Good afternoon everyone!
Currently writing from the toilet.
About 7 months ago I started working at a big eikaiwa and it’s not that bad. Pay is decent, hours are a little rough (11:30-21:30), but it’s not the worst thing in the world.
Recently as things get more serious with my girlfriend and a potential move to Tokyo could possibly be upon us, I’ve been thinking a lot about my future. I came to japan a while ago and worked at nova for a year, so I know the score when it comes to eikaiwas.
That being said, I need to improve my personal skills, starting with my Japanese. I studied a lot during covid back in the states so I have a decent vocabulary, but I’ve resolved to try to study at least an hour a day. Thanks for reading the context – let me ask my questions now;
I use wani-Kani, Rosetta Stone, and Duolingo right now to study when I can. Should I buy a textbook? If I grab genki and work through it by myself, will it be beneficial? How long does it take generally to go from baby Japanese to about N5?
Secondly, I’m looking into other skills such as IT. I have a hobbyist background and a Comptia certification (which no one seems to know over here in Japan.) Should I study a computer language as well, such as python? Is it worth it to self study, or are acquired skills worthless without a degree?
Finally, does japan have a community college or something? A place where I might be able to enroll in classes without spending too much money? As my girlfriend finishes medical school, she said she’d help me out if I switched to part time to do this, as I’ve helped her through her medical school.
Thank you for reading if you did and thanks for the potential advice. I’m looking forward to hearing from you guys!
6 comments
To the east side
To a deluxe apartment in the sky!!!!
I would suggest going to a language school but with it comes the status of residence issue… Which SoR are you on now?
Hot damn medical school girlfriend? I suggest you take cooking and massage classes instead.
I’ll just comment on your question about studying Japanese.
I found that paying for private lessons was the very best investment; I came to Japan with N3 and then took weekly private Japanese lessons after work. It was 100% thanks to my teacher that I was able to eventually get to N1 and beyond
Maybe if you’re more serious and good about self-studying you can do it yourself, but I was definitely not. Even if I bought the textbooks, I had no motivation to use them or actually learn the material in them. I was always the teacher’s pet when I was a student so the thought of disappointing Sensei because I didn’t study was much more motivating haha
OSU and WGU both have online post-bacc CS degrees you can enroll in and finish in 2 years or less depending on how much time you put into it. Of course you gotta pay a couple grand for tuition but definitely worth it in the long run and classes at least with WGU are self paced so you can finish them quickly if you’re keen to and you pay per term not per course so the faster the better. Other options are seeing if you’re home state school has a CS degree you can enroll in for less. If you want better teaching gigs get a Japanese or home country teaching certificate online while you work.
And you can probably enroll online at community colleges in your home state still?
I’m afraid that n5 is baby Japanese. There is some good advice already here about using teachers which I agree with, I’ll just add that if you want to reach any kind of fluency, even for casual conversation, the real way is to USE IT! try and put yourself in situations where you have to use Japanese as much as possible. Good luck!