How did you end up in Japan?

[Jungle Boy]

For all the foreigners: I was just wondering, how is it exactly that you got to be in Japan? What were the circumstances? Do you work? If so where? Do you speak/read Japanese? How did the journey begin? Is everyday life harder than in your native country? Do you find it hard to adjust to a foreign culture? What are the trials you face?

I hope to make the journey one days myself and I have about a million questions and I was hoping the people who have lived it first hand could help educate me with thier personal stories. I would really appreceate it :)

[Ewok85]

Well it all started with a plane trip... :D

I studyed, had basic Japanese knowledge from 5 years of high school. Even so every day was a new challenge, sometimes fun, somethimes interesting, and other times just plain hard. I didn't find it too hard to adjust, had to change host families a few times so i was a fair bit of adjusting.

[Jungle Boy]

Well it all started with a plane trip... :D

I studyed, had basic Japanese knowledge from 5 years of high school. Even so every day was a new challenge, sometimes fun, somethimes interesting, and other times just plain hard. I didn't find it too hard to adjust, had to change host families a few times so i was a fair bit of adjusting.

A host family? Are you part of some exchange program? Is a Japanese student living with your family? How did you get into a program like this? what are the costs? Is immersion (in your opinion) the most effective way to learn Japanese, compared to the class room learning you had? Sorry for all the questions, but it's so hard to find people on the internet who actually know what they are talking about, so I am going to take advantage of it :D

[Jungle Boy]

Well it all started with a plane trip... :D

I studyed, had basic Japanese knowledge from 5 years of high school. Even so every day was a new challenge, sometimes fun, somethimes interesting, and other times just plain hard. I didn't find it too hard to adjust, had to change host families a few times so i was a fair bit of adjusting.

A host family? Are you part of some exchange program? Is a Japanese student living with your family? How did you get into a program like this? what are the costs? Is immersion (in your opinion) the most effective way to learn Japanese, compared to the class room learning you had?

Sorry for all the questions, but it's so hard to find people on the internet who actually know what they are talking about, so I am going to take advantage of it :D

[neko_girl22]

my husband's Japanese :lover:

[DragonChan]

Ok you seem to have a lot of questions. I hope I can answer some of them.

My school in Canada is a sister school to the one I am going here in Japan. They have had a program for 10 years now, where they do an exchange for 10 days. I was on the 10 day exchange 2 years ago, and said I wished it was longer. They had been trying to start up a year long exchange program and I was chosen as the person to go.

Last year I had a student stay with me, and now I am staying at her house.

Hmm...life here is...well interesting. I studied 2 years of high school Japanese, and had next to no Kanji when I got here, though I can read Hirigana and Katakana no problem. (I'm studying Kanji now.)

I found that the stuff I learned in class was useful, for things like the writing system, and how grammer works. But I find that the most valuable things I do to learn are to talk to my classmates and my host family. From what I have seen, you really just have to TRY to speak Japanese, even if your grammar is horrible. People really appreciate the effort, and then your confidence grows and you can speak more...nice circle.

Hmm...as for daily life. I wake up and eat breakfast, get dressed in the dreaded uniform (which everybody hates) and go to school. At school I sit in classes completely bored since I am not supposed to participate, and expected to study Japanese from a textbook I brought with me. ALL DAY. A few classes a week I have to go to the library where I am 'tutored' by volunteers. Though I have yet to learn anything from these people. I dread library time.

There is one other exchange student in my school, she is rotary. Together we make up half the forienger population in our town. Luckily we are a 20 minute train from Nagoya, so we go there every once in a while and meet up with some other Rotary students and talk. Most students here are through rotary. For the most part everybody says the same thing - they hate thier uniforms, and school is boring, but altogether life is ok.

As for problems, the people staring at me bothers me quite a bit, since they are quite rude about it and often start talking about me as I walk by - they assume I don't understand. Not much I can do about it though.

Does that answer your questions?

[mad pierrot]

First I saw Godzilla, then The Karate Kid, then Rising Sun, then The Seven Samurai, then Akira....

By the time I got to Miyazaki's films I had to go.

:D

btw,

WHOOOOHOOOOO

500th post!

:beer:

[Jungle Boy]

Ok you seem to have a lot of questions. I hope I can answer some of them.

My school in Canada is a sister school to the one I am going here in Japan. They have had a program for 10 years now, where they do an exchange for 10 days. I was on the 10 day exchange 2 years ago, and said I wished it was longer. They had been trying to start up a year long exchange program and I was chosen as the person to go.

Last year I had a student stay with me, and now I am staying at her house.

Hmm...life here is...well interesting. I studied 2 years of high school Japanese, and had next to no Kanji when I got here, though I can read Hirigana and Katakana no problem. (I'm studying Kanji now.)

I found that the stuff I learned in class was useful, for things like the writing system, and how grammer works. But I find that the most valuable things I do to learn are to talk to my classmates and my host family. From what I have seen, you really just have to TRY to speak Japanese, even if your grammar is horrible. People really appreciate the effort, and then your confidence grows and you can speak more...nice circle.

Hmm...as for daily life. I wake up and eat breakfast, get dressed in the dreaded uniform (which everybody hates) and go to school. At school I sit in classes completely bored since I am not supposed to participate, and expected to study Japanese from a textbook I brought with me. ALL DAY. A few classes a week I have to go to the library where I am 'tutored' by volunteers. Though I have yet to learn anything from these people. I dread library time.

