I’ll always remember the overwhelming feeling of illiteracy that struck me soon after I first arrived in Japan. You never really think about it, or comprehend it fully, until you’re here and it’s everywhere around you. You can’t read shit. You can’t understand the majority of what’s being said, much less what’s written. And I don’t think any amount of initial training can truly prepare you for the actual shock of moving to a country where the language is totally alien to your own. Granted if you’ve studied the language for a while, or come from a country with similar linguistic systems, you’re probably ok but that’s unlikely to be the case for a vast majority of the westerners who come to the country. I’m chuffed we did a basic Japanese beginner course before coming, but as I said I realised its miniscule relevance 2 hours after landing.
I actually rejoiced in this feeling of illiteracy and unability to read/write/speak for quite a while - it was a nice, alien feeling. Whenever I travelled before I always made an effort to try and speak a little amount of local linguo, if only to appear to be polite and make an effort, and stop the automatic feeling of alieness you get when being in a foreign country where no one speaks your language(s). The only time that proved impossible was in the Czech Republic where for some reason I was unable to remember any of the words I was learning for a whole week. Coming here to live and work though, I approached it differently. And being able to just lose yourself to an extent was actually quite pleasant, for a while anyway.
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