Comments for Narrative Disorder... in Japan!

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri by The November Japan Blog Matsuri has been … « JapanSoc Community Blog

The November Japan Blog Matsuri has been … « JapanSoc Community Blog — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:29:44 +0000

[...] November Japan Blog Matsuri has been published! The question posed was “What has Japan taught you about yourself or your [...]

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri by » Narrative Disorder… in Japan! » November Japan Blog Matsuri

» Narrative Disorder… in Japan! » November Japan Blog Matsuri — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:34:27 +0000

[...] If you submitted your post via the blog widget and did not also put a link on my original matsuri post on this blog my apologies but it will have been lost in a system I seem unable to navigate ( I received no email and cannot find any … Original post [...]

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri by www.japansoc.com

www.japansoc.com — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:07:15 +0000

November Japan Blog Matsuri…

Hi guys, here at last is the post for November Blog Matsuri. Apologies for the tardiness. If anyone’s post does not appear please do email me and I will update the post - there were issues with the blog carnival thingy. I’ll still be off the edge of …

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri Begins! by Nick Ramsay

Nick Ramsay — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:49:03 +0000

The anticipation! I can barely stop checking your site to see if you’ve posted it yet!

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri Begins! by Life Lessons from Japan - Nihon Sun

Life Lessons from Japan - Nihon Sun — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:06:38 +0000

[...] article was entered into the Japan Blog Matsuri which is being hosted by DBR at Narrative Disorder this month. Tags: Food, History, Japan, Japan Blog Matsuri, religion, seasons, [...]

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri Begins! by What Has Japan Taught Me About England? « LongCountdown.com

What Has Japan Taught Me About England? « LongCountdown.com — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:05:29 +0000

[...] is my last minute entry into November’s Japan Blog Matsuri. I was going to skip it this month, as the question, “What has Japan taught you about [...]

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri Begins! by Tony

Tony — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:55:06 +0000

My link for this month’s blogsuri post for November

http://thesoulofjapan.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-japan-has-taught-me.html#links

Comment on Moving to Japan Tips: The Language Question by k

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:07:31 +0000

i still have problems with katakana… for less familiar words, i have to read it aloud a few times before something in my head goes “click”.

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri Begins! by DBR

DBR — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:04:09 +0000

Hi guys, thanks for the thoughtful entries - here or the widget is cool.

I have noticed that the widget doesn’t always extend fully on first page load but if you click one of the other tabs (e.g., future hosts) and then click the top one again it will extend and you can see the “submit” link near the bottom. I’ve had an entry via it in the last two days so it is still working

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri Begins! by Liv

Liv — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:28:16 +0000

Hi, Danielle! I can’t get the widget to work for me, either so here is my submission:

http://ieatmypigeon.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/coming-of-age-day/

It’s a post I wrote almost a year ago, reflecting on my year in Japan. Hard to believe I’ve almost been here for 2 years now!! If you’d like me to submit it via email instead, please let me know and I will ….

Comment on November Japan Blog Matsuri Begins! by ????? (Jason)

????? (Jason) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:49:34 +0000

Hmm … I can’t seem to find the right link to post my submission

Either way, here it is: http://www.j2fi.net/2008/11/15/what-has-japan-taught-me/

Comment on Moving to Japan Tips: The Language Question by DBR

DBR — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:56:28 +0000

In the interests of full disclosure - I learned hiragana first, too (way back in early high school actually and again last year when we started lessons) and I avoided katakana for the looongest time because I had this loony idea that I would mix up the two scripts because they have the same sounds. If you are planning to learn Japanese in a serious way then you need to learn both at the start and I am very strongly for learning all Japanese in kana rather than romaji (that’s another post) we insisted upon the kana version of text books etc…

If, however, you don’t plan on learning the language fully or more than a smattering of phrases just to get along (which includes tourists here for just a week or two) then katakana is outrageously useful while hiragana really isn’t useful at all since even if you get some furigana above the knaji hiragana will be mixed with you still won’t understand the word.

Comment on Moving to Japan Tips: The Language Question by xorsyst

xorsyst — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:20:50 +0000

Great post. I find it interesting that you suggest starting with Katakana. I never looked at it that way, and if your goal is to live there, I can definitely understand your point of view. I really need to concentrate on Katakana. I have a pretty good grasp of Hiragana, and a handful of Kanji, but I still don’t feel comfortable with Katakana.

Comment on Moving to Japan Tips: The Language Question by DBR

DBR — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:10:53 +0000

Totally agree, Billy though I’d say three years is enough time to do have a chance at becoming decently good at the language and I honestly don’t understand why anyone would want to be in a country for that long and not want to have the advantage and insight that the language would give. Then again, I have friends who have been here longer than three years and just have been working so many hours teaching English, without any assistance from their company for lessons or even time to study and I can understand that it can be a real struggle.
The ones I really don’t understand, though, are those who marry Japanese and don’t make any attempt to learn - even if they met in another country and only moved here later, that says soo much to me - none of it good

Comment on Moving to Japan Tips: The Language Question by billywest

billywest — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:02:10 +0000

I started studying Japanese back home for a couple of years before even deciding to come live in Japan. It was just fun for me, and I enjoyed so much about Japan that it was easy to stick with. After arriving, it didn’t take long for me to become conversationally fluent, even though I wasn’t, and am still not by any stretch, good at Japanese.

I suppose, at first, I used to get annoyed by people who didn’t spend much time learning the language. But, after the months started to turn into years, and I saw how transient the Japan experiences of so many people were, I realized it was pretty pointless for them to spend much time learning more than just survival Japanese. I mean, if we’re just talking a year or so, that’s pretty much an extended tourist’s stint. Enjoying one’s stay as much as possible and not letting guilty feelings about minimal Japanese skills bring about stress and frustration is a better way to go for people who have a relatively quick exit-from-Japan plan.

That being said, people who spend 5+ years in a foreign country without gaining some measure of ability to communicate in that country’s language are pretty hard to understand.