Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I have to admit I laughed at that one.
Fukui has to have the least interest in English that I have encountered in Japan. There are "anti-English" clubs in high schools, and a general lack of apparent interest. I believe it is also home to one of the main "Why on earth do we force students to learn English? At the very least make it an elective class!" groups wanting to reform education. Of course there are going to be plenty of people who do have interest, but I doubt you`re going to find the levels that exist elsewhere.
It`s also very far down on the list of places that I would recommend for learning Japanese. The regional accent is VERY strong and completely pervasive - to the point that even the local NHK announcers can`t seem to hide it. I think that it scored either at the top or very close to the top for the level of regional accent evident in all walks of life. (Not just limited to older generations or a handful of regional words.)
My personal recommendation would be to look around a bit in the Chubu area. Or more specifically the Tokai area. (Aichi, Gifu, Shizuoka, maybe Nagano.)
I live in Aichi, and am biased as I personally think it`s the best place to live long term. Nagoya is a huge city with all the convenience and benefits that come with being a big city, but is also well planned out with plenty of parks and a very good public transportation system. It is also a pretty close to being in the middle between Tokyo and Osaka. It`s even closer to Kyoto/Nara and Mt. Fuji. It`s fairly easy to get to any of them. It`s also one of the most historically rich areas of Japan.
The winters are fairly mild - maybe a few spots of snow - but the summer can be quite humid... But almost anywhere in Japan that isn`t high in the mountains seems to get fairly humid in the summer. It`s near the ocean, and there is tons of nature to the north. Aichi is one of the only prefectures in which it is not only legal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk - but there are wide sidewalks designed for this. (May not be a big deal to hear, but try riding around on streets where there is maybe 20cms of space on each side of a car with NO extra space and you will understand the joy of having huge sidewalk spaces with marked "lanes" for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.)
As for teaching English - Despite being a huge city and the center of the third largest metropolitan area in Japan, Nagoya seems to be almost entirely off of the foreigner radar. Virtually no one has heard of it, so it rarely shows up as an option.
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Haha, that would definitely be important to know about Fukui! I was fully aware of their crazy accents, but I had no idea about the English thing. I guess that explains why some middle school/high school kids were SERIOUSLY amazed to see me in their small town that I passed through one time. (like it might have been their first time seeing a foreigner in person-type of reaction). I thought that would mean there was plenty of room for English teachers. I guess not though!
I still think Kanazawa would be good though. I personally like the Aichi region as well and think that even in the big city areas, it's not as 'big-city' as the other major cities in Japan. It doesn't feel as hectic for some reason.