Only real way for someone who does not speak Japanese is to be an English teacher, and the pay is absolute shit and very unstable and you will be taken advantage of bigly.

I have an American friend who works in the ministry of tourism over there bc he speaks Japanese, studied abroad there, and graduated from a top US university with a degree in Japanese literature.

I have another American friend over there who did the English teacher route. He's currently unemployed bc of covid and during normal times he has three jobs and barely survives and has ZERO exit opps. He'll be doing this until he can't find another one and in his 40s has to move back to the US with no relevant WE and no savings.

I have a British friend over there who is an actor. She speaks Japanese and went to drama school there.

I have one final American friend over there who is a software engineer for a Japanese company. He literally got his job bc he knew a C-level exec there and had a really strong dev background in his mid 20s. Also he speaks Japanese and was married to a Japanese national.

I have a few other friends who did the English teacher route. They moved back to the US in their late 20s with no WE and no money.

Suffice it to say, to be an expat in Japan who can't already speak Japanese, you need to marry a Japanese national or find a unicorn job, or I guess maybe there's a way if you're wealthy.

edit: Actually I do have some Asian friends who are in Japan. They have MBAs and finance backgrounds and shit from places like Singapore. And they don't even stay for more than 5 yrs.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40824442)

I have some decent cash stacked

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40824452)

but i guess i can help

https://www.kyoto-obc.jp/en/kigyoushien/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40829068)

If you've got the same determination to learn Japanese it can of course work there. But with the internet, you could do it in the US as well. The resources are there.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40824599)

https://www.linguee.de/deutsch-englisch/search?source=auto&query=feststellen

Beyond that, I take lessons with German tutors on italki (always female lol- gives more incentive to keep taking them):

https://www.italki.com/teachers/german?from%5B0%5D=DE&from%5B1%5D=AT&is_native=1

I also ask native Germans questions on hinative.com:

https://hinative.com/

lots of good free lessons here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClBrbJXNh2sFxOuvH4o5H9g/videos

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40824631)

Thoughts on Duolingo?

Have you seen that YouTube vid of that one Lang prof who says Lang acquisition is the way to do it?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40824638)

No, haven't seen the video- am not a believer in the "there's some magic shortcut" theories people try to peddle.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40824650)

I wasted money on this polyglot's book- tossed it in the garbage can when he said he gets fluent in a language fast just by studying in 15 minute sessions a few times a day:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Speak-Any-Language-Fluently/dp/1472138562/ref=asc_df_1472138562/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312095945984&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10462240185460702567&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1020795&hvtargid=pla-518072050512&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=60223809257&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312095945984&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10462240185460702567&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1020795&hvtargid=pla-518072050512

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40824800)

if you have a list of items to memorize, you imagine each of them in a different place in the walkthrough

then when you need to recall later, you walk through the location and see what you "placed" in each location

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40833438)

As others have pointed out:

-if you don't speak Japanese, it will take you many, many years to achieve even BASIC reading/writing fluency, and that's if you study very diligently. Japanese is a *very difficult language. If you have a good ear/mimic skill, you can ramp up your speaking fairly quickly, but there is zero shortcut to reading/writing.

- If you don't have a "real" job (not JET, not some English eikaiwa, even a private one) you will flounder for years and likely have zero to show for it. I know literally dozens of people like this. You will not be different.

- even if you DO learn Japanese, Japan--below the shiny surface--is a xenophobic and remarkably backward and institutionally sclerotic country. You have ZERO meaningful long-term future there, unless you are incredibly well-connected and lucky.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40825544)

Were you big into anime or sth

Doing anything with your Japan knowledge?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40825591)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40825665)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826693)

2. "learning" (i.e., memorizing by sight) a stack of kanji flashcards -- is this including onyomi and kunyomi?--is a different animal than learning how to actually read and write.

But good for you.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40825694)

Working on muh hiragana rn

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40825821)

this is like some english guy telling some arab about how easy it is to learn dutch

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40825967)

and even giving you benefit of the doubt - which is quite generous btw because there is maybe a 1% chance you are korean and not some cumskin pretending to be korean) theres a reason why we stopped using picture words like 30 years ago

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826071)

so glad our government has a spine and purged these TTT chink influences you hold so DEARLY

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826100)

and yes, that is a more valid comparison than saying American schoolkids should learn Latin due to English and Latin using the same script

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826184)

(guy pretending the hojuk exists at the insitutional level today, in 2020)

(guy literally NO PASSPORTpwn3d asserting he is, in fact, KOREAN)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826277)

facts bro: xoxo wisdom: NO PASSPORT NOT KOREAN

cant change the rules when it suits you bro. take the L like a man lol

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826397)

i aint even mad bro. just giving you (not the individual but in the xoxo sense) a taste of your own medicine

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826454)

lol when all is said and done i actually had practical reasons for making one. you know im just fuckin with you - assuming you are a brother

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826512)

0 percent chance that guy isnt some MAF chink

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826137)

http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3736453&forum_id=2#34242968

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#49021822)

FAKE KOREAN ALERT. lol@ this dummmy. i remember you trying to call me out in another thread. LOLLERCAUST.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826203)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826216)

NO PASSPORT LOLOLOLOLOLOLLOL FAKE KOREAN LOLOLOLOLOL

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826289)

*Sees that NYUUG has rendered the entire thread an unreadable subthread wasteland*

Never. Change. Brother.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826683)

It's perhaps the last remaining homogeneous first world society. Also, the weight they place on honor is very CR.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40826759)

What shitlaw do you do

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40827764)

they are very serious about making sure that well paying Japanese jobs are overwhelmingly filled by Japanese citizens. crazy concept, I know.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4612563&forum_id=2#40827841)