I have so much to say about Japan but right now I’m catching up with work and also getting over the jet lag.
Going to Japan was partly a holiday and partly a fact finding mission about moving there. I’m now even more enthusiastic to make the move. I think I’d really regret it if I didn’t do it.
Teaching seems to be the only way for someone with little knowledge of Japanese to work in Japan. The only issue is that I don’t think I’d make a good teacher, what with having no experience of teaching nor much experience with handling kids, and I wish to continue with my IT career. I’ve found one job that might be good but everything requires business-level japanese. So right now I’m just sending out my CV in the hope someone will take pity on my lack of Japanese. I certainly have the drive to learn. I so wish I’d continued learning back in university!
Meanwhile I’ve started lessons with a private tutor and I’m doing the whole immersion thing.
Photos and notes from my holiday to follow!
July 4th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Good luck with the Japanese. To be honest, I studied back home for a couple of years before coming to Japan, but I think I learned more in my first three months of living here than in the two years of studying back home. I ranked level 2 JLPT within a year of living here and will sit for level 1 when I stop feeling lazy. It might pay to sacrifice a year and teach here while immersing yourself in the language and studying your @*! off.
July 6th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Cheers! It’s going ok, but slowly! I’m still considering teaching or maybe some conversational English work. I read that it’s not so easy to find that kind of work now though. Once I have about 4-8 months of learning Japanese here in the UK behind me I’m tempted to pack up my savings and head to Japan with the aim of staying for 6 months on a holiday visa. I can improve my Japanese and hopefully after or during that time my Japanese will be good enough to find an job.
I have a feeling that it will be so hard to leave when I visit again in September that I might just pack up and move earlier than planned….