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JF Ossan
 
Posts: 12,200
Join Date: Jun 2007
08-24-2010, 07:15 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Toastyzeus View Post
Cool, you stated "pretty intimidating after studying Japanese for just four years", are you fluent in Japanese now?

(Sure looks like it, 10,126 posts on a Japanese forum lol)

I am going to assume you have been/are still on the JET programme, if so for how many years did you stay on it?

Did you learn Japanese while on the program?


~~I feel a little rude asking so many questions :3
I hope you don't mind, thanks.
Please feel free to ask whatever you like.

If anyone non-Japanese tells you they are fluent in Japanese, take it with a grain of salt. I can communicate in Japanese, written and spoken, but I would not call myself fluent.

I was in the JET Program in the mid 90s for three years.

I learned more Japanese living there for three years than I did at University study for four years, but the foundation I got at University made it possible for me to really expand on my learning. I also lived in Kansai, which is has a terrific dialect that doesn't appear in any textbook in the US. It took me probably 6 months to a year to get accustomed to the dialect.

But no, I did not "study" Japanese while I was there, but I did learn it much better, to the point when I came back I was a teacher of Japanese for several years, and then went on to translation.
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