Comments on: On Being Illiterate in Japan | 馬鹿外人

By: owwls

owwls — Sat, 25 May 2013 04:44:15 +0000

Well if you click the link you’ll see I was making a “Flight of the Conchords” reference. I thought it was pretty obvious. Thanks though!

By: za-da-ru-m

za-da-ru-m — Sat, 25 May 2013 04:27:04 +0000

wikipedia does not agree with your ‘french as a second language in new zealand’ assertion…i’ve never been there, but from what i’ve read about it, the influence is first english, second native maori/polynesian, others (including europeans such as french) last.

otherwise, interesting post! i always love the way you comment on the human side of things.

By: On Roller Skating in Japan: Notes on One Year of Culture Shock | This Japanese Life. | 生命を外面九天です

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:47:43 +0000

[...] blitzkrieg tour of Japan with my best friend from the States. As the only Japanese speaker (a relative term) I was responsible for planning the itinerary, making reservations, scheduling trains, [...]

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:13:28 +0000

Confucius say journey of thousand mile begin single step!

I wouldn’t compare not learning Japanese in Japan to “eating too much cake” so much as “eating a lot of cake and not gaining weight from it.” You know you can survive and get by, but you know it’s not the best option.

I do feel guilty for not actively pursuing language study here and feel greatly humbled by the fact that my boyfriend came knowing almost nothing and just took N2 on the JLPT, which is the level required of native speakers.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 05:57:15 +0000

Good luck with learning Japanese. Once you get used to the differences, it really isn’t such a hard language. And even if you can’t speak so well, it’s better to be able to understand when people talk to you (or about you.)

By: pazzypunk

pazzypunk — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 03:39:05 +0000

You can do it, Eryk!

You make me and my mostly-monolingual-self feel lazy.

By: lollerskater

lollerskater — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:20:28 +0000

This issue has come up at my job (teacher at a private English immersion pre-school). I’m not allowed to talk to my student’s parents in Japanese because, by my boss’s logic, I was hired to teach English and therefore if I were to speak Japanese, it would be wrong. I can’t even greet or thank them in Japanese, even if they don’t speak any English (which is the case of most of the parents). It’s frustrating because it reinforces the message of the gaijin who moves to Japan and is too stupid or lazy to learn Japanese and that the ability to learn Japanese is unique to Japanese natives.

Imagine living in your home country, sending your kid to an Italian immersion school, and then being spoken to in ONLY Italian by the staff. It probably wouldn’t happen that way.