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How can I really learn Japanese while in Japan?

From Fiona:

I just went to a Japanese Language and Culture program during Summer 2002, and the program is hosted by HIF (Hokkaido International fOUNDATION). I just want to share some opinions if you're thinking about going to Japan to study.

The summer program is about 2 months, and it's located at Hakodate in the island of Hokkaido. By the way, the city is just BEAUTIFUL! I fell in love with it instantly... ;)

I studied Japanese for about 3 years in University, then I thought I really need to get fluent in speaking Japanese. So I was determined in those 2 months, I'd be fluent..!

I met with Harvey in Tokyo before I went to Hokkaido, and he gave me golden rules in order for me to really learn. Rules like: Never speak English, and if your friends speak English all the time, avoid that friend!

Alas, reality was not that easy on me. It turned out that everyone speaks English, especially there are a lot of students [other exchange students] who just started their 1st year of Japanese. And it's very hard to avoid them if the whole school is full of them and no Japanese people!

This is a big problem of many Japanese programs. Even those who went for a year do not necessarily speak fluent Japanese because they make friends with foreigners.

What I did was, I really practiced with my host family. On weekends, I go with them and not with my foreign friends. On mid semester break, everybody went to Sapporo together with other students, but I stayed with my host family and really used the time to be with them and talked Japanese. I love my host families and I have to admit that I improved mainly because of their help and support. And even for only 2 months, I already felt that I've improved and gained confidence.

My suggestion is that before you go to Japan, make sure you know what goals for going to Japan are. For example, my goal was to improve my spoken Japanese. And you have to sort of remind yourself of your goal, 'cause I'm sure there are so many distractions coming up.

-Fiona

From Marie:

Well, since I'm pretty sure that I haven't really "learned" the language, I may not be the best person to give advice, but maybe I can deduce the right answer from my failures... ;)

1. Go native: Stay away from most other gaijin. Yeah, yeah, this sounds harsh, but immersing yourself in the world of people who are here as English teachers/exchange students is bound to eat up a bunch of your time and cause you to succumb to the temptation to rehash the same complaints about life in Nihon over and over again. It's a vicious cycle that I've seen too many people flirt with and fall victim to, and it only serves to deprive you of precious language-learning time and make you generally frustrated. Don't give in!

2. Review your textbooks. Dust off the Japanese 001 textbook and take a gander at it every now and then. Even if you learned it all the first time (which most people probably didn't), it's worth a quick look. You'd be surprised how much you forgot/continually mess up/could stand to learn from the books you slaved over until 3 am in the library during freshman year.

3. Find yourself a Japanese "S.O." Okay, so I don't speak from personal experience here (much to the distress of several of my students who ask on a daily basis if I've found myself a nice Japanese boyfriend), but lots of people I know who are relatively fluent have/had Japanese girlfriends or boyfriends. Is it difficult to carry on a dictionary-based relationship? From the looks of it, yes. Does it border on the ridiculous? Most definitely. But if you're willing to go for it and overlook the inevitable awkwardness of stumbling over words just because you don't know them all that well (for the sake of argument, I'm discounting the possibility that emotions play any role in sudden losses of language), it seems to be a pretty successful way to master the language.

4. Watch lots of T.V. and listen to J-Pop. Confession time: I almost never watch T.V. at home in America (except for the occasional episode of "Ed" or "The West Wing"), but I'm willing to watch (nearly) everything and anything NHK, Chuukyou Terebi, or the multitude of BS stations (yeah, I know what you're thinking...) shoot out over the airwaves. Why? Because aside from the fascinating shows featuring people consuming cow testicles, it's not a half bad way to get the kikitori renshuu most gaijin so badly need, and if cow testicles and nighttime soap operas (called "dorama") aren't really your thing, there are plenty of other weird and wonderful things to watch on the boob tube. Plus, and this is a major bonus, most Japanese shows have some form of "jimaku" (subtitles) included, which makes it possible to figure out what in the heck they're talking about should someone use a word that, in Hiragana and out of context, could have several different meanings. (As an illustration of this, I like the example of the pun Sanma-san used one day: He said the word "jyoudan" which could either mean "joke" or "the upper deck (subtext: "high class").") J-Pop's usefulness is dubitable, I admit, but if you buy the CD and read along while the artist(s) sing, you've got some pretty good Kanji-renshuu in an entertaining form.

5. Don't come here as an English teacher. Yes, this seems self-evident, but if you're spending 8 hours every day speaking English, you're not going to pick up a lot of new vocabulary and grammar. It's sort of tough love--since, as several people have pointed out, most gaijin who've studied Japanese in college don't really have the language skills necessary to do anything else, thus severely limiting options--but it's the truth. This is similar in respect to (1.), the basic point being that if you're doing anything other than studying/speaking/listening/writing in Japanese, you're not learning as fast as you might be.

Marie

Being there won't make you learn...

From Harvey:

Just being in Japan won't make you learn Japanese. You have to want it with a passion! Okay... maybe not with a passion, but a certain amount of motivation is necessary to acquire the Japanese language while in Japan.

Watch TV
First of all, just watching Anime will not cut it. Granted, it helps get a feel for the speed of the language, and can build some (sometimes useful) vocabulary. However, as 3 minutes of watching some other live Japanese TV show will quickly show you, Anime isn't real. To build your Japanese skills watch as much television as possible. Anything will do, children's shows, to the news. Even if you don't have a clue what is going on while you are watching, some of it will be sinking into your memory.

Ask people stuff
I recommend to ask Japanese people questions in Japanese as much as possible. This will not only give you practice speaking, but hearing all of the different ways that people can answer your question will also help your progress. If you get lucky, you may even be able to strike up a conversation with the person. Even if it is only for five minutes while riding on a subway, this time can be invaluable to your language learning process.

Escape from English
While in Japan, try to shut out as many English things as you can from your life. Even your music. Yes, it's hard, while listening to music in English everyday maybe relaxing; it does nothing to improve your language ability. Find some Japanese artist that you can listen to, and try to follow along with the lyrics that are included with every CD in Japan. This can do wonders for your Kanji recognition skills, and also build vocabulary.

Carry the gear
I recommend carrying a electronic dictionary with you at all times while in Japan. If you are super strong, carrying a paper dictionary with you at all times is even better. You never know when you will want to look something up.

Don't be a target
Watch out for Japanese people who study English and want to use you as their guinea pig. You went to Japan to study Japanese right? You're supposed to do that to them! It can be tempting to become friends with people like this, but remember, it's not going to do much to help your Japanese language ability.

Tachiyomi
Spend time in bookstores looking at magazines and the like. It is not uncommon for people to spend hours standing in bookstores reading entire magazines off the rack in Japanese bookstores. This is a great way to get free reading material, and a good way to kill time as well.

If you must... If you must teach English while you are in Japan, try to get the student with the least amount of experience. This will ensure that they will have to revert to Japanese to explain things to you, and also that you may have to use Japanese to get some points across. If at all possible though, don't teach English in Japan if you're there to learn Japanese.

-Harvey

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