Want to go to Japan

[ScottyB]

I want to go to Japan and live there a while. I am going to take Japanese next year and then the year after try to study abroad in Japan. I have a few questions:

1) How are Japanese towards americans? My friend is from Costa Rica and says they really don't like Americans down their (in Costa Rica) that much.
2) Are people hard on you if you are bad at the language?
3) Is it hard to get a job?

 

[cmdavid]

1)Why did your friends in Costa Rica say that? MOST(not all) Japanese are very welcoming to "Gaijins" (foreignors).... they especially are obsessed with the English language and would pay a lot to learn it (see #3).

2)People are not hard on you if you dont know the language, but it may be difficult for you to get around because although English is the second predominant langauge over here, I would not say the majority know it.. And those that do, you're still going to have problems understanding until you can translate the Japanese accent..

3)I'm not sure about the job part but I do know that you can make a ton of money teaching English if you know enough Japanese. I know students over there that pay 2000yen/hr (about $20.00) to learn the language.. And you can teach up to 3 per hour easily.... 2000yen per hour is actually about the average paid to learn English I think but you can find some that will pay a LOT more...

If you have anymore questions lemme know...

 

[Stiler]

i want to go to japan and live too, japanese is so hard to learn though, all those symbols :Q if i can't live over there i guess i'll just have to go for the tokyo game show

 

[ScottyB]

Hehe, I am just going to learn to speak it. I will be illiterate, and I will carry around a pen scanner and scan the letters the put it into babelfish.

 

[Spendthrift]

i live in japan (temporary US expat =P)

anyway

1 - like most other countries 90% of the people are friendly and will bend over backwards to help out foreigners

2 - theyll say you speak excellent japanese even if your crap at it. youll find varying degrees of english ability over here but everyone can do a little whether theyll admit to it or not.

3 - jobs are easy to come by, however getting a work visa can be difficult. its much easier with sponsorship from an employer. it also depend on where in japan you are.

2000 yen an hour is the going price per student if your teaching a small group of 4 students or so.

if you teach one on one sessions with business men you its usually around 10,000 yen/hour

regular one on one is usually around 4 or 5000 yen/hr

good luck

pm me if you have questions

 

[FSUpaintball]

Man, I would LOVE to visit Japan. Even though I can't even say "Konishiwa!"

Hope you make it there soon! Just don't lose touch with your AT'ers

 

[dc]

FSUpaintball: it's usually romanized as konichiwa or konichiha. hehe.

1. most people over there are friendly to foreigners, especially americans.
2. they'll be polite and probably say your japanese is great, while at the same time be amused by the poor use of their language.
3. dunno

 

[toant103]

1. most people over there are friendly to foreigners, especially americans.

I'm a US citizen, are they going to be nice to me eventhough i'm asian?

 

[abc]

if ur asian like chinese, u might run into maybe 1 or 2 older generation follk that may dislike u kind of, like be rude. i guess maybe a few japanese dislike chinese, i dunno. maybe it comes from wwII and why they wanted to take over china - why did they want to anyway. if anything chinese should show dislike for japanese. anyway i'm goin off a tangent.

 

[dc]

yea, since you're non japanese asian... you may have problems with the older generation. so just avoid old people there.