Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul11
Also, please consider that you've been in Japan since you were 17, and began udjusting while you were still psychologically more pliable. Most of us who do a few years in Japan start a bit later than you.
Also, please don't fall into the trap of being insulted by everything. these days people have thin skins and allow themselves to be hurt too easily. If we all become offended so easily, then we'll live in a society in which it becomes ipossible to express opinions or share ideas. A sad direction in the modern world.
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Take this in the spirit it is intended. Psychologial pliability and stiffness has little to do with age. Some of the most hard-headed members at this forum are still teenagers. I taught high-schoolers for nearly a decade. That's not why Nyororin gets by.
She gets by because she gets it. It's a little like that day during your Japanese studies that you stop translating in your head and you hear the words in your brain. When you start dreaming in Japanese.
Some can do it, some can't. Japan isn't for everybody, and is designed for nobody not Japanese. Either you can nail yourself in, or you can't. Doesn't matter how old you are. A good buddy of mine moved to Japan when he was in his late 40s. He did construction to rebuild Kobe after the earthquake in '95. He's still there. I know some of the most outgoing people that could make friends with stop sign who quit their JET contracts after arriving in July before Christmas. Japan wasn't for them.
I am not going to discount your experiences, as we can all tell "I know a" stories, but Japan doesn't "wear down" on all foreigners who choose to live there.