Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
I know people that have lived in Japan for many years, and they could write the words they know on a sheet of toilet paper.
One gentleman I know lived there for over a decade and his daughter was born there. In her five short years of life she learned more Japanese than her older-than-average father (and keep in mind she wasn't even speaking at all the first two years of her life).
|
Being in Japan doesn't mean anything...
There are many reasons as to why someone who lives in Japan for 10+ years and doesn't know a thing. And it has nothing to do with being in Japan or not. It has to do with them (and some outside factors).
You probably work in a company that speaks English all day long. That can be a reason.
You only hang out with expats. That's doom.
The Japanese people you know probably only speaks English to you. Game over.
You do your best to avoid Japanese. Another one.
The way you study Japanese might be ineffective (too little...30 minutes a day nonsense will get you nowhere)
The Japanese people (or other people) you know discourage you in learning Japan by telling you how "hard" and "mystifying" it is. No foreigner can ever be fluent. That's another nail in the coffin.
Therefore, people get discouraged and become less and less confident about learning Japanese.
Japanese teachers and people telling you it would take 8 + years to be fluent. The hell with that. That's game.
And at home, you're not gonna look at Japanese. You're just gonna look at stuff from your own language.
You read books in your own language.
You watch movies in your own language.
They probably do their very best at avoiding Japanese.
That's doom and gloom right there. That will quickly put an end to your Japanese learning.
I live in Japan right now. I go to the bookstore almost everyday to read. I don't ever remember ever seeing a foreigner in there. Ever.
So these foreigners in Japan, aren't really "living" in Japan. They have created their own English enviornment where they speak English all day long.
So if these people living in Japan can be immersed in English all day long...
This guy who's trying to learn Japanese just needs to do the opposite. Fill his ears and eyes with Japanese all day long. And he doesn't even need to be in Japan to do it.
When I mentioned immersion I don't mean going to Japan, I mean just be exposed to the language all the time. You can order Japanese books from the internet, read Japanese websites, download Japanese TV shows...all this stuff.