There is one other exchange student in my school, she is rotary. Together we make up half the forienger population in our town. Luckily we are a 20 minute train from Nagoya, so we go there every once in a while and meet up with some other Rotary students and talk. Most students here are through rotary. For the most part everybody says the same thing - they hate thier uniforms, and school is boring, but altogether life is ok.

As for problems, the people staring at me bothers me quite a bit, since they are quite rude about it and often start talking about me as I walk by - they assume I don't understand. Not much I can do about it though.

Does that answer your questions?

Thanks for the reply. And yes, it does answer many of my questions. But it also brings up more :D

What kind of school do you go to that teaches Japanese? AFAIK there are no highschools in Canada that teach it, so are you going to college, university? Do you find the exchange program to be a valuable learning tool? How much does a program like that cost to be a part of? And is the price worth the knoweledge you receive from it?

[skiperoo]

Well, I'm what you could call a lucky foreigner in Japan. Being half Japanese half Canadian. With that, my family in Japan sponsored my visa. I now have a 3 year renewable visa.

I basically came to Japan to be closer to family and to really learn the language. Before coming to Japan I couldn't really speak a word except for the simple greetings etc. I went to a Japanese class when I was like 10 or something and remembered hiragana from then. I can now comfortably coast through daily life although there are the abundant times of real difficulties.

Adjusting to a foreign country is tough because everything is new. I've been to Japan numerous times to visit family but each time I had my mom there to translate what evryone is saying etc. This time, I'm on my own. It was tough, but I'm loving it now! One interesting thing of moving to a foreign country is you get to fully experience the feeling of being illiterate! But if you're willing to put the effort in and learn the language, it really helps you adjust!

[blade]

Last year I got a working holliday visa and I just came back from Tokyo about a week ago AND I MISS IT SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! *sigh* Japanese girls have the most softest amd smoothest skin in the world. The place that I was working for wouldn't sponsor me because they don't sponsor WHV people, so I am back here in Toronto doing my degree in International relations and 3 years from now when I get my degree I should be back in Japan working at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo or one of the Canadian consulates somewhere in Japan, wahoo! I can't wait!.

[DragonChan]

Thanks for the reply. And yes, it does answer many of my questions. But it also brings up more :D

What kind of school do you go to that teaches Japanese? AFAIK there are no highschools in Canada that teach it, so are you going to college, university? Do you find the exchange program to be a valuable learning tool? How much does a program like that cost to be a part of? And is the price worth the knoweledge you receive from it?

Ok uh...

Let's see. Alot of the major high schools in Canada offer Japanese as far as I know. It is recognised as a provincial, so it is a fairly common course. It isn't offered at my school, so I took summer school classes. Also, language schools are everywhere, I did both that and the summer school. I learned more at summer school, most people who go to language schools (that I have talked to) find that you CAN learn a ton, but the grammar isn't explained very well, or where or why you should use it. So that was useless.

BTW - seeing as I am doing a high school exchange, I couldn't have studied at a college or university.

The exchange program is great, I am SO happy I came here, my first month was really tough but life is looking up. As for cost...well I am homestaying, and the school waved my tuition and uniform fees. So the ticket, and daily life is all I have to cover. Even then it is really expensive. I think the cost is worth it though.

Everybody that is here, besides me, that I have talked to is through rotary, so the price is the same as mine - ticket and living.

So did I manage to answer all your questions or do you have more? (I don't mind if you do.)

[Mike Cash]

For all the foreigners: I was just wondering, how is it exactly that you got to be in Japan? What were the circumstances?

United States Navy. Not an option for you, I realize, but you asked, so I answered.


Do you work? If so where?

Yes. I'm a truck driver.


Do you speak/read Japanese?

Adequate to my needs. Nothing to write home about, though.


How did the journey begin? Is everyday life harder than in your native country? Do you find it hard to adjust to a foreign culture? What are the trials you face?

I left my native country very soon after high school and have spent only a very short time there afterwards, so I tend to think of this as the norm. Trials? I could answer, but I doubt the answer would be relevant by the time you got here. By that I mean that the trials one faces depends on lots of factors, large among which is how Japanese society receives foreigners. And that is a thing which undergoes changes. When I first got here, and even up until not all that many years ago, there were some "trials" I fully expected to be with me no matter how many years or decades I might remain here....and they have now largely vaporized and nothing but the memories of them remain.

[Apollo]

How did I end up in Japan? Erm...I was born in Japan and grew up in Japan... :-)

[blade]

Hey Nzueda is your husband Japanese?

[kirei_na_me]

That's what she said.

My husband is Japanese too, but I'm not in Japan... :p

[grounded in japan]

my (now) wife is japanese. we met in new zealand and lived for five years together in nz, hk and holland. then she said she was going back to japan to live, so, being interested in travelling, i came along. she got pregnant after 2 months, so we got married. i wasn't very impressed for a long while and only really liked the low crime rate and tons of beautiful women (they all look like slapped *rses were i come from). i can speak a bit of japanese which is most useful, but limits my conversation not knowing lots of words. i refused to work 6 days a week when i started working for my wife's father's company and they let me work 5 days, but i got pissed off with the job and no holidays and left after 3 1/2 years (a record long time at a job for me), to look after my baby daughter and enjoy my time. i've been here for 4 years now and the only things i can't do is see my family in person very ofter and fly planes and gliders (my passion apart from women). fairly content now. hope i can make some money (i'm not teaching english, which is about the only other job i could do here).

[neko_girl22]

(they all look like slapped *rses were i come from
hey watch it boy! Kiwi girl here! :D

[budd]

i am in shimizu to pay a debt to a friend. she sent me a really good and useful book, so i have to visit her in shizuoka, as that was her request.