JapanNewbie

Great interview. Good grief you’ve done a lot of studying. I had 7 years of German, and you’re right – without going over to Germany or having some way to immerse myself in it, I never became conversational. Good on ya (as they say here) for going all the way with it!

Good stuff, thanks for taking the time to do that interview!
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One of my first weekends as a married man in Japan, my wife’s family and I took a boat out to enjoy the sea (we live on the coast). I’d been joking around a little too much and ticked off my wife’s father, so when I was near the railing he (nearly 70 years old!) picked me up and tossed me overboard. That’s when I realized it would be sink or swim from then on.
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Though I would have loved to do an intense formal language program, working for my father-in-law’s business was one of the best crash courses I could have had, especially when I had to man the phone all day for months straight. Started off with people yelling at me and complaining about my phone manner and stupidity, and ended up with new customers responding pleasantly and not noticing they were speaking to a foreigner (though that caused its own problems later).
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No matter how much studying you do before going to Japan, even if you already have JLPT 1 under you belt, you quickly realize how much you don’t know once you get to Japan. But you always one thing going for you: there’s simply no better place to learn. ^_^

Anyone else looking for a few minutes of fame? If so, and if you’ve lived in Japan less than a year, NHK’s Cool Japan TV program wants to hear from you! You can apply to be on their show at this link: https://www.nhk.or.jp/cooljapan/form.html