"Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote ...
> Paul Blay wrote:
> 
> Is it hard to learn enough Japanese to get by? I mean, the usual 
> situations like shopping for groceries, buying a ticket, picking up the 
> phone etc. Not a philosophical discussion mind you!

You're asking the wrong guy.  But a short intensive course in 
/spoken/ Japanese might be most appropriate if 'getting by' is your
primary focus.  Basic spoken Japanese isn't that hard - although 
the further you get into it the more complicated it becomes.

> Besides, even though I learnt English the "natural" way, 
> simply by growing up with it, going to English schools while living 
> abroad, I had problems actually *explaining* why for example I should 
> use "is" instead of "are" and so on. I just knew, but couldn't explain why.

Well that practically qualifies you as a native speaker. ;-)

One of the primary characteristics of a naturally learned 'native' 
language is that you just /know/ stuff without being able to explain
it.

However you shouldn't worry too much about being able to explain
English because the typical McLanguage school isn't going to 
challenge your creativity.  

>> I came across a site somewhere in Japanese aimed at Japanese 
>> speakers wanting to teach English ... if they can do it I'm sure you 
>> /should/ be able to.  
> 
> Cool! Do you happen to have the URL to that site (if it's all in 
> Japanese it won't help much though)?
> What did it instruct Japanese people to do?
 
"Take this course at our university." :-P

I was mostly just shocked that it existed at all.  If they have any 
hope of being able to _teach_ English they should at least be able 
to read an English web-site.

> I guess you're right.
> Assuming I do take a basic Japanese course, what kind of jobs could I be 
> getting in Japan?

Mike's your best bet for questions like that - along with some of the others
who are actually living there.  
 
> I was thinking that I could probably quite easily get a job *here*, 
> guiding Japanese tourists around, but that really doesn't help much when 
> I want to go to Japan ;-)

There are a few people who do that in London - apparently they have
a very, very good grasp of 'keigo' (words and usages specific to showing
respect, humility and politeness - a very tricky area).

> It's all about supply and demand I guess: if you have a skill that few 
> others have you're in. If you have skills that everybody else has you 
> have to compete with loads and loads of people.

Yeah, exactly how much Japanese you need probably depends on 
what job it is you have expertise in - but unless you are really brilliant
at something I'd guess most companies would want enough Japanese
skills to do basic paperwork and such.

> That's why teaching English at some level would be nice.
> I've never had any teaching jobs, but I'm good with people, patient, 
> understanding and I hear that I explain things very well.

Are you capable of looking smart-ish, wearing a suit and turning up
to a job interview on time ?  I think that's about all you need.
 
>> I'm a lousy example though because I've learnt a lot of Japanese
>> without attempting to go to Japan. ;-)
> 
> Hehe.... did you/do you have plans for going to Japan some time? 

Eventually.  I keep delaying it on the excuse that my Japanese 
isn't good enough yet.

> Is that why you taught yourself Japanese?

Nope.  I'm the classic 
  I like manga -> Most manga isn't translated to English -> Wouldn't it
  be fun to learn Japanese?*
case.

(Actually if I was the stereotypically classic case I would have given 
up after learning some Japanese very badly with lots of anime slang
in my vocabulary)

> Did you attend classes, or study it yourself?

Mostly myself, some classes.  Classes are very useful for
a) Practise in speaking Japanese. 
b) Providing a little organisation.
c) Provoking competative instincts.

Basically the most useful thing about going to the classes
(evening classes once per week) was my tendency to want to
see how far I could get ahead of the rest of the class.

* It was fun.  Although I have difficulty convincing people of that.