Learning Japanese to spend a year in japan

brinepacer

I will be arriving in japan approx march of next year on a working holiday visa. I'm not too mad about going down the TEFL road, so am looking at learning some japanese. I am reasonably good with languages, i studied french at school and found i picked it up very quickly hanging around french people. My question therefore is how difficult is it to pick up conversational japanese? Is it something that could take me years to get the hang of, as some would have you believe, or is it something i could study via podcasts and audio books while travelling between now and march and be able to use while there?

On a slightly related note, does anyone have any experience with working in japan? I have no degree so i'm told most of the tefl work i'd get would be fairly badly paid with no sick pay and so forth, so i'm wondering what other opportunities would be open to me?

Any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated.

Cake Fiend

Nice one on the working holiday visa - I'd like to go down this road myself next year (not really keen on teaching English to a load of brats).

It's going to be very hard to get to a decent conversational level by March, but you could make some good inroads. You'll have to work your ass off - don't think for a second that because you learnt French quickly that you'll be good at Japanese. IMO, French is one of the easiest foreign languages an English-speaker could learn. Japanese is one of the hardest. There are so many factors to learning Japanese that don't apply to French, e.g. significantly different grammar, politeness levels, kanji.

You NEED to get lessons arranged with a native Japanese speaker ASAP. On top of this, you should be studying every day on your own, using books, podcasts and online resources. You'll want to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible, and actual speaking practice is very important.

I couldn't tell you much about working in Japan, but to the best of my knowledge, you're not supposed to teach English privately without a degree (not that that stops anyone, and I could be wrong about this anyway). One way or another, you'll want to make sure you know the kind of polite/humble speech that's appropriate in the workplace or dealing with customers (this is not the standard politeness that you learn from most books, it's another level of politeness).

Gambatte!

brinepacer

Wanted to ask but didn't want to start a new thread, what is the japanese for ireland? If you could give me the romanji that would be great.

monkey tennis

airurando

Also, it's rōmaji', there's no 'n'.

tman

Interesting thread, as I've been toying with the idea of doing the same. (but giving myself at least a year to learn the language.)

fricatus

japanesepod101.com は最高なポッドキャストだと思います。二年から日本語を勉強していて、簡単な会話が出来ます。でも、とても難しいですよ！

Cake Fiend

僕も毎日japanesepod101.comのレッソンを聞いています！好きな日本語のサイトですよ。

tampopo

Can anyone tell me the Japanese for echinacea, the flower?

ta much.

fricatus

tampopo wrote: »

Can anyone tell me the Japanese for echinacea, the flower?

ta much.

Ehhh... no idea... I've enough trouble with the colours and the days of the week.

Look it up online: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

Regular WWWJDIC users: you will notice that the dictionary has put its interface in all Japanese now :eek:

I suppose this forces us to read Japanese, but 'tis a bit daunting for beginners...

Dont be at yourself

fricatus wrote: »

Ehhh... no idea... I've enough trouble with the colours and the days of the week.

Look it up online: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

Regular WWWJDIC users: you will notice that the dictionary has put its interface in all Japanese now :eek:

I suppose this forces us to read Japanese, but 'tis a bit daunting for beginners...

I noticed that. The mirror sites havent changed though, try http://arakawa.edrdg.org/~ssb/cgi-bin/access?Au=jp.msmobiles.com

tampopo

Thanks I'll try those.
On another board, someone recommended these sites, maybe they'd be useful to you lot....

<snip>

Less of that - Mod

fricatus

tampopo wrote: »

Thanks I'll try those.
On another board, someone recommended these sites, maybe they'd be useful to you lot....

<snip>

So they've invented food supplements that actually teach you Japanese!

Jesus, isn't moderden technology only brilliant!

MODS, SPAMMER???

edeldonlon

Best of luck with japanese study. I have been living in Japan since August and have picked up a good bit of the language, well enough to get by. I study every day and take a 2 hour class on friday after work and also do a postal course. Its hard work but fun when people actually understand you!

On getting a job, I am not sure how easy it will be the going rate for private english classes are between 2,500 yen - 4,000 yen an hour. You might be able to get some work in bars I have heard of people who have done it a few years ago but not sure what the story is now. If you have any questions on life in Japan just ask!

Gambate!!

tampopo

Sorry about those links folks/folk.

I don't speak Japanese, I cut and pasted them in from another MB I belong to, in good faith. Thought they'd be useful. Tch! so much for trying to be helpful.

apologies again,

sumimasen

tampopo

I've read the Charter, but I didn't know they were advertising, honest!