captal Wrote:すげ！ Seriously awesome! I think I'd be too nervous in that situation too- I just gave a speech in Japanese to my 3rd graders last week for my last class with them and I was nervous- and I talk to them everyday!

Great job- though I noticed the "I have no idea what he/she just said" face once or twice (only because I make that face about 10x per day).

only 10x per day....tell me your secret haha

Shweet! Did they go into any detail about anki. I'm too noob to tell. I see you are a lefty. I bet now there's some 日本人 who thinks that all foreigner use their left hand to write kanji. LOL.

Thanks for posting that clip. My japanese skills are crap, and I only understood a fraction of it, but still I enjoyed watching it. It was interesting seeing your workplace. You did a good job on japanese tv and didn't appear nervous or anything.

You came across as a professional dude who is really into his kanji study ! Can you tell us a little bit about how you got the job, and what kind of work you do? Probably this was discussed on the show, but I couldn't follow most of it.

Also I was disappointed you never saw the Indian guy or Chinese guys workplace. Anyway it was a good opportunity for you.

saizen Wrote:I always write in pen so the smudging aint an issue..i just cant use pencil cause well..it will smudge. I hope my handwriting is decent cause i work really hard at it. When I was doing heisig i wrote EVERY single kanji out by hand when doing reviews and learning new ones. And now with sentences...Although it slows me down...i write out every production sentence that comes up ..every time. I just want speed and accuracy i have when i write english on paper with pen. I fill up a 30 page notebook almost every month from all the kanji and sentence reviews and i keep all the books..that is what you saw in the video( i think nukemarine also does this). I actually keep track of my workload this way..as in i better be filling up a 30 page notebook every month or i am slacking off.

and yeah i was laughing at the beginning of the show too with all the candid shots of foreigners lol.

Congrats on the show, but can you add more detail on the experience with filming? It seems they edit those shows in a HEAVY way. Did they want you to be more "dramatic" in what you did for example.

And if my count is correct, this makes you the second RevTK'r to be on Japanese TV (though the first guy was for the unicycle).

Yeah, I write in notebooks. I just threw away my third full notebook in a year (making it about 400 pages total since I started). Like you, when I started out I wrote out the entire sentence on production. Now, I don't produce entire sentences unless it's my first time adding it to Anki, after that it's just the vocabulary word. So I'm not writing very much any more, but it's not burning me out either.

PS: We all saw that KO2001 book on your desk. Good call.

Nukemarine Wrote:PS: We all saw that KO2001 book on your desk. Good call.

Does that count as access to the google file? lol

As for the filming they(NHK) were very liberal and didn't ask us to behave in a certain way at all, what you saw was everyone's personality. You give me two words in any language I will try to make a joke with those two words..just how I am. That chinese dood was super serious and the Indian guy loved talking (in english too!) and that is what you saw on the video. I said A LOT more than what you saw especially when there were at my work. They asked me what i did and how i did it and how was communication with japanese co-workers and the like. I really think they wanted to add it but my dialogue wasn't smooth enough on some of the questions to include it into the show(:/). Before we actually got out onto the studio they took us all into the back room and went over the flow of the show with us and asked us the questions that the hosts *MIGHT* ask (the hosts are allowed to do whatever ..to be funny). I dont want to get to opinionated of the other guys in case they find this thread but they listened to all our answers and let us know if was NG or not..there was never any issues with anyone answers thankfully. (i felt like me and the indian guy were the only true foreigners...the two chinese we just so well adjusted and adapted).

One thing that drove me crazy was the translator(not her just her job...super sweet japanese lady)..it was embarrassing and made it hard for me get into japanese mode. I study so hard to have some woman sit behind me and translate what i understood into english and then am expected to answer in japanese...totally jacked me up at some points. I gotta admit she saved my ass one time on the show and you can see her doing it on the first question i got asked..after that i told her to stop.

One thing that will make you guys smile (since we all do heisig) is that they completely freaked out when I:

1) wrote my adress in complete kanji so they could mail me my check
2) wrote all my answers to the questions in japanese (with kanji included)

The translator told me she does translation for people that have been here for upwards of 10-15 years and their japanese is below even mine.

As for how i got the job, I graduated BSEE in San Jose State and took a job with a company looking for a new grad EE willing to live 2 years (or more if i want) in japan doing sales engineering. I think i easily got the job after the first interview..cause I introduced my self in japanese and took 2 crappy years of it in highschool..(little did they know that was ALL the japanese I knew at the time lol and a little hiragana and katakana)

Amazing! Sales Engineer in Japan!

