Can I learn good enough Japanese to live there within ~9 months, as well as how can I learn to speak and listen to Japanese

Japanese Language Questions
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Well she is I’m pretty sure but she’s the older one plus the one who invited me so I’m doing my best to help her along (she was using duolingo, ew) but my head isn’t in the clouds or anything. I know stuff I learn in school about Japan which are all kinda boring facts I’ll never use but some I will, trust me ever since I was a little kid I made it a personal agenda that I hated all weebs, I have no clue why and it still makes me laugh to this day but still I wouldn’t be learning Japanese or moving there for some freak dream thinking everyone there is 2d and loves me and I’ll have superpowers and a harem and a superpowered harem, Japan is sorta like everywhere else in a sense.

Plus I’ll have you know I hit my burnout once I learned katakana and I’m already through it, for once in my life ADHD helps me because I’m not going to stop now that I’ve started. Plus I know it’s unnecessarily difficult for me to try and do this but that’s also something I do a lot of the time, at least this time failure only means certain death-by-mugging-due-to-lack-of-japanese-knowledge, jokes aside I know what I’ve gotta do, but I assure you my current life is more of a hell than this.

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I’m not been here long enough but I’ve already seen a handful of people started with passion and dedecation and then burned out quickly after a month or two due to breakneck pacing.

We are not here to discourage you but we are here to give you the information to consider the best path in you journey of learning Japanese.

Do what you need to do but consider the failure as a possibility and have a plan for that. So when you fall you can recover quickly. Many people fall and never stand back again because they didn’t consider failure as an option.

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Given that you are a senior in High School, you have to do well in your studies across the board. I have no idea what the national exam is in the US, maybe the SATs, but study hard for that and then attempt to get the MEXT Scholarship if your results are good enough.

I think that’s the most viable plan for you right now.

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Yeah no for sure, I know how bad burning out can be but I’m prepared to push past that if needs be. I have no disillusions about how hard this will be, but I think I can figure it out.

And trust me I’ve had roughly 4 seemingly solid futures just woosh out of grasp due to things beyond my control, I am more than prepared for something to go wrong and be screwed out of it but I can’t help but get excited to leave the US and for a place so highly reviewed by so many people. I do appreciate the concern though, but failure or success I’ll have a fun time learning it anyways!

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I’m still looking into what a MEXT is, so I’ll have to still figure out details but when I took the ACT for the first time without practice I got a 26, which is a good enough score to pay for 4 years of college tuition at some places where I live, so I’m certain to check out how good of an option MEXT is.

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I’m gonna pop in here with my 2 cents. I’ve been living in Japan for the last 2 years, working as an English Teacher (I am 28). I came to Japan with 0 Japanese knowledge, and honestly I am still just under N5 level; due to my job, I am literally expected to not speak any Japanese, which has been detrimental to my learning process. (Though I have begun studying in earnest, I would love to be able to talk more to my coworkers). Because of this, I have a lot of experience being Unable To Communicate. In my experience, living here with very little Japanese knowledge is frustrating, but at the end of the day it’s very possible. Because of technology, it has never been easier to do something like this (Google Translate Sensei is a godsend, I would not have been able to survive here without it) But saying that it’s possible definitely isn’t saying it’s Easy. It is very disconcerting to live in a place you don’t know the culture or the language, on top of just the normal stresses of moving anywhere new. So expect a lot of feeling like an absolute idiot, and wrap your head around the idea that you will be essentially a child again.

