JapanNewbie

About Me

I’m Harvey. I grew up in Iowa (United States, Midwest) and lived in Japan from 2001 to 2008. My last job in Japan was as a full-time technical translator in Osaka. (I love Osaka!) Now I’m back in the United States for post-graduate studies in international relations. I run this blog to introduce as many people as I can to interesting things “Japanese.” I’ve learned a lot through my interactions on this blog, and have hopefully returned the favor by helping some other people out in the process!

I started studying Japanese in high school in Iowa. I continued studying Japanese at Indiana University, including one year of study abroad at Nanzan University in Nagoya (1999-2000).

After graduating from Indiana University I started working in Japan at a job that I got at the Boston Career Forum during my Junior year. I would recommend this career fair to anyone about to graduate from university that is even remotely interested in Japan and wants a foot into the business world in Japan. I passed JLPT level 1 in 2003 while working that job.

After four years at that first IT job I moved on to study more Japanese at IUC in Yokohama; a kind of intense Japanese boot camp for masochists. It was brutal, but I learned a lot (more on why IUC after having already passed JLPT 1). After IUC I went back to Osaka to work in translation. I came back to the US in summer 2008 to continue my studies. I expect I’ll be in and out of Japan for the rest of my life… What else am I going to do with all this Kanji right?

I hope this blog is useful to you in some way!

Contact me if you have any questions about anything!

- Harvey

P.S.

Full Disclosure:
I am a TheJapanShop.com affiliate
I am a Amazon.com affiliate
I am a PlaySay.com affiliate
I am a JapanesePod101.com affiliate
I post Google Adsense ads
I use Google Adsense search
I am a Jlist Affiliate (but rarely post their stuff)
I am a JapanTrendShop.com Affiliate
I’m a TextLinkAds user
A few other companies pay to have their links on JapanNewbie
I cooperate with TheJapanShop.com to create educational iPod Applications
I fully support HearJapan.com because the creator is a personal friend

All of this helps to cover the costs of hosting JapanNewbie, and to motivate me to keep blogging!