Turning Japanese

corblimey

Ok, I started to learn Japanese cos it has long been my plan to travel over there, and I really wanted to be comfortable enough when I got there. I've got all the books, etc, but it turns out I'm a lazy lazy man, and I can't see myself getting much beyond "eigo o wakarimasu ka" anytime soon. So, my question is this, do I need to know even limited Japanese before going over? I suspect to get the full benefit and all that, I should know basic stuff like greetings and 'how much is this' and 'where is the train station'? I'd also need a basic knowledge of the hirighana, etc. Or is it the case that everybody over there has a rough grasp of English and I should be able to get by?

(I'm thinking here of the recent episode of Top Gear where Hammond and May found themselves pretty much lost in a train station, and I'm sure they had expensive BBC translators and guides and whatnot.)

I do want to learn the language, but at this point, I think I'm going to miss this year's 'window' for travelling over (I plan on an Autumn visit) so I'd have to put it back a year if people reckon I should be more experienced with Nihongo.

FruitLover

eigo ga wakarimasu ka!

Don't put it back. Getting to a decent conversational level in Japanese is a long, hard road, and chances are you won't be at that level this time next year either, so why put off the trip? If anything, visiting Japan will make give you even more incentive to start studying properly. The majority of tourists who visit Japan don't speak any more Japanese than you do, and they seem to get on fine. Sure, it's nice to be able to converse in a foreign country (and it's basic manners to learn things like 'please', 'thank you', etc), but if you're planning on sticking to big cities, you won't have too much of a problem.

For a start, there's no point in being able to ask things like where the train station is, unless you can understand the answer. For buying stuff, the old 'point at what you want' method of communication is universal, and assuming you're not Asian, people won't really expect you to understand much Japanese in the first place. Popular hotels/inns will often have English-speaking staff, a lot of signs (e.g. subway stations) are in English, and many restaurants will have English menus (or at least ones with pictures of the food on them that you can point at).

Besides, being able to speak and understand Japanese takes a bit of the mystery out of a trip to Japan!

I'd recommend learning katakana before you go (as it's very easy to learn, and there are a lot of English loan-words in Japanese, which are usually written in katakana). Once you can interpret 'チーズバーガー' on a menu as 'chiizubaagaa', it's pretty obvious what it is.

ondafly

late to the party on this reply but here goes

We wandered around Tokyo literally minutes after arriving, and we found our way around quite easily. I know a few bits of Japanese, and my girlfriend knows a bit of Hiragana/Katakana also, and we had zero problems. We were offered help on 3 seperate occasions that very first day and this proved really good, as we stumbled around like jet-lagged zombies full of adrenaline to be finally in Japan !

In other words, learn what you can, but no need at all to worry about knowing everything. I do recommend buying the subway card (the one with the penguin on it, can't remember its name), as this was extremely handy when you hadn't a clue how much a ticket was etc for the trains.

The above is assuming you're heading to Tokyo obviously - however we also visited Kyoto, Hiroshima, Fuji, Hakone, Niko etc and everywhere we went people were beyond helpful and friendly. You'll enjoy every minute of it !

We hope to go back next year for longer this time

Varkov

I'm in a similar sort of boat Corblimey, planning on going to Tokyo sometime next year.

I presume you'll be going on a 1 year working holiday, working at a conversation school or Assistant language teacher? Most who go over on this route have very limited Japanese, if any and they get on fine.

I was planning on going this year after the summer aswell, but the English school sector is in a bit of a state at the moment. I felt it was best to wait until the next hiring cycle, starting in Jan/Feb 2010. I can use the next 8 months to get some stuff sorted like, like getting a bit of a handle on Japanes and getting some Microsoft certs, so Im not completely out of the loop when I come back

I signed up yesterday for the Level 1 beginner's course at the Sandford language institute, starting in June. Im going to pick up "My Japanese Coach" for the DS today and will try to get some basics down in the next two months.

EDIT : Doing a TFL or CELTA course over a few weekends would also be to your advantage with the current Japanese economy.

FruitLover

ondafly wrote: »

I do recommend buying the subway card (the one with the penguin on it, can't remember its name)

Suica

corblimey

Varkov wrote: »

I presume you'll be going on a 1 year working holiday, working at a conversation school or Assistant language teacher? Most who go over on this route have very limited Japanese, if any and they get on fine.

Oh good Lord, no, I'm just going for a 3 week holiday I've been practising my katakana for a little while now and will be ramping it up as my holiday approaches (looks to be September at this time) so hopefully that will stand me in good stead.

On top of that, I have rigorously researched where I want to go and when, so hopefully there will be little need to stop and ask for directions.

keiran110

Can anybody provide information on finding a place to stay in japan?

Me and my girlfriend plan to go there eventually but have trouble finding a place. Our trip will most likely be a few months so obviously a hotel is out of the question.
As for apartments, to our knowledge, they come unfurnished and require a big deposit and cleaning fees when you leave. We heard that gaijin apartments exist and are gear towards westerners (fully furnished etc). Has anybody had experience with finding accomodation?

Thanks