So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study?

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Printable Version

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So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - jacf29 - 2009-10-06

I am interested to hear what people are dealing with while trying to learn Japanese.

As for me, I work 20 hours a week doing pizza delivery (until January when i leave for Japan).

I go for an hour jog every other day. For me this is a big deal. At the same time I started studying Japanese hardcore, I was fat again, and just quit smoking cigarrettes. So while the 20 hours a week may not seem like a lot to deal with, I also have the tobacco cravings hardcore and my new healthy diet along with running every other day.

I also have my parents to deal with. They treat my intensive study of Japanese like super religious parents would start to deal with their child if he just announced he started to worship satan. They hate Japan and are pretty much racist against asians, so you can imagine what I have to put up with on that front every day.

I would like to a consider myself a fairly social person. My lifestyle usually revolves around partying hardcore with a long list of friends. But since I made this choice to become fluent in Japanese I have put my social life on complete hold until I get to Japan in January where I can make Japanese friends. Not that it matters much because all of my friends here in America have either moved to another state or are in Japan/Korea/China. Others have moved back to Europe (I had a lot of international friends).

I also have the stress of my work visa pushing down on me. During the first month of my intensive study, my plan was to move to Japan and get a job off a tourist visa. Fortunatly, I have since gotten a job, but waiting on this visa approval from the Japanese government is seriously stressing me out. To the point where I lay in bed awake for hours some nights unable to sleep.

This 3 month or so period of limbo I will be living through is going to kill me. I have to save every penny I make, deal with the constant negativity from my parents at home, the constant social angst of not being able to do anything social (do to the immersion, lack of friends, diet, exersize, quit smoking and expendable money)

On the plus side, I still have free rent which is helping immensly on getting the required startup money saved up again for Japan.

sorry for the long rant but glad its all out of me now. so what is holding you down during your study of Japanese?

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - liosama - 2009-10-06

Heh,

I speak from experience, once your parents start seeing improvement, they'll slowly accept you learning Japanese. After coming second in a speech competition, my dad who is your typical adamant on "you must read science and only science, Japanese is a waste of time" is now sitting along the lines of "you can use what you learnt now and work there if you can" etc. My mum couldn't really do anything about it and would continue to question "so when are you going to finish your degree?", but now shes like 'wow'. Every other family friend has their kid studying bullshit brain dead generic Commerce/Engineering degrees while I seem to be the only eccentric one out there studying something I genuinely like to do, Engineering and Japanese.

When they ask what I study I get a shock "?? Japanese? ? Guitar??"
I give them a "haha *scratch head* I don't know"
which translates to "I don't give a ***** about your opinion".

Because after I'm 40 and married (maybe?) I'll have a life while all the rest of them will be talking about how much money they spent on their new car and how many dvd players it features.

And, my other commitments.
I'm learning classical guitar at the moment which is pretty stressful since reading music and learning to play music at 23 years of age isn't as easy as it would be had I started at a much younger age. My tutor seems to think that I'm only learning classical guitar.
As far as engineering goes I'm still deciding between research and actual engineering work, so getting into research has been, and will slow down progress in my Japanese studies. Even now, I'm only doing two subjects at university this semester, both of them Japanese related, yet I find that most of my time is going to classical guitar and time in the physics lab.

You seem to be in a heavy set of financial problems. I'm kinda lucky in that respect. I live a poor students life leeching off my parents and siblings. I don't ask for much though, I usually survive off $50 a week, but now thats $100 a week to include tutoring.

So once again, parents will change their attitudes, it's one of the best feelings out there too Big Grin

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - jacf29 - 2009-10-06

i tried playing guitar once. it was super hard, so kudos on doing that.

i am not in that much of a financial situation. my company reccommends me bringing with me 2500 dollars to Japan to support myself until my first paycheck. I have saved up 2,000 from the first job i had. but with the pizza delivery job i want to get another 2,000 by january. that way i will have more than enough, and i need to buy an electronic dictionary and save for key money for apartment and so on.

i don't think there is any way my mom would ever have a change of attitude regarding me and japan. she was crying on my birthday holding me (took a lot to get her to let go), crying "dont go, me and your father will do anything for you but don't go back to japan". i think she is a bit crazy in the head. so yeah its that bad. and i deal with the passive aggressiveness stemming from that attitude on a daily basis.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - kazelee - 2009-10-06

liosama Wrote:And, my other commitments.
I'm learning classical guitar at the moment which is pretty stressful since reading music and learning to play music at 23 years of age isn't as easy as it would be had I started at a much younger age. My tutor seems to think that I'm only learning classical guitar.
As far as engineering goes I'm still deciding between research and actual engineering work, so getting into research has been, and will slow down progress in my Japanese studies. Even now, I'm only doing two subjects at university this semester, both of them Japanese related, yet I find that most of my time is going to classical guitar and time in the physics lab.

Deja vu. Only replace guitar with piano.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Jarvik7 - 2009-10-06

Deja vu. Only replace piano with sleep.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - mafried - 2009-10-06

kazelee Wrote:Deja vu. Only replace guitar with piano.

Piano? I had always imagined kazelee as a violinist, bow in hand, stringing a tragic melody against a moon-lit landscape, the dark shadows masking his mysterious features and tortured soul...

...wait, did I say that out loud?

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Jarvik7 - 2009-10-06

Put your pants back on...

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - jacf29 - 2009-10-06

mafried Wrote:
kazelee Wrote:Deja vu. Only replace guitar with piano.
Piano? I had always imagined kazelee as a violinist, bow in hand, stringing a tragic melody against a moon-lit landscape, the dark shadows masking his mysterious features and tortured soul...

