I am planning to move to Japan for a few years after I am finished university. I am having great difficultly learning to read and write kanji. I have already learned hiragana and katakana but, I do not have the patience, the time or the memory to learn the thousands of symbols for kanji. And if it is nessescary where can I find a FREE website that will teach me BASIC kanji that is used frequently.
Japan - 10 Answers
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1 :
I don't know if it is an absolute necessity. I can only say that I went there for just under 2 weeks by myself knowing no Japanese whatsoever and everything went fine. I'm sure you'll pick up at least some of the language since you'll be immersed in all things Japanese. Best of luck and have a blast...its awesome over there.
2 :
Well first you need a Visa to move to Japan which can be very problematic unless you a are sponsored on a working Visa, your married to a Japanese, or you are going on a student visa. Other than that the longest you can stay is 90 days. That aside... Yes, it is possible to live there without being able to read or write kanji but not easy. Legal documents and leases are most frequently in kanji so you either need to be able to translate it or you need someone who can help you. Also if you are senstive about food ingredients and nutrional data.
3 :
I think you will be all right if you live in Tokyo or thereabouts (Yokohama and the Chiba, Saitama, Gunma areas close to Tokyo). I'm just now exploring the Kansai area (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe plus Nagoya) and I see there are signs in English, Korean, Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese). You'll be able to navigate yourself around the public transit. If you do run into trouble, you can practice your Japanese! Or you may be fortunate enough to run into someone who can help you. When you eat out, the menu will most probably have photos so you can point to what you want. You'll probably absorb some kanji just because you'll see them in daily life and when you are living here, you may find you do have the patience, time and memory to learn tens, hundreds and thousands of kanji. Yup, you can always find a website for learning kanji.
4 :
Yes, it's easily possible. Unfortunately, it's even possible to live there without knowing how to speak anymore than a few basic Japanese phrases.. which is why there are so many lazy, dumb-ass, foreigners there. Believe me, I've met more than a few of them. It doesn't sound like you're really interested in learning Japanese at all and it's just a chore that you want to spend as little time as possible doing? If that is your attitude then I am not surprised that when you come on to something like kanji, that is not piss-easy like hiragana and katakana, that you are having some difficulty. If you felt it important to learn the language and script of the country you wish to work and live in, then wouldn't you find time? But like I said, it's easy enough to get by as thousands of others do. Just stand open mouthed and nod slowly when people talk to you and they'll leave you alone so you can get back to the safety of the gaijin bars... after all when people who don't speak or read English come over to your country to work they are well respected and appreciated, right?
5 :
Possible? Sure, but your life will be extremely limited, especially if you don't have people around you who can translate things for you. I can read and write a few hundred kanji and I still can't read most of the things around me, like most foods in the grocery store that don't have kana names or memos that get passed around my office. If you plan on moving here for good, you will eventually have to read and write kanji and the words made with them. I don't use websites to learn kanji. I do it the old-fashioned way with books and lots and lots of repetition, because that's what works for me, so I can't help you there.
6 :
I don't think it will be necessary to learn Kanji completely before you come to Japan. You're doing very well by learning katakana and hiragana. I've been here 12 years and have only learned to read katakana and hiragana. I can recognize a few kanji on sight, but not a lot. It really depends what it is that you want to do here. If you want to be a translator, then you'll need it, if you want to teach English or another language, it probably isn't necessary. I am married to a Japanese man, so I do have a translator of my own, but I lived here for 3 years before I married him. If you are in relatively good health and you have a job, you probably don't need to learn a lot of kanji if your visit will only be for a few years. I've heard that 600 basic kanji is a good start. Sorry no website, just wanted to send a more positive message than what you were getting.
7 :
Most people who comes to Japan first time, cannot able to say a word in Japanese and cannot write at all. So sure, it is possible. Many of them remain in this state for years (which is especially ironic in case of language teachers). My experience is that if you need it, you will pick it up here. If you already speak some Japanese, and you read the kana, it is a good start for your stay. Being here can boost your motivation to learn more, and also it helps to learn and reinforce if you see the kanjis every day.
8 :
It is possible if you don't intend to do much other than teach English, but obviously you're seriously handicapping yourself.
9 :
You can survive, absolutely, and you probably wont have a hard time doing things you need to do most of the time, but good luck having any kind of real interaction with the culture and local people (aside from those with a western fetish). Trying to learn to speak Japanese without knowing kanji is a half hearted approach, the people who get far are few and far between, and even if you can, youll still be missing out on a lot. If you dont have the patience to learn it, I think you should reconsider coming to Japan. If you cant communicate clearly and naturally, people will treat you as an outsider (very polite but theyre actions will always remain a mystery to you and you will basically be a cut and paste stereotype to them) and worse, they will treat me as an outsider because your stregnthening a stereotype that is finally starting to break down a bit. Just think of all those mexicans etc. who dont bother to learn english and how much people complain about them. Hating all mexicans is racist and wrong but being annoyed that they dont speak the language of the country they are in is reasonable! Japanese are more polite so they wont complain but you cant blame them for treating you like an outsider then. And for your own benefit, learning the language will multiply your enjoyment of Japan. Not only will people open up to you a lot more, you can build a normal life here. Culture and language are so deeply intwined in each other. And not being able to read a menu certainly makes people think you cant speak japanese and once they think you cant speak japanese, you are never going to be treated as an equal, youll be a baby to them. If your coming for a month or two, do as you will but if you plan to stay for longer, I strongly suggest learning kanji (I tried to learn as much of a language as I can before I go ANYWHERE, even for a week). Kanji are NOT that hard. It's not like you study them and learn 2000 and finally you can understand everything, you learn 30 and already things start to make more sense so its good your willing to learn at least a few. They say 2000 but after about 400, you can skim through things and understand the point and most kanji are built on simpler kanji so once you know the easiest 50, they start to fit together like a puzzle with all kind of tricks to make them easier to memorize. www.learn-japanese.info really got me less intimidated and gave me a smooth transition into a textbook for self study. It will NOT teach you much, but itll give you bit sized intro lessons to make Japanese a lot less scary. After that I reccomend the Genki textbooks, and any suppliments you can get your hands on for free (internet, conversation, media etc.) If you want to learn the most common kanji, start with: numbers body parts/face colors every day verbs (eat, sleep, drink, read, write, etc.) time words (month, day, year, hour, morning, night, daytime) and days of the week (these are the kanji for water, fire, gold, tree, dirt, month and day...so a nice way to learn 7 with a lot of repetition) I think you should learn any stand-alone kanji you come across, then once you know 100 or so work on compounds, just learn them when you learn the word. Dont worry about the correct way to write them if your intimidated. Its good to know but reading them is much more important. That will give you about 50 and you can learn those extremely quick, almost as quick as hiragana and katakana. After that, itll get harder for 20 or 30 and then they start to build on each other and it gets easier, and MUCH easier if your in japan and constantly exposed.
10 :
Of course you can. The more Japanese you know, the better off you will be. http://webhome.idirect.com/~jinsaku/Nihongo.html Basic Japanese http://www.bitboost.com/tiletag/about-the-kana.html Basic kana charts http://www.manythings.org/japanese/ Japanese study material
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