Context: I’m currently thinking on moving to Japan at somepoint in my Life, but i dont want to delay It much. I’m currently gonna start my universitary degree to work as a programmer. And my intention is to move after i finish or before i turn 30. Cause i think It Will be harder to make Friends and have a regular Life the longer It takes me to get there. I know very little of japanese and I was planning to study It on my own while i do my universitary degree. I’m from Spain, my mother language, but i can defend myself in English.
Here are the questions:
1. Should i learn japanese (like a good level of It, and how much of hand written, read, and hear) before i get there, or just know some basic stuff and learn It there. And basically use english in the mean time. (I know learning japanese before would be better, but as I said i dont want to delay much my travel to Japan).
2. Can I apply for a job there from Spain or Another country? Programming or something related. The employment rate, and how easy is to access Jobs depending on your level of studies. Probably missed something im not yet in the laboral world.
3. To learn japanese should i use some online web, book, teacher(cant really afford It until im working after the degree, so i would need to delay it). If you know some i Will be grateful. I know Duolingo sucks, i want to know proper japanese not only few words.
4. How easy and cheap is to access to a place to live, renting or buying It?
If you think i missed something important with the questions i Will be very grateful if you tell me.
Thanks in advance to everyone that helps me get closer to my wish.
5 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Want to live in Japan in the near future, and I have some questions.**
Context: I’m currently thinking on moving to Japan at somepoint in my Life, but i dont want to delay It much. I’m currently gonna start my universitary degree to work as a programmer. And my intention is to move after i finish or before i turn 30. Cause i think It Will be harder to make Friends and have a regular Life the longer It takes me to get there. I know very little of japanese and I was planning to study It on my own while i do my universitary degree. I’m from Spain, my mother language, but i can defend myself in English.
Here are the questions:
1. Should i learn japanese (like a good level of It, and how much of hand written, read, and hear) before i get there, or just know some basic stuff and learn It there. And basically use english in the mean time. (I know learning japanese before would be better, but as I said i dont want to delay much my travel to Japan).
2. Can I apply for a job there from Spain or Another country? Programming or something related. The employment rate, and how easy is to access Jobs depending on your level of studies. Probably missed something im not yet in the laboral world.
3. To learn japanese should i use some online web, book, teacher(cant really afford It until im working after the degree, so i would need to delay it). If you know some i Will be grateful. I know Duolingo sucks, i want to know proper japanese not only few words.
4. How easy and cheap is to access to a place to live, renting or buying It?
If you think i missed something important with the questions i Will be very grateful if you tell me.
Thanks in advance to everyone that helps me get closer to my wish.
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It sounds like you’re thinking very far ahead. I would get your university degree out of the way first because it’s an important factor in getting a visa. Definitely learn the language, I don’t think you’ll get very far without it. From then, you could start considering your other questions.
That’s just my opinion.
Universities often have some kind of travel arrangements where you can do a semester abroad. If you can do this with japan it will be a massive help.
Not only because you will gain experience with japan and comfort with the language and culture…but if you do it right you can spend your free time making friends and connections in your industry in japan, and those connections can be the key to getting you a job there later.
Hiring someone from overseas is always nerve wracking for an employer. If they have met you before…the risk of that goes WAY down.
TLDR: see if you can spend a semester in japan, spend all your time there at programming events and contributing in any way you can.
Being a known contributor on some japanese open source projects can also be a foot in the door because your other maintainers will have jobs in japan and have direct experience with the quality of your work. All that depends on language somewhat. I’m not sure if the lingua franca of issue reports and bug fixes in Japanese projects is english or japanese. I suspect it will be japanese.
Learning to read japanese is a massive undertaking, but there’s no underestimating its importance. It *can* be done without it, but how are you going to even browse job openings when you can’t read them? Makes everything harder if you can’t read.
Hey man I’m in the same situation. I currently go to school for Computer Science and want to move to Japan in the future.
I think you would be able to apply for jobs from another country. I usually look through [Japan dev](https://japan-dev.com/) which is a site that has different job listings for programmer type jobs. Now I don’t know about the specifics about everything else because I am also still a student, and I am not from Spain.
Just keep learning Japanese on the side as you mentioned. It would be best if you could find someone to speak to in conversation every once in a while.
Now I tried using some Japanese help books and it really wasn’t my thing so here are some resources that might help you.
This is a great guide at [Tofugu](https://www.tofugu.com/learn-japanese/) since it gives a rough outline of the order. Don’t take the estimation of time that they give to seriously. Browse around the whole website if you have time.
Obviously duolingo will help a lot. I used it mainly for grammar practice.
For practicing your memorization of katakana and hiragana I used [Kana Pro](https://www.kana.pro/).
Now to start off learning Kanji I highly recommend using [Wani Kani](https://www.wanikani.com/). The give the first few lessons free. The way they approach learning kanji will help you a lottt. Just trust the process.
Other things I found helpful is reding lyrics to songs and just watching random videos on YouTube about Japanese culture in general.
Hope this kind of helps you before you move to Japan.
Best advice is make friends with people who already live in Japan.