What percentage of your customers are Japanese and what percentage are English-speakers? From the video, it looks like they totally immersed you in Japanese (you're lucky, if that's true).

Hehe - don't worry about that Japanese translator (I think she was just trying to help - maybe a little too much) - I would have barely noticed her if you didn't mention it.

Oh wow. That was amazing. Congrats man!

Congrats on your TV debut!! Sugei gambarimashita

I cannot see this video in my country.

kfmfe04 Wrote:Amazing! Sales Engineer in Japan!

What percentage of your customers are Japanese and what percentage are English-speakers? From the video, it looks like they totally immersed you in Japanese (you're lucky, if that's true).

Hehe - don't worry about that Japanese translator (I think she was just trying to help - maybe a little too much) - I would have barely noticed her if you didn't mention it.

All my customers are Japanese and I am still in training so I dont say squat to them cause A) i cant sell complicated electronical devices speaking japanese yet B) I am STILL learning about our products and what not. But yeah it is "almost" an immersion environment. Alot of the people on my floor can speak english but all day long back ground noise is japanese people speaking japanese to each other and if i dont wanna speak english i just stay away from the old guys looking to relive their english speaking days on me lol.

Wth, veoh is blocked in my country O_O

Good job! You represented Americans very well

It is nice to see Gaijin on TV doing good. There were two shows I saw in Japan focusing on foreigners in Japan that stuck out in my mind. One was a kind of a reality show catching shoplifters at a grocery store and the other was of foreigners cheating the train fare system :/.

for those of you wondering why VEOH may not work in your country, this should explain why

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veoh#Availa..._the_world

joe_bevis Wrote:for those of you wondering why VEOH may not work in your country, this should explain why

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veoh#Availa..._the_world

So unfair.

Still no Youtube version

Great job! I have nightmares similar to that-- being on TV and being made to answer questions off the cuff in Japanese.

Nice show!
You did well and it was nice seeing a show that showed foreigners in a positive light!
LoL! In that scene in your apartment they really made you look like this lonely guy spending all his free time next to his desk studying the language! Reminded me too much of myself!

The Indian guy spoke pretty fast and I had a hard time following him, but I guess I wasn't the only one. They subtitled everything he said!

saizen Wrote:As for how i got the job, I graduated BSEE in San Jose State and took a job with a company looking for a new grad EE willing to live 2 years (or more if i want) in japan doing sales engineering. I think i easily got the job after the first interview..cause I introduced my self in japanese and took 2 crappy years of it in highschool..(little did they know that was ALL the japanese I knew at the time lol and a little hiragana and katakana)

SJSU?!? REPRESENT!!

Actually, I'm down the road at SCU. But it's nice to see a south-bay local living the dream. I wish SCU had the Japanese community SJSU has... or at least the Judo team.

mafried Wrote:Actually, I'm down the road at SCU. But it's nice to see a south-bay local living the dream. I wish SCU had the Japanese community SJSU has... or at least the Judo team.

Dood I was on that Judo team for a while! LOL
BTW I am uploading a utube version for all the unviewables

I really can understand you being so hyped up now - great job! You give a really good account of yourself!

Congrats on the show! You did a great job! I've been watching 会社の星 recently, since my wife likes the show. I actually saw your episode before this thread got started. I was really surprised to see Anki on Japanese TV, and recognized that Anki sentence from KO2001.

Anyone else notice the backing music from Tiger and Dragon?

Cool stuff man! Lucky you.

I may have to chance to be on TV also; I'm debating whether or not to do the NHK speech contest.

Good luck to both of our studies!

Has anyone tried to get on a Japanese game show? I know most try to humiliate you (not unlike American reality shows) but it would still be interesting. I used to watch a game show called, "Challengers of Fire". One of the challenges was on writing kanji. It would be sweet if an RTK graduate would made a good showing in a competition like that.

wow, impressive!

I'm still a beginner compared to you and your comrades on the show. Yours is a level I hope I can attain someday.

I've been studying Japanese for about 3 years on my own. I haven't made substantial progress though I can still feel myself picking up on new things every once in awhile.

Really, I should devote myself a little more. My unorganized lifestyle sure makes it difficult.... Heh, got to work on that.

cerulean Wrote:I've been studying Japanese for about 3 years on my own. I haven't made substantial progress though I can still feel myself picking up on new things every once in awhile.

They say the first ten years are the toughest. After that, it is all down hill