Mike Cash
骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう
- 15 Mar 2002
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While it may seem like a no-brainer that spending a year in Japan teaching English would lead to a phenomenal increase in one's Japanese ability, by and large ALTs aren't particularly noted for their great strides in learning the language. It all depends entirely on the individual, of course, and personal dedication and effort. If you seriously want to pursue this path, a year in a good Japanese language school would be a far better use of your time.
"Fluent" is a pretty meaningless word. You're going to have to acquire quite a degree of proficiency in the language, most importantly including literacy skills. It will be far beyond what you will acquire through a minor in Japanese. If the Japanese majors I've encountered are any indication, it is beyond what you would acquire through a major. It is certainly doable...it is just going to require a whole lot of outside independent work beyond what you get at school.
A point to keep in mind is that the time limit on the test is set based on what would be a reasonable amount of time for people who speak the language natively and who have been reading and writing it for a far, far longer time than you have. You're going to have to be able to boogie along in overdrive and be able to read at something very near the pace of native speakers. There is a huge difference between sitting a Japanese test aimed at foreigners and sitting a Japanese test aimed at native speakers; the time element really does come into play. You're going to have to read a LOT of Japanese between now and then to get your reading speed up.
I love seeing foreigners step outside the job fields where people usually expect to find us, so I wish you every success at this.
"Fluent" is a pretty meaningless word. You're going to have to acquire quite a degree of proficiency in the language, most importantly including literacy skills. It will be far beyond what you will acquire through a minor in Japanese. If the Japanese majors I've encountered are any indication, it is beyond what you would acquire through a major. It is certainly doable...it is just going to require a whole lot of outside independent work beyond what you get at school.
A point to keep in mind is that the time limit on the test is set based on what would be a reasonable amount of time for people who speak the language natively and who have been reading and writing it for a far, far longer time than you have. You're going to have to be able to boogie along in overdrive and be able to read at something very near the pace of native speakers. There is a huge difference between sitting a Japanese test aimed at foreigners and sitting a Japanese test aimed at native speakers; the time element really does come into play. You're going to have to read a LOT of Japanese between now and then to get your reading speed up.
I love seeing foreigners step outside the job fields where people usually expect to find us, so I wish you every success at this.