Expat Japan Network

yanpa · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:35 pm Post subject:

Recently came across the blog of a couple (native English speakers) who have been in Japan for the better part of 2 decades. Reading through it, it became increasingly obvious they speak at most rudimentary Japanese.

Supermarket Dogfood · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:22 am Post subject:

How hard is it really to not learn the language when you live here?

You have to make an effort not to notice things and to not pick things up.
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Diva · 昇進者 User is Offline Joined: 17 Feb 2007 Posts: 393

Victor Ward · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:42 pm Post subject:

Victor Ward · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:27 pm Post subject:

Supermarket Dogfood · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:34 pm Post subject:

Similarly to Vic, I thought Japanese would be useful, and it is, both professionally and personally.

I wouldn't have my current job without being able to speak it.
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'Just wait till kids come. Bovine excrement will hit the percolator then.' P Haughty

yanpa · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:37 pm Post subject:

Victor Ward · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:44 pm Post subject:

yanpa · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:14 am Post subject:

When I was in my first year in Japan, I was standing on a train somewhere reading an actual book in actual Japanese (albeit one which was actually quite easy to read), this white guy, English native speaker, came up to me and asked something like "Good read?" Being an amenable type and as he sounded interested I engaged in some small talk with him, Canadian it turned out, but the gist of his side of the conversation soon became "I've been here four years and can't read a word of Japanese and only speak a few words and I'm proud of it". He didn't actually say the word "proud", but it was the way it came over.

Can't remember what he was doing, but from his age, appearance etc. eikaiwa would be a good bet.

On the other hand I saw a programme on German TV recently about the German boss of Siemens in Japan and his wife, who had been posted to Japan for three years or so, with all the trappings of life at the top (nice house in somewhere like Azabu, car with driver etc.), but they were also out and about remembering the kanji for important stations etc., and the wife was doing shopping transactions in simple but passable Japanese.

Victor Ward · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:33 am Post subject:

During my first stint in Japan in Kyoto at the peak of the bubble, I was the only one among a fairly large group of foreign friends who became conversational in Japanese over the course of five years. Nobody else learned more than very basic communication skills or a few common phrases. When they got together, they mostly just whined about why they hated Japan. If they'd expended the same energy in study . . . Rolling Eyes

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Ewok · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:40 am Post subject:

Thats what I like about expats, the whinging is more intelligent (see the kokumin thread Surprised

)
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imlost · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:58 am Post subject:

I know my Japanese is rather piss poor for the time I have been here, but I have nothing to whinge about. I know it is my own fault and only I can fix it. Blaming someone else or just whinging about is a poor excuse. Mind you, i still work everyday and do stuff everyday in Japanese so it's ok.
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yanpa · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:10 am Post subject:

I should point out that I came to Japan through learning Japanese (rather than the other way round), so had a head start, but even then one thing I realized PDQ was that living in a dorm full of other gaijin out near the Tama river and attending Japanese classes at a well-known university with yet more, mainly English-speaking gaijin was only going to be of limited use in actually learning Japanese, so I instituted a programme of サボtting as many classes as legally possible, and managed to find a "job" "managing" a small "gaijin house" (about 40% occupied by J-trash though) much closer to civilization, a course of action which brought me into contact with many more real Japanese people and Japanese-speaking real life situations than would otherwise have happened.