Skimming through your other answers, I can see you are incredibly excited (and rightfully so!) to start a life somewhere new. But it also seems like the reality of being able to live in Japan isn’t something you are investing yourself into as much as you should be, seeing as you’re leaving everything to your sister. It’s fine to let her figure some things out, but you should also be spending an equal amount of time learning the requirements of moving there. …and of course there is also the entire Pandemic Issue, here’s hoping we’ll even be open in 9 months for anyone to move here. (Have you seen our numbers recently?? :scream: :sob:)

As for the reality of living here, there are a ton of things you will need at least halfway decent Japanese for–or at least a Japanese-speaking friend. Where you are going to be living will make a HUGE difference in how you need to approach this. Places like Tokyo are much more English friendly, but much much much more expensive. Places that are more inaka will have people staring at you like a deer in the headlights if you even attempt to use anything other than Japanese, but are much less expensive. As for me, I live more in the inaka, and I have been very lucky in my job that some of my coworkers speak some English, and that I have a supervisor (with very good English) who helps me with literally everything. Things that will be extremely frustrating but necessary: finding housing, setting up a phone plan and wifi, maybe getting a car/understanding the train systems, and of course so much more. All of this requires Japanese. Also, dealing with things when they break (my pipes froze over and broke during the winter, that was a “fun” experience) or dealing with doctors and things if you get sick or hurt is also just a reality of living anywhere. All of these are things that you and your sister will have to deal with on your own if you don’t have any kind of support system set up in Japan, which it sounds like you don’t.

TL;DR, It is possible to live in Japan without Japanese, but will be difficult. Invest more time into learning about visas and jobs/schooling and how you will be able to get into Japan in the first place, as well as how to stay in Japan once you’re here. Figure out how you will find a place to live and how to support yourself. All of these are honestly more important than learning “good Enough” Japanese (though of course that’s important too).
And here’s hoping that the pandemic will be over soon.

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Pretty sure this “in general” is a fairly bad attempt on the university’s part to translate 基本的に. I think what they were trying to say is “As a student, your main focus should be on studying, not working. Therefore, we think it’s better that you not work in order to focus on school. However, you are allowed to work part time, and if you would like to, here are your options.” I agree though, it’s pretty poorly written and confusing.

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48

Hello! I’m sorry to hear about your rough home life and hope you and your sister are able to get to a better and more stable living situation. After reading some of your replies I wanted to offer some advice. I am going to be very honest with some of it so I hope it doesn’t come off negatively and if I get any information incorrect please people with more knowledge on visas etc correct me. :sweat_smile:

Firstly, it is very obvious that you are excited which is great, but I do agree with others that you are approaching this in a very unrealistic way. You said your sister is interested in some of the industries in Japan and that she is working to finish her associates. My understanding is that a lot of jobs at least in those industries would most likely require a bachelors and she will need some proficiency in the language since a Japanese company will most likely not hire someone who cannot speak the language. So while you may not need an N2 or N1 she may. If she plans to work for one of those companies they would need to sponsor her with a work visa. As you are not her dependent (child etc) her having a work visa wouldn’t get you a visa, so your visa would need to be separate. As some people have mentioned there are some programs for students that could potentially get you a visa, but they can be pretty competitive and it would be something you need to start working on now. Also, my understanding is it can be pretty hard to get a visa and it can be a pretty confusing process. You really should dedicate a lot of time to figuring out the visas, their rules, and requirements etc. I also would suggest having a back up plan. Is it possible that you and your sister could just relocate to somewhere else in the country and then have more time to work on these goals. I fully support you going to Japan if that’s what you want to do, but I do think a lot more research is needed and that you should have some other plans to fall back on.

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That’s a super unique experience (maybe not for others but I mean for me that is!) and gives me an even more different perspective. I’m curious why you moved to Japan to teach English even though you knew no Japanese though, sounds like you’d have to have a super compelling reason. But anyways, I am more than prepared to be no more than a child in terms of experience, that’s why I made the reference to third graders in my post (corrected later on by Leebo to actually be currently in first grade as reference) cause I know how stupid I’ll look, but hey Americans look stupid to anyone, it’s what we do :wink:

You would be correct with how I’m letting my sister deal with official stuff however trust me I’m a very cautious person in reality and I’m really only trusting her with the plane tickets, transporting our dogs (I could never leave my beloved boxer, Zeus, behind. Same for her rottweiler), and some other minor but still important stuff that needs to be done such as an apartment and transportation. I still am constantly looking things up though because well surprising enough I have literally never looked into Japanese culture so I’m reading up on a lot of stuff while also learning their language. From the gist of it though, it seems to be roughly the same as America in terms of general responsibilities and things to worry about, which I’m still getting the grasp of seeing as how I’m still not a graduate yet but I’m figuring things out.

