Requesting Assessment

Seeing as I'm shipping off to Japan for the first time in early June, I would like to ask the older (but much wiser) members of the JREF Forums to determine how clueless I am.
I realize that this is nearly impossible without knowing me personally, so I will provide some basic information.

I have taken Japanese formally for 3 years and have studied for about 2 or 3 years before, coming to a total of 5 or 6 years. I know that a list of years is virtually useless, seeing that one could say "1 year of studying" and really mean "1 year of listening to nothing but J-Rock", so I'll elaborate a bit.

Hiragana/Katakana is no problem whatsoever. So much in fact, I harbor an intense dislike towards romaji. In my opinion, kana is much faster to read and write.

I know anywhere from 150 to 250 kanji. 300 on a good day. There's a huge gap between those numbers, mostly because it depends on one's criteria for what it means to 'know' kanji. Basically, I can only tell you the 'kun' reading of most kanji I know, but I can usually write about three-fourths of it.

My grammar is...passable at best. I can't really carry on long conversations in Japanese without relying on hand gestures, broken sentences and the error-prone-yet-useful electronic dictionaries. But at least the Japanese people I've talked to are very gracious about it.
(Though, they'd rather practice their English most of the time. Getting them to speak to me in Japanese is a lot harder than you'd think.)

To sum up; I can read more than I understand, understand more than I can speak and know enough about the culture that I won't cause international incidents.

It's rather long post, but I hope you'll read it through and give me your honest opinion.
No need for sugarcoating, for my mind is open and my skin is thick.

What opinion did you require/desire? I don't really see a question buried here. Maybe my older (and weaker) eyes fail me.

If you are going to get a teaching job (don't know; you didn't say), you won't be permitted to use Japanese in the classroom. If you are coming for a different type of job, it all depends, but the general rule is that JLPT level 2 is the desired level. If you are a tourist (again, you didn't say), you have certainly far more than enough Japanese to get by.

She'll be coming on a homestay apparently.
Your relationship with Japan

I think you'll be fine. Your host family will take care of you should any problems arise, and it sounds like you have enough Japanese language to get along with them (You know MUCH more than I did when I first came to Japan, and I got along with my 'host-family' quite well.)

How long is your home-stay for?

I do not personally believe that you will encounter much difficulty. If, as Mikawa Ossan said, you will be going for a homestay, I believe you already have enough of a basic grasp of the language, both written and spoken, that you cannot help but improve your ability much further than if you were studying in the states.

I think you'll even surprise yourself at how fast you pick it up and I wish you you the best of luck!

Don' forget about us and please come back and let us know how it worked out for you. I, for one, would be interested.

TravelingSocks said:

Hiragana/Katakana is no problem whatsoever. So much in fact, I harbor an intense dislike towards romaji. In my opinion, kana is much faster to read and write.

Click to expand...

This is a totally irrational attitude to hold towards one of the 'official' Japanese writing systems.

Were it not for romanized road signs, station names, highway bus announcement boards etc. the vast majority of the 9 million annual foreign visitors to Japan wouldn't make it any further than the Narita Airport arrivals hall.

I'm like the next gaijin, if the place name is written in romaji I read that first and get on with my life.


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mr.sumo.snr said:

This is a totally irrational attitude to hold towards one of the 'official' Japanese writing systems.
Were it not for romanized road signs, station names, highway bus announcement boards etc. the vast majority of the 9 million annual foreign visitors to Japan wouldn't make it any further than the Narita Airport arrivals hall.
I'm like the next gaijin, if the place name is written in romaji I read that first and get on with my life.
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Click to expand...

I hardly see romaji as an "offcial" writting system of Japan, Sure it is used to inform foriegn travellers who can't read kanji/kana but thats where it ends. I think you will find that Japan is has one of the lowest illiteratcy rates at about about 1% of the population. And the OP is stateing that he/she finds it easier to read/write in kana than in Romaji(which I agree with as well) which is his personal preferance, the OP is not stating that he/she wants Romaji abollished from Japan.

To the OP, I came here with no knowledge of the language and society and got alone fine. It was tough, but anyone can do it.

Gah!
I guess I didn't state my question or reason for going, did I?
That's what I get for multitasking without breakfast.

Basically, my question was, "According to the information here, how well do you think I'll be able to function in Japan?" and as Mikawa Ossan graciously dug up, I'm going to Japan on a homestay. I'll be in Touhoku (Miyagi-ken, to be specific) for a couple weeks, then Tokyo for two or three days.

TravelingSocks said:

Hiragana/Katakana is no problem whatsoever. So much in fact, I harbor an intense dislike towards romaji. In my opinion, kana is much faster to read and write.

Click to expand...

For the sake of space and in an attempt to avoid rambling, this statement was shorted. It seems to send out a different message than I originally intended, and for that I apologize.
I have no qualms for romaji used in everyday life, simply for romaji used in the classroom when one is supposed to be using kana. It's one of the reasons why many my fellow third-year classmates (and a couple fourth-years) have completely forgotten katakana and a few rarely used hiragana.
Additionally, trying to turn a romanized word into legitimate Japanese doesn't much help my opinion of it either.
(The pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth ensues.)
I've also embarrassed myself by writing a friend's last name as さと instead of さとう...right in front of her. It wasn't on anything important, but I still felt pretty stupid. My assumption was that one would write her name as it appeared on the hosting sheet and acted accordingly. (It was written Sato as opposed to Satou or Satoh.)
Although, it wasn't the worst mistake I could make, (One family took their poor, poor student to White Castle.) it was a traumatic experience to a 14-year-old who'd never hosted before. (Let alone having contact with Japanese persons over a period longer than 15 minutes.)

Hopefully, this somewhat lengthy paragraph explains my choice of wording in the above quote and, again; I apologize for sounding irrational and/or immature.:sorry:

EDIT: Glad to hear one can get around Japan without knowing Japanese. I was a little worried about the wide-eyed middle school kids who are going with us. (And the wide-eyed middle school teachers, for that matter.)

Just a couple of WEEKS? Don't sweat it.

However, be aware of the home situation. Follow any rules they lay down, and be as polite as possible. Also be aware that even though the home itself is listed as open to homestay, sometimes the situation can be deceiving. When I worked at a high school, some of the homestay foreigners mentioned that only one of the parents in their homestay were actually FOR the homestay operation. That may make a difference when you have to deal with him/her.

Alright then, I'll keep that in mind.

I meant to get around to this so much sooner, but circumstances didn't allow for much free time.
Though, I will definitely come back here to share my traveling experience.
Please look forward to it.

You're right at the level where you can begin to gain a lot of benefit from a visit to Japan. You'll be devastated by the amount you don't know, but that is only natural... as everything takes time. Yes, it will be difficult, but you've at least prepared and I think you'll get a lot from the experience.

My best recommendation is start listening to simple daily conversations to get used to hearing how REAL Japanese is spoken in daily life as opposed to the textbook stuff that teaches only the basics that you won't hear much of.

Oh yeah, learn a tiny bit of keigo to understand what the stores are saying and get a denshi jisho!

PS. I think you'll do just great in Japan during the 2 weeks. Just remember to go with the flow and listen more than speaking... this goes for even if you DO know the language fluently! Absorb as much as you can and try everything you are given the chance to.

Denshi jisho (electronic dictionaries) are not made for non-Japanese users. I recommend a regular E-J/J-E paper dictionary instead.