has recording so you can hear yourself, which is very important.

Moji http://moji.mozdev.org/ is a great free tool for that nasty brain straining Kanji too.

Culture wise I highly recommend learning shakuhachi - japanese flute...which seems to be more popular overseas than in Japan now, but I guess this is the case with a lot of traditional instruments around the world. As a blues musican and also electronic instrumentalist, however, I can say it is one of the more challenging and deepest instruments on the planet, in my humble opinion...and not just because you can make sly japanese jokes about performing "blow jobs"! [which is apparently a modern japanese joke btw]
http://www.shakuhachiyuu.com/ is a very high quality and very low priced introduction instrument. The links page has some more info and http://www.nyogetsu.com/blowingmeditation.html has some great background on shakuhachi.

my 0.2 cents.

kt

http://www.jetprogramme.org/

if your serious consider this option.

Ah..very good point Obic!

Actually, most foreigners here are involved in low end manufacturing jobs, and are half Japanese half Brazilian. According to official statistics, the next most common form of employment for foreigners is the entertainment industry, although that's being tightened up so I hear. Another very large group of foreigners in official statisitcs, and who are also over-represented in certain desirable fields, are 2nd and 3rd generation Koreans. Their Japanese is, perhaps unsurprisingly, better thn our friend's will ever likely be, as it's their native language.

Those business/It/finance service jobs are proportionately more visible, but almost without exception their are also either incredibly high risk positions with unreliable income (finance springs to mind) comission only income, or require fluency in Japanese. Our friend will almost certainly NOT walk into one of these off the boat unless he already has close business connections in Japan, which are improbable to develop while at university.

btw, if you visit www.bigdaikon.com, and look at the essays section, the most recent addition was by someone who made that step and acquired Japanese citizenship.

Good to see you clarify that old "all foreigners are english teachers" myth.

So I was also a little over the top and I agree with your point about "proportionately more visible" but still disagree with the "commission only" statement. That's pretty much just the gaijin HR Konsultant market...which in some ways seems very similar to the skills required to teach english.

I do agree with teh Japanese Language skills though.

I worked in Tokyo from 94-98 in as an IT Specialist with no initial japanese language skills, but nowdays, despite the fact more japanese speak english, it seems high level japanese skills are also a requirement to secure a job in this area - unless you have the right connections as you correctly point out. I'm still not sure why this is...but either way you should learn the local lingo...sometimes just takes time. Still, there are people doing it ... indian IT companies are one example.

As I explained to AU about the real facts about Japan and how bad the condition it is. Its just crazy how people say how good it is here, when infact its far far from it...........
I mean if your not paying taxes like many visting people are not it is indeeed cheap to live here. Also therye is so much company suport for non japanese compnay reps in japan ( rent, food, etc including tax free) well of course its great place to live here. I pay a hell of alot of taxes in japan.25% of my pay went to taxes and HEALTH care. Many of those that are not paying is just don`t understand the real Japan. I sorry If i appear rude but i dealt with reps from counties living in japan and other clients doing business in japan.

Thank you for all of your replys. sorry I have not replied sooner today I was busy all day, and just got home.

don't be sorry, because it is not I.M. !!

some replys are interesting for everybody
because the thread is interesting .

Well, having lived here once, moved away, and moved back again I can say there are pros and cons to living anywhere...and I've also lived in Oslo - supposedly THE most expensive city on Earth still. Some things [good casual clothes, quality low priced lunch] are cheaper here now, and of higher quality, than you can buy in Australia - which was never the case previously. I hear London is now very expensive, more so than Tokyo for some things - the Tube for example, which rarely can even make a schedule on time.

Some things still suck badly - rent, land costs, alcohol ridiculously expensive [good reason to cut back to being a moderate healthy drinker anyway]. the Live house scene sucks incredibly badly, Japanese TV and the food eating panels of c-grade celebs ["Oishi desu!!!" --AAAARGHHHH!!!]

but hey, there are a lot of good things about the place too....up to each person to find them for themselves

You could die from boredom in Australia or get whacked by a crazed gun nut in da good old USA or....whatever....

I just call it Planet Tokyo. [like most countries the capital city is not a clear and accurate representation of the entire country and way of life]

ty for your input

oh...yeah...and don't forget the earthquake tremors as a special powerup bonus.

The ones this morning scared the Frak out of me!