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| somewhere in Hokkaido |
I don't usually mind that I can't speak Japanese. It's only when some Japanese point out that "I should have studied because I'm in Japan", I kinda feel guilty. After all, I've been here in Japan for 3 years. My consolation is that, I'm not the only foreigner who cannot speak Japanese even after years of living here.
So, why didn't I, or we, learn Japanese?
Let me tell you first, that I tried studying Japanese. Before coming to Japan, I took an intensive Japanese language course for month. I learned how to read hiragana, katakana and a few kanji. I learned basic conjugation and syntax of the Japanese language. On my first few months here, I also attended free Japanese classes every Saturday night. My point is, I tried learning Japanese. And most foreigners I know have tried studying Japanese too.
Then, reality sank in:
And these are the realities about studying (or not studying) Japanese:
1. Japanese is hard and confusing.
Let's go to writing and reading first: The English alphabet has 26 letters. If you teach the alphabet to kids, they'd memorize it in less than two months. I've also studied Korean with less than 30 characters and I learned to read Korean in less than a semester. But, Japanese has more than a thousand kanji plus hiragana and katakana. I told you I know I can read hiragana and katakana but it's still useless. A typical Japanese sentence is mostly kanji peppered with hiragana characters. So, even if I can read hiragana but don't know a lot of kanji, I'd still be illiterate.I tried studying kanji but it's just sooooo hard! And confusiiiiiinnnnngggg!
Then when it comes to speaking and listening, Japanese language seemed to take on a different form. A lot of words sound alike. Take for example the Japanese word "fuurin" and "furin." One of them means bell and the other means adultery. But they sound the same to me. It's like homonyms in English. Not only the sound can be problematic, even the morphology of words seemed different. A lot of words I learned are not even used by the Japanese. Or, they use a different word. It's like learning Canterbury Tales English in modern times.
2. Japanese is not necessary to survive Japan.
I've been living here for 3 years now and so far, I'm okay. I'm surviving. I'm functioning. I also know a lot of ALT's who have been living here for longer time with little Japanese. They're okay. They're surviving. They're functioning. A friend has been living here for almost a decade with little Japanese. She's not only okay. She's married to a Japanese man and has a kid now. So what I'm saying is, we have survived Japan with our toddler level Japanese.
However, I'm not saying there's no need to study Japanese because you can survive anyway. Learn at least some useful phrases and words. You may not be able to engage in deep conversations but try to at least know some phrases.
3. Japanese can make you lazy.
Maybe you'd think I'm just making excuses for myself with the lazy card. But I don't think so. I love studying. I'm one of those people who love going to school. In fact, I've been regularly taking online courses in different fields because I love to study. But Japanese...it has this unmotivating, discouraging and lazying effect on me. Probably because I find it hard, confusing and unnecessary. It's one of the most unexciting thing I tried to study. And because I'm lazy with Japanese, I flunked it. For good.
Although I swore off learning Japanese, I still feel bad not being able to communicate in Japanese. Others have done it, why didn't I? Others can, why can't I? Oh well, some things we just can't have. Let's leave it to that. I'll be leaving Japan anyway.