Your experience seems to be tons of times worse due to your job though, you have my condolences for all of that pain haha. I could never imagine how hard it’d be to deal with all of that with little to no Japanese, which is why I’m putting extra pressure on myself to learn as much now as I can so I have less to worry about later. I actually hadn’t been checking Japan’s covid rates but my god thats a spike. But looking at global rates we’ve gone through 2 spikes and we seem to be levelling out the third much smaller one so I think it’ll be better hopefully soon.

I’ve been looking into MEXT scholarships which seem like great opportunities however I know that’s no guarantee but I’ll be sure to try it out and see if that’s a possibility. But in general she’s more of the expert on living on your own (being a year and a half older than me) so I’ll be certain to remind her about these things and more to try and make it easier. I really appreciate the new perspective, it helps me form a more three dimensional view of how living there would work in a sense. And all the luck to you with both learning Japanese as well as you career and dealing with covid! Stay safe out there!

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As others have pointed out, all of this is a big distraction for the real issue: visa.

You really need to check out with your sister, research carefully and somehow manage to secure a visa, because right now the probability to get any kind of visa while covid is going on is really thin…

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I appreciate the concern, it means a lot! As for coming off negatively you didn’t at all, it’s very sensible and smart to really think about the things you mentioned and offered advice to. To be honest I’m not sure what her plan is once we move to Japan, but she’s a bit of an airhead (don’t tell her I said that, she still packs a mean punch) so I’ll be sure to tell her that she’s probably going to need a year or two more of schooling to get her to where she wants to be but honestly she’s still young, even though she’s older than me, so she probably will change her mind on a lot of things so I will also make sure to keep her realistic because she’s worse than me even.

As for visas, when is immigration NOT a pain in the butt? But especially now with covid and such, it’s really going to be difficult to figure stuff out. But that’ll be fine, I’m still looking into visas since it’ll probably be more complex than learning my Japanese even but between the option of the MEXT scholarships and just regular schooling and such I’m sure I’ll figure out a way to get there, even if it’s unorthodox (I am NOT saying I’m going to illegally immigrate lol, just to clarify). I also know how unrealistic next may-ish is as well so I’m prepared to push plans back even a year or two but ultimately I think that by the time comes, I’ll have it figured out. 9 months is a lotta time, even with major life decisions. Someone’s baby could be conceived and born within that time, and I think figuring out parenting is WAY harder than living in Japan y’know? I appreciate the constructive criticism though, I will take it to heart to help figure stuff out!

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Yeah, for sure. Like I said to bearytoast, it’ll be probably more difficult than actually learning the Japanese within the timeframe. But I’ve given a quick once over and sent it to my sister telling her to read through it as well so we could come to a conclusion (btw what an annoying process, not even a visa to “Just live here” my goodness). MEXT is certainly an easier option but I’m not counting on it due to restrictions and it generally being a pain to deal with, seeing as how it’s two states over as well as just probably hard to get into. I’ll look into it though, like I said a lotta time to think.

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Hi :smiley:
Just thought I’d add my two cents here to this conversation!

I’ve been in Japan now for just over 5 years, and am currently at about an N3 level. When I first got here my Japanese was… well, not good is putting it politely lol. I live in Sapporo though, so with it being a city it wasn’t the end of the world. But, having friends who live in the countryside here, I know their experiences were very different to mine. It is definitely true that the further you get from the city the more necessary Japanese becomes just to navigate through everyday life.
I’m also fortunate in that I came over here on the JET programme, so the school I work at has the responsibility of making sure all the official paperwork that needs to be filed with the government, e.g. tax information, and arranging accommodation etc. was taken care of for me. If you aren’t sponsored in such a way, living here without a very good grasp of Japanese is extremely difficult.

