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Moving to Japan to Learn (not study) Japanese - Zgarbas - 2014-07-14
Buy a tent. Go full nojuku.
You're a native English speaker, they should pretty much hire you on the spot for various summer weekly ALT gigs. They don't get paid much (There's a chance that McD's pays more), but they can include free food and lodging if you're lucky.
Moving to Japan to Learn (not study) Japanese - amillerchip - 2014-12-29
I think I'm overdue for an update. I'm just going to ramble so bear with me if you will. :-)
First my advice for anyone considering coming to Japan: Have a base/organisation/group/somebody whose job it is to look after you, or bring a friend. Going it alone is *hard*. If you come for a job, then hopefully getting established is part of your deal, if you come as a student, likewise. As a working holiday, I was alone and it was and is hard. Basic things like healthcare and somewhere to live are not trivial, especially with a low command of the language and nobody to act as a guarantor for legal stuff which will close a lot of doors.
Anyway, since the last post: I have finished my language course, panicked about finding somewhere to live, found somewhere to live, got to know the Japanese healthcare system far too well, found a full-on Japanese job, and changed my residency status from working holiday to engineer.
hyvel Wrote:I'd be interested in is your judgment about language school. It seems to me that for various reasons people on this forum have mixed opinions about attending school (and I can see why). However, looking back, I'd say that starting learning Japanese by attending a full-time language school in Japan for one term is probably the best thing I could have done at the time. What's your take on the matter?3 months was about the right amount of time. I had done a lot of self-study before, but my output was zero, as was my knowledge of grammar. By the end of the three months I was getting a bit tired of drilling grammar, but we had covered a bunch of basics and combined with getting out and using the language, I think I got the boost I was looking for. I will say you need to get out of the school circle because English is the common language amongst your peers, and the teachers have an annoying habit of only speaking what they teach, not "real" Japanese (unless you can catch them off-guard conversationally, which is amusing to do).
*Finding somewhere to live*
In Japan, most places require a two-year contract and a financial guarantor who will pay up on your behalf if you vanish. Being here for a year and not having a guarantor (保証人）made things very difficult. But I managed to find an overpriced place with LeoPalace21 (two year contract, but you can cancel early with a penalty of one month rent) that has an insurance scheme you can use in absence of a guarantor. The insurance scheme was more expensive for people that weren't working, so if you go that route it'll be cheaper if you have even a part-time-job.
Also the place I found was "furnished" but unlike that UK, that does not include a bed, facilities to try your clothes (washing machine included though), an iron, an oven, any cooking equipment (except a microwave and a couple of electric hobs), or any tables or chairs. So I had to buy a lot of stuff I'll probably have to throw away again / spend time selling when I move. Actually I just bought a futon and some drying equipment and am living a pretty minimum lifestyle at the moment as I plan to move again soon.
*Healthcare*
Since I moved into the new place, I have had, in succession: Asthma for the first time in my life, pneumonia (NOT FUN), a middle-ear-inflamation, and some kind of virus that knocked me out for a couple of days and gave me a sinus infection. I learned pretty quickly to get to the city ward office and sign up to the national health insurance scheme - then you only need to pay 30% of medical bills. After a night in a hospital with an eventual diagnosis of pneumonia that was definitely worth doing. Also, looking up an out of hours hospital and getting yourself there while in pain and panic while not sure what's going on and not really being able to communicate well is not fun. See above point about having someone whose job it is to look after you, even if that means calling them at 2AM on a Sunday morning. I basically communicated medical terms back and forth to the emergency staff via the JED dictionary on my phone. Thank goodness it was fully charged.
Anyway I suspect I am actually allergic to something in the place I moved into - it's a new building so maybe it's construction materials or something. I'm planning on moving into a sharehouse I found once I've got the money to pay the early cancellation penalty and moving costs.
*Job*
As I said in my last post the next focus was to earn some money. My background is software engineering, so I put my fear aside and just started attending IT social events even though my Japanese was terrible and I had no confidence. Eventually I met an employee of a modern software company, spent a weekend writing a 履歴書 and filling out application forms, sent some error-filled emails to HR while squinting at their keigo-filled replies (thanks Rikai-chan!), went to the interview (didn't need to buy a suit thankfully, their dress code is casual), and bumbled through the interview using about 30% Japanese and 70% English - under pressure my resolve to speak Japanese crumbled and desire to communicate kicked in, thankfully the interviewer could understand me.
Anyway, I got the job. (A funny tangent: In my first week they sent me on a business trip to Tokyo. I spent most of the time in meetings not understanding anything, but I admire their dedication to involve me from the start.) It started out as a full time アルバイト, then progressed to a contract work and now I've changed my residency status (thanks to company sponsorship), and am scheduled to become a full-time employee within in new year. One quirk with Japanese salary structure is that it's on a two-month delay, so although I'm working as a contractor this month, I'm still getting the アルバイト pay (and before that, no pay), so having to live pretty frugally at the moment (I use an excellent budgeting app called You Need A Budget that has helped me stay sane during this period of financial uncertainty - I did have savings before I came but I wasn't enjoying seeing them diminish either).
At work, communication is very difficult. For reading emails and documents, I use Rikai in Firefox combined with Google and Bing translate to help me out. For talking/writing, I just unashamedly use my best broken Japanese. Since I started work I've found little time to study, my RTK reviews have piled up to around 500 as of today. I have given up on my vocab/sentence deck. I'm planning on using the downtime over the new year period (i.e. now) to make some priorities and make sure I make the most of the opportunity to improve my language while still performing my duties at work and having a social life (outside of work...).
So that's me now. No longer a working holiday, from now I have a one-year work permit, so I will see how it goes!
皆さん、良いお年を！
Moving to Japan to Learn (not study) Japanese - TsugiAshi - 2014-12-29
If you're finding it difficult to communicate, maybe your vocab/sentence deck should be the priority when it comes to personal Japanese study.
The more individual words you know, maybe the better. Since, if nothing else, you'll at least know a vague context of what someone is talking about, as well as being able to vaguely communicate more individual things.
Moving to Japan to Learn (not study) Japanese - vix86 - 2014-12-29
I agree with TsugiAshi, drop your RTK deck and make vocab your priority. Get the Core6k hammered out ASAP. Use the time when you are commuting or when you are sitting on the toilet to get some reviews done.
Great to see things have gone well for you, I'm pretty jealous.