...wait, did I say that out loud?

lol

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Nii87 - 2009-10-06

I'm currently juggling 50 hour weeks at an engineering firm, piano occasionally, violin regularly, swing dancing regularly, Japanese study and various martial arts.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - activeaero - 2009-10-06

40hrs of government work + 20hrs per semester of college classes for the past year (spring, summer, and fall semester) in order to complete two years worth of college in one year's time. I graduate in exactly 8 weeks. I'm not exactly sure what it is going to feel like as I've become surprisingly accustomed to the work load.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - jacf29 - 2009-10-06

wow thats impressive how much you guys are managing. Nii87, you live in Australia or Japan now? Because if Japan, I would be interested in where you do your swing dancing (i always wanted to get into dance).

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - liosama - 2009-10-06

jacf29 Wrote:wow thats impressive how much you guys are managing. Nii87, you live in Australia or Japan now? Because if Japan, I would be interested in where you do your swing dancing (i always wanted to get into dance).

more like you want any excuse to dance with a bunch of jp girls Tongue

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - jacf29 - 2009-10-06

liosama Wrote:
jacf29 Wrote:wow thats impressive how much you guys are managing. Nii87, you live in Australia or Japan now? Because if Japan, I would be interested in where you do your swing dancing (i always wanted to get into dance).
more like you want any excuse to dance with a bunch of jp girls

That does sound nice haha.

I actually wanted to learn how to dance since being obsessed with that 'So You Think You Can Dance' show in America a few years ago. I still have the videos from the show uploaded on my mixi. Thats how crazy I was about it.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Nii87 - 2009-10-06

I should point out that my specialty is swing dance/lindy hop, not the ballroom stuff you see on TV.

The Osaka Lindy Hop Exchange just finished about two weeks ago actually. I didn't attend it this year but I'm definitely going next year. There are heaps of places throughout Japan to dance. A calendar of various gigs is here:
http://www.impetus.ne.jp/

Unfortunately I'm living in Australia at the moment. I don't think I'll ever be able to get work in Japan under my current career path.

EDIT: And yes, it is a fun and legitimate way to get up close and personal with girls of all kinds =)

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - jacf29 - 2009-10-06

Thanks a lot. I'll need to be careful which one I pick if I want to maintain an immersion environment in Japan.

http://takutan.jalbum.net/Osaka%20Lindy%20Exchange%202009/slides/IMG_0627.html

from the looks of that one its literally 50% foreigners.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Nii87 - 2009-10-06

...yes, it does seem that way doesn't it? Lindy Hop isn't that big in Japan I think. And perhaps the only Japanese people that gravitate towards it are the foreign-loving ones.

Maybe you could consider salsa or something, which I hear is popular in Japan. Plus it has more of a 'clubbing' atmosphere. I did it for two semesters though and it really wasn't my thing.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - jacf29 - 2009-10-06

Nii87 Wrote:...yes, it does seem that way doesn't it? Lindy Hop isn't that big in Japan I think. And perhaps the only Japanese people that gravitate towards it are the foreign-loving ones.

Maybe you could consider salsa or something, which I hear is popular in Japan. Plus it has more of a 'clubbing' atmosphere. I did it for two semesters though and it really wasn't my thing.

yeah salsa seems like a great idea. do they refer to these things like in english we would say ''salsa club''. so in japanese it would be just google 大阪　サルサ　クラブ ?

I was in a salsa club in America. Had the most beautiful latino women I have ever seen. And the fact that they could dance soo well made them even more beautiful. Will need to watch the temptation if I meet any latino or brazilian women in a Japanese salsa club.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - karategirl09 - 2009-10-06

I just graduated last year and I have a full time job now. Also, I have to do around 3 hours karate training each day. Then, there are the annoying things such as sleeping and eating, which I don't do enough of.

So it's really hard finding time to study Japanese. I use my SRS at work, and I listen to podcasts a lot, and I watch Japanese dramas, and I try to do something more each evening and at weekends. I think it helps that I don't speak English much during my day, so I can focus more on learning Japanese. I'm improving faster than I expected.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - b0ng0 - 2009-10-06

A full time job, which basically limits my maximum Japanese time to a couple of hours a day, and that's if I give up everything else I enjoy such as sport and playing instruments. So probably sitting at about 2 hours max a day. Not ideal really, but I guess that's where streamlining comes into play.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - hknamida - 2009-10-06

I've got more-than-full-time studies in non-Japanese areas, about 6 hours of aikido practice a week (10 hours if you count the time it takes me to get to the dojo) and... that's about it, really. Still, most of my Japanese time is spent on reviews. <<

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - bflatnine - 2009-10-06

Full time in school, married, learning Chinese and Japanese in my spare time, and job hunting.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Blahah - 2009-10-06

Full-time university (biology) which actually translates to about 30 hours a week lectures, labs and outside study. 30 hours a week working part-time, plus I study japanese, am teaching myself python, starting a social networking site for the conservation industry, contributing to coding projects, having a girlfriend and cooking, cleaning etc. I also have a veg garden and an allotment where I grow my food. I'm going to start fitting in some climbing and swimming as well. Until recently I did kung-fu two evenings a week but it doesn't fit in with work anymore. Oh and I'm about to start helping with a phD microbiology project one afternoon a week. They key is working out your minimum possible sleep and getting up uber-early every morning.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Yonosa - 2009-10-06

Nii87 Wrote:I'm currently juggling 50 hour weeks at an engineering firm, piano occasionally, violin regularly, swing dancing regularly, Japanese study and various martial arts.

Specialization isn't a bad thing bro.

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Jarvik7 - 2009-10-06

Don't specialize me bro!

So what committments do you have other than your Japanese study? - Hashiriya - 2009-10-06

i work 25hrs or so a week as a nurse...
i am a full-time college student (12 credit hrs)
i have a wife (luckily she is Japanese)