I would say though that it’s wonderful that you have a dream, and Japan is an amazing place. I would recommend watching lots of native TV shows, and focus as much as you can on vocabulary if you want to be able to get by day to day. Even if someone is using very difficult grammar to speak to you, if you can understand individual words you can usually grasp what someone’s saying based on context :smiley:

BUT, I feel like all of this is not so useful for you at the moment, as getting entry into Japan right now given your circumstances would be next to impossible. Work visas here are not easy to get and usually require you to already have a job lined up from a company that is willing to sponsor you, and those companies mostly ask for you to have a degree and at least N2 proficiency in Japanese (not including companies that recruit English teachers, as 99% of the time they have no Japanese requirements). Of course, if you wish to come over as a student, it’s a different matter, but again, that requires you to already have a place confirmed on a programme of study before you come to Japan.

Most of all though, right now your biggest obstacle is Covid. The borders here are pretty much closed. For the most part, only those with non-Japanese people with special exemptions, such as those who are already residents, are being allowed into the country. For example, on the JET programme, even though we are government workers and the government has been trying to get more and more foreigners into the country to teach English in recent years, they have barely let any new participants into Japan now for well over a year. The Japanese government are being very cautious about new arrivals and reopening the borders, and with how slow the vaccine rollout has been here I can’t see things going back to anything like normalcy still for quite some time.

I know that’s a pretty depressing take on the situation, but I appreciate that you’re trying to get other points of view and thought maybe it would be helpful given that I have some experience here.
I do absolutely wish you the best of luck on your studies though. Learning Japanese is an frustrating, mentally exhausting, rage-inducing endeavour, but nothing in the world gives me more joy than when someone on the street starts talking to me and I’m able to throw back some random words and be understood. I hope Japanese ends up giving you that kind of happiness too :smiley:

頑張れ！

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I’d have to echo that I think your goals are a bit too ambitious. But your motivation is wonderful and will carry you a long way!

I would recommend getting a 4-year degree in your country (which I’m guessing is also America?). I’m from Washington State, where a lot of 4-year universities have really good Japanese programs. I actually minored in Japanese myself.

I’m not qualified to speak about the other stuff, but as for when to start listening to Japanese, do it right now! Tonight! Watch anime or Japanese TV shows without English subtitles! Watch trending Japanese YouTube videos! Listen to NHK!

Listening is the one aspect of language acquisition that can’t be faked (créeme; ¡esto es obvio si hablas conmigo en español!). You won’t understand a thing at first. It takes a lot of time to push past that stage. The sooner you start, the better, even if you don’t feel ready.

I really wish you good luck. The world will try to sap that motivation from you, but it’s your strongest asset. Never forget that.

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Okay I do have to immediately say that transporting your dogs is gonna be a HUGELY expensive (thousands of dollars if i remember correctly) and extremely time consuming process. I wish your sister (and you) the best of luck with that. And that adds another element of difficulty in finding housing and everything in Japan. Getting your dogs into the country is not something that I would label as “minor” unfortunately. Same with housing. And of course there’s still the Visa problem. But let me finish reading your post first…

Alright, done. I don’t actually have a “super compelling reason” haha, I just love Japan and love teaching, and found this teaching job through the JET Programme, so here I am! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

