Job Discussion Forums

[Rooster_2006]

Hello. I'm in Korea right now, but plan to move to Japan late next year (starting off teaching English). I would like to learn Japanese while I'm there. I'm aware it's a monumental task, because I have done over 1,000 hours at Yonsei University for Korean, which is a similar language, and it's been tough. Still, it doesn't deter me from trying to tackle Japanese. So here are my questions:

1. Which regions of Japan (NOT Tokyo, too expensive) speak pretty standard Japanese, and which regions should I avoid? If someone asked me where NOT to study in Korea, I'd say "Jeollanam" because in that province, they speak a really incomprehensible dialect. What is the Jeolla of Japan (the area to avoid)? Where do they speak pretty standard Japanese?

2. In that area, are there any good language schools? If so, which ones? I'm looking for an emphasis on listening comprehension, because that's always been my weak point with Korean, and I expect it to be that way with Japanese, too.

3. I have a little bit of flexibility in when I move. When does the Japanese school year begin, and when does it end? When is the best time to look for jobs?

Any help people can provide would be great.

[Glenski]

1. Hokkaido

2. Yes

3. The academic year begins in April. This is often when most conversation schools begin, too. International schools start in the fall (Aug or Sept). Figure 12 months from starting date if you want to calculate finish. (Can't believe I had to write that!) Best time to look for work is Feb/March, although some mainstream schools will advertise 6 months in advance.

[Rooster_2006]

[Gypsy Rose Kim]

I lived in Korea and have studied both languages. Korean is much, much harder than Japanese for any number of reasons (most notably, the writing system and pronunciation--or should I say, reading and listening). You'll also find you'll make faster progress here because people won't crack up laughing every time you try to speak Japanese.

I feel nauseas when I think about how I tried to learn Korean. I feel happy when I speak Japanese, even though I make tons of mistakes.

[chinagirl]

GRK...Sorry, I don't have any experience learning Korean, but that was the first time I have ever heard anyone say that Korean is harder to learn to read than Japanese. Isn't Hangul a phonetic written alphabet? Excuse my ignorance if i am wrong, but can you explain what you mean?

[Apsara]

I do have some experience learning to write and read Korean, and for me at least Japanese has taken far more time- when kanji can have so many different readings and there are thousands of them I don't see how memorising hangul compares. I'd be interested to know what aspect of the Korean writing system GRK found more difficult as well.

[G Cthulhu]

[Rooster_2006]

Thanks, G Cthulhu. Actually, I completely agree with Gypsy Rose Kim. Based on the Japanese I've studied, it seems like it's a lot easier than Korean. There are no ending consonants which change sounds when placed next to other consonants. This makes it a much cleaner languge that's a lot easier to understand. Japanese has more loanwords then Korean (I'm pretty sure), and is a lot more regular. In my country, a (very smart) soldier who wants to go to DLI and take Japanese needs a DLAB score of 100, but Korean requires a 110. Still, I understand that Japanese is hard, and maybe the reason why I've had little trouble learning it so far is that I learned a very similar language first.

By the way, I'm no insulting the intellects of people who learn Japanese. It's still one of the four hardest languages on earth for non-native speakers! So no flames!

[japanman]

One of the rop four then. What do you think are the other three? Mandarin Chinese, Korean and then what's the other one? Arabic?

[Gypsy Rose Kim]

[Glenski]

[markle]

[Rooster_2006]

[Rooster_2006]

What Gypsy Rose Kim says is absolutely correct about most English teachers in Korea simply being incapable of speaking any Korean whatsoever past "annyeonghaseyo?" It is really, really pitiful. It's like they're actually proud of how bad they are, like it's this unique thing that sets them apart from everyone else and makes them special. Wow, look at me, I'm so bad, it's funny!

It's true this has something to do with the difficulty of speaking Korean (10 simple vowels, and probably 20 or more vowels when you count dipthongs), batchims and batchim changes, etc. However, I think an element of this is also that Korea has traditionally been so incredibly closed (visas so restrictive, you can't even volunteer legally), it is not a fun place to live for most, and foreigners almost never become long-term residents like some foreigners in Japan do. Pretty much the only thing the EFL scene in Korea has going for it is the money and benefits, which must be very, very good to attract teachers who would otherwise pick a more welcoming place like Japan, China, or any other country on earth.

I work at a guest house for foreigners in Korea, and whenever we get teachers staying at our guest house on visa runs from Japan, it's astounding. They're normal people. They don't have weird mental problems, and they often speak Japanese quite well. Which is completely unlike the teachers that Korea attracts. So I think it's a combination of Japanese being slightly easier AND far more worthwhile to learn. That's a synergy which has resulted in better instructional materials, and more foreigners who speak it well. If you look at just about any Korean textbook, it'll probably be 100% in Korean. Not very helpful if you don't know Korean already! That's because Korean language learning is pretty much designed strictly for ethnic Koreans who have already learned some Korean from their parents. Japanese, on the other hand, has a wide support base from foreigners (and I mean true foreigners, not ethnic Japanese abroad) who have already accomplished it!

[markle]