I assume anything in a big city is going to have opportunities to formally study, but I was wondering if anyone here had any tips or secrets when it came to good areas for studying Japanese. I’m well aware of the grind/time commitment of studying while also teaching, but it’s something I feel strongly about doing.
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It’s incredibly easy to live in a big city here with near zero Japanese ability.
In terms of Japanese learning I definitely regret ending up in kanto.
Anywhere outside of a big city. Just having to do everything outside work in Japanese improved my language ability much more than formal studying ever did.
In everyday life, the inaka is going to require a higher degree of Japanese than larger cities, it’s true.
But in defense of large cities: many cities offer cheap-as-dirt (around ~¥100-¥200 a session) Japanese lessons/free practice at the various ward offices. Depending on your schedule (which is the biggest factor), what’s available overall throughout the city, and your willingness to go to other ward offices depending on the day, you could end up having upwards 3-5 hours of Japanese practice weekly in a structured environment with native speakers.
Now, it obviously depends on a lot of factors, including how you yourself prefer to study and what works best for you overall, and how things fit with your schedule, but I think that bigger cities aren’t without their own perks when it comes to learning.
Are you set on a formal environment or self study. My tips depending on each vary by quite a bit. Also, what is your starting level. Like do you know all your hiragana and katakana already, how many kanji do you have memorized, vocab, etc.
Come to Hokkaido! For me as a JET and studying for JLPT N2, English is very limited here, most Japanese people where I work can understand English but don’t want to speak it. So its pretty good place for lots of input and plenty of output opportunities.
If you want to study Japanese, just go study at a language university
Most cities offer weekly and bi-weekly free classes to their residents by volunteers. Often times you’ll only need to pay a yearly supply fee (for textbooks and whatever) which is around 2,000 yen. Yes, you read that right, 2,000 yen per year! Check your city hall/ward office for what is offered. The program is a little bit different in every city. I found that in Tama, they even have free private tutoring available and you can choose your own textbook.
I’ve been living in the countryside for a few years now and it’s really forced me to use/learn Japanese. There is almost no English assistance where I live, even at the city hall, hospitals and banks. If you want to learn Japanese quickly the countryside is a great place! and the locals are always willing to help you out. There’s also an app called “Hello Talk” people use, but be aware some use it as a dating app instead of a study app!