Comments

Your First Trip to Japan – What Japanese to Study Before Going? — 6 Comments

  1. I also did #3 when I first went to Japan and would probably do the same today. I wasn’t studying very efficiently back then, so ability wasn’t that great. However, I did manage to get lost a few times and that little Japanese I did know came in handly for getting me back on track. #2 in short bursts might work, but probably isn’t going to do much good if you’ve only got a month or so before your trip.

  2. I think #1 is quite helpful unless you are already quite advanced. I don’t mean this as in a ‘derail your studies’ way. But spending even 30 minutes a week for a month on key phrases will help so much. Like what to expect when you go in a restaurant, how to get a table for x people, how to order, ask for a check, etc. It just gives you much more confidence on the situations you will hit again and again and many aren’t in jalup.

    • That’s definitely true if you take that different type of approach. For example, there is nothing wrong with buy a travel guidebook on your first trip, as long as you don’t consider it “I have to study and master everything in it!”.

  3. I went to Japan a few months ago for the first time and I ended up speaking hardly any Japanese at all, because of how easy everything is for English speakers. My Japanese is kind of weak, so it was just too easy to fall back to English when you see it all over and so many speak it(well speak a little of it). I kind of understand now, why some people spend years over there and still can’t speak Japanese.

    That said, I still really want to improve my Japanese for the next time I visit. There are definitely a few things that would of been cooler if I was better at speaking and reading the language.

    • I almost think what you do after the trip is even more important than what you do before it. Because it defines your studying for months or years to come.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>