So, I just discovered Rikaichan Firefox plugin and Tae Kim's website-grammar book on the same freaking day. Where have they been all my life? I wish I knew about Heisig, Anki, Tae Kim, Rikaichan (um.. and Kanji, Hiragana.. how to bow.. etc) when I moved to Japan 2 years ago. /Le Sigh

On the other hand I learned a ton using this textbook from a correspondence course so not all my time was wasted, just not as efficient as I would have liked it to have been.

Now to my question, if you have some insight. In August I'm moving to Palo Alto (SFBay Area) and am going to continue studying Japanese in the US. For those of you studying in the US, how do you cope with the lessened amount of Japanese encountered in day to day life? Do you spend a lot of time listening to radio everyday? Or just focus on academic studying and do the listening/speaking stuff in big clumps (i.e. a weekend of Japanese movies or a conversation circle once a week) Any tips would be appreciated; and any of you hail from the San Fran area?

Well I lived in san jose for 6 years before moving to japan and let me tell you there is a japan town in san francisco and one in in downtown san jose(very small though). Spend a lot of time in these places if you can.

saizen Wrote:Well I lived in san jose for 6 years before moving to japan and let me tell you there is a japan town in san francisco and one in in downtown san jose(very small though). Spend a lot of time in these places if you can.

That sounds awesome! I wonder if they have much experience with American's speaking Japanese... btw, do they call non-Japanese gaijin even though they live in San Jose? Just wondering if the term is geologically dependent or not haha.

I watch a lot of dramas and meet with a language partner.

You can also spring for TV Japan if you need more media.

http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com

welldone101 Wrote:btw, do they call non-Japanese gaijin even though they live in San Jose? Just wondering if the term is geologically dependent or not haha.

Technically, the Japanese living in America would be 外国人 gaikokujin. It simply means foreigner. Literally "outside" "country" "person".

somewhat off topic, but is there an E>J version of rikaichan?

Is there a Rikaichan type similar program for Internet Explorer?

cloudstrife543 Wrote:Is there a Rikaichan type similar program for Internet Explorer?

No.