This is not what I meant by “wrap your head around the idea that you will be essentially a child again,” unfortunately. Sure, not being able to read anything around you or converse with people around you will make you feel like a child, but you will also be learning an entire new culture in addition to everything else. You will feel extremely lost by simple things. Things like proper greetings, general customs (eg remembering to always take your shoes off when you enter a house is a pretty basic one), what’s appropriate to wear, etc. You’ll feel like an idiot in a myriad of ways, not just the language. So get ready for that. In addition, the mere fact that you’re a foreigner is going to add another element of “otherness.” I’m assuming you are not Japanese, so get ready to be stared at. Especially by children. (And speaking of being foreign, you will absolutely encounter racism towards people who are not Japanese. I’ve seen people be refused housing simply because they’re foreign. But I digress). Americans may have many bad stereotypes (I myself am American), but you do not want to use that as an excuse. In fact, I would say that’s all the more reason to be ready to REALLY step up your game. You want to show people that we Americans aren’t stupid. Be ready to be a “cultural ambassador” by default. Your being young will probably be a boon for you though, more leeway to mess up :wink:

It’s good to put pressure on yourself to learn, but don’t burn yourself out! Language is a very complicated thing, and I can guarantee you that you’ll remember things better if you don’t cram everything in at once.

Yeah… the spike is due to the olympics. We got really really screwed over.

Definitely look into scholarships and stuff, but as someone already said, those are highly competitive. Again, definitely apply, but definitely also make backup plans. As everyone else has already said, getting into Japan in the first place is going to be a huge mountain to overcome, and getting a visa is going to be extremely difficult.

And thanks~ :blush:

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As an aside, I love that we both started in this way :rofl:
Hello fellow Jet participant! :hugs:

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Oh my god, JET buddy!
Not gonna lie, I started reading your earlier post like ‘I’m an English teacher in Japan… I’m 28… I’m terrible at Japanese… wait a minute, did I post this?!’ :joy: :joy:

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I’m in JET too. One more year probably.

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Your two cents have been taken and very valuable as well, the first thing that sticks out to me though is how you’ve been in Japan for FIVE years (that must have been so cool) but still with just N3 in knowledge, Other people have said their stories on living for 2 years and being near N2 so I guess it’s more individually based than I was lead to believe. That aside though, I figured the language was somewhat like that, seeing as how most words are contextually based and so if I’m told a sentence I can mostly recognize, I should be able to piece it together. It’s certainly useful though for sure, don’t count out how that can help, even with covid!

Now I live (nonvoluntarily) in Imperial, Nebraska. In case you’ve never heard of it, most people haven’t, it’s basically redneck farmer yippie kaeyay land out here and even since covid STARTED people don’t wear masks here, it’s very uncomfortable. But still looking at the data, covid rates should be down to a trench for a little bit around the start of next year. Now take that with many grains of salt because I’m no expert however that’s just what I can piece together with my prior knowledge and current data. Apparently MEXT is still operating, although less, with covid going on so that seems to be a path I can take however it’s far from guaranteed.

It isn’t depressing at all though! Even if it does end up getting pushed back a while I’ll still probably end up going unless things go boots up and then y’know what can you do about that. I’m glad you shared with me your perspective because it seems everyone has a “biggest obstacle” being either learning the language or VISAS (i know god please stop with the visas it’s so much lol) or like you said, covid. It’s good to see what everyone has to say because in all honesty I wasn’t expecting even ONE reply, it’s kinda usual for forum posts I’ve made on other sites in the past but I wasn’t expecting this much useful feedback so I appreciate your input a ton!

As for learning Japanese, I appreciate the kind words of motivation. While I did still have to use the good ol’ googley translator machine to understand what that last bit meant, I’m already committing it to memory so when I see it again I’ll remember this! And trust me I’ve felt a childlike wonder learning this language honestly, you don’t know how giddy I was when I finished hiragana and was doing reviews of it and it came up in the order of と then ま and then れ and with my itty bitty knowledge of Japanese I remembered it meant something along the lines of “Stop” and it felt so satisfying. After starting kanji I have recognized the mountain I must climb but I’m certain (maybe) that it’ll be worth it at the end! I appreciate it though my guy/gal, keeps me motivated!

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That’s what I’ve been telling myself every year for the last 4 years lol, now they’re letting us extend our contracts past 5 years it feels like I’m never gonna leave!

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