Quote:
Originally Posted by princessmarisa
This may come off as a tad passive aggressive, but it is more a genuine desire to understand others.
I see so many threads of people who genuinely think they have a chance of being anything but an ALT/similar without being fluent in Japanese, or having any experience of working and living in Japanese society and how it works.
I think shooting people like this down and asking them to reassess is a dash of much needed tough love, but hey maybe I am just jaded or something?
I don't hear people say this about other countries, even though in many other places, especially across Europe being fluent in English would perhaps be enough, provided you were the top of your game in that field already.
Yet there seems to be this idea, that with sheer will and determination alone, one can fill in a form, pack up their bags and within a couple of years be a really successful manga/anime/videogame artist, living in Japan making lots of money and having the time of their life.  Or otherwise just somehow "live" there and "get a good job".
How do people with this dream think it will work, or is it that the learning Japanese to a native level will only take you a couple of years due to your burning passion for the bigger picture?
Or is it that they think they are so talented in their chosen path that it is enough for every single other person in the industry to overlook all the problems caused by not being fluent in Japanese language and work practises?
Most with these ideas seem to be students or otherwise at the start of their true working life, so I don't see how they can be such amazing established artists that they no longer need the other things?
As someone who has struggled on with Japanese for a couple of years and still sounds like a primary school child at best, and a grammer-nightmare at worst, I don't see how the required level of fluency can be possible for anyone without non stop study and immersion in the language, even then I am not convinced.
With all that time spent studying the language, when will you study your art and do all the other steps to have a successful career in any field?
Help me to understand your dreams JF! |
Before anything else I reply because I think the question was genuine and you really are curious why/what do you don't understand or do you misunderstand and I think I have a different answer.
A few of my friends went to work to England a few years ago, they had no knowledge of the language at all, and actually managed to find a job in a pub next to some kind of gypsy area...no comment on that... but believe me they weren't the first nor the last who want to work/live abroad without knowing ANY foreign languages. That does not specifically Japan related thinking - I'd risk to say it is (was) more typically US related thinking (correct me if I'm wrong, but there are still so many citizens who don't speak the language, and refugees, immigrants are still mean a hell of a problem. So no I really don't see this would be specific to Japan...) But if you say it's different in the case of Japan, than you can be right, I have not much knowledge about that...
I don't know many countries who's companies hire immigrants more willingly than their own people. Is it harder in Japan? I don't think so, for example in Canada there is a law which limits the possibilities of hiring foreign workers, if there is someone even less skilled for the job with valid citizenship the company must hire him/her. Is there a law(s) for that in Japan? And still there are many who want to live/work in Canada...
The language could be a wake up call for these dreamers, but as I see they are from all over the world. Again, I can be wrong with this, but maybe it's not that hard for them to learn the language than for a native English speaker. For me (from my native language) it was crucial to learn English even to this level, even-though they say English is simple and so catchy, *ugh* believe me, it wasn't, and I don't know of any from my country who'd say otherwise.
I think these people (no matter the age) keep coming to JF because there are niece and helpful people around here with lots of experience and they can have their answer without being bullied , although I don't really know of other forums and I couldn't possible read all posts about it ,but so far I had this impression.
There are types who will give up their safety just to experience something new, and there are some who surely have great talent and will be successful no matter how. It's a good thing they are willing to go after their dreams, don't you think.
And they probably want to go to Japan with their drawings because there is a huge market covering that, we could say it's a 'dreamland' of manga-artists, it's really rare in many other places (for example I could recite all the animation studios even with the lead-artists names from my country in a short time, it'd be around 15-30 different names...). And one more thing if you are a really talented artist the age doesn't really matter (just look up Picasso's early works), but you're right one have to learn a lot to get better in anything.
Or they just want to go there because they love the country, and you will meet them here because it's a Japan Forum.