Hey all. I’m currently at the beginning of my 1 year stay at a language school. I really, really want to learn this language, but immediately Ive found it hard to avoid English.
The people at my sharehouse speak it, as does my roommate, and other students at the school. I’ve made friends with these people, and it’s nice, but I worry that maybe I’ll find that Ive barely learned anything after a while.
My current level is fairly low. I can say only very basic things.
Am I overthinking this? Any advice is appreciated!
3 comments
You *will* find that. And someday you’ll regret the drag these people caused, the missed opportunity and waste of time and money it represents, and wish you hadn’t been so considerate at the time of the feelings of people you practically instantly lost track of when it was all over anyway.
You have to make a conscious and concerted effort to *avoid* English.
Congratulations, my friend, you have discovered what many of us in Japan affectionately (/s) call ‘the foreigner bubble’.
No, you’re not overthinking it by acknowledging that it won’t help you progress. Make no mistake, they’ll be useful friends to have, as without a good language basis, you have little support network in Japan, but it will hold you back a bit in terms of language learning. It’s a well documented phenomenon that people who get trapped in the foreigner bubble can spend literal *decades* in Japan without ever progressing past sub-tourist Japanese.
My advise is to find activities that primarily require talking to native speakers in Japanese with as few foreigners as you can. The easiest and cheapest option is to participate in events that your language school sets up; the Japanese people who participate, by definition, want to talk to foreigners, so at least you’ll get some practice.
Once you’re more settled and ready for the real thing, I would advise trying to get involved in a hobby or, as I did in my time, go to a drinking establishment. I did bars, but I’m told izakayas work as well. As much as ‘just drink alcohol’ probably doesn’t sound like great advice, there’s no other situation in which Japanese people are so open and willing to chat with strangers, and you’d be surprised how much it legitimately helps.
I’d recommend a homestay if your program offers it! I leaned way more from my host family than I did from classes