There are a lot of female members here who would kill to be in your place I think.
Anybody would kill to be in my place if they knew my husband
Become part of our family here and keep from getting homesick(I hope).
I never get homesick because I never had a home... I don't really care where I live^^
What part of the states were you from? I'm in the northeast, in Maine.
I'm an army brat, so I've lived in lots of states. Never been to Maine, though! I think Seattle would be a nice place to live from what I've heard. I'm visiting soon...can I make that where I'm from?^^
Welcome to the boards. Hey how come ya don't like Japan.. anything specific? (Not to pry but most here are avid Japan enthusiasts who'd love to go back!)
Most of the people who love Japan seem to be people who come here as tourists... Living here permanently and having children here is a very worrisome matter. I have experienced a lot of discrimination and very few people ever accept me as being anything but an outsider. Also here in the city there is not much greenery. The framework for families is also pretty bad, at least Kanto very much lacks of a sense of inclusive community to raise kids in. People are for the most part very close-minded, in my experience.
I definitely envy your language skills, how long have you lived in Japan for, and where/how did you acquire most of your language skills? College.. self study.. study-abroad?
I've lived here for almost four years, not counting a study abroad stint I did in Kansai for a semester in my sophomore year of university (it took me a while to shake the Kansai accent--a few years back a lady here in Kanto unaware of my experience in Kansai even told me "Why, you have a beautiful Kansai accent!" when I had not intended such at all and was completely unaware of it
).
Before study abroad, I took an elementary Japanese class for a year. After returning to the U.S. I taught myself kanji through textbooks, which formed the basis of my Japanese... Having a Japanese boyfriend for four years (I married him after those four years and now we've been married almost four years too!) also helped a lot.
I liked some music and listened to that a lot which really helped with pronunciation (I always liked Ayumi Hamasaki, whose pronunciation is very clear, and now I like Remioromen very much, although their pronunciation isn't so clear^^). Then I studied books and started reading the newspaper with a dictionary... I bought some textbooks for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 and studied them pretty hard. I was able to pass the test after being in Japan for almost 1 year, but I think it was mostly because those textbooks had everything in them! But it did give me a very good foundation.
Then I worked as a translator at a Japanese company and had to use the language on a professional level... I also began to enjoy reading books. I used to watch TV, but grew to hate everything but NHK and period dramas ("jidaigeki" or "taiga drama," which are also great for my "old Japanese"). Now I'm still learning, but I'm at the level where I can read newspapers and books without problems and none of my best friends understand any English. Really, if you're persistent and study anything you get your hands on, you'll get it...
