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Hi guys, I do NOT have time to post here often at all anymore since I'm currently on an exchange year in Sendai. I've been here for a month and a half now so I'll summarize what I've learnt so far:
1. No one (and I really mean NO ONE) cares if you mess up on politeness levels, if you say something completely wrong, etc. It could be a kid or a 90 year old grandpa, but no one cares if you forget "masu", I even forgot an honorific on my friend's name once and he didn't say anything. None of the teachers at my school or the receptionists at my apartment care, etc. My teacher said that politeness levels aren't actually "politeness", instead it's showing your "level of education": if you can't use polite language it doesn't mean you're rude, it just means you're like a country bumpkin. Yes there are certain Japanese people who never use any form of polite language no matter who it's to, and I've met a few already.
2. Japanese people (by default) do not laugh at you or make fun of you for any of your mistakes, or if you're slow etc. Certain people rush you if you're slow to talk but the majority just wait. Contrary to popular belief, they do actually expect you to be able to read kanji (but not to write them) and if you can't, as in the case of my wife, they'll just constantly forget you can't.
3. No subs on Japanese TV for the majority of shows, and there doesn't seem to be a subtitle button on the remote control, but the news has subs with furigana on every single kanji. On basic TV (not having bought special channels) it's mostly news, sports, game shows; occasionally they just go around and film totally random stuff (ex. grandmas working on farms in the middle of nowhere; a random oden shop in tokyo) or show movies. They're almost never showing dramas, movies etc and when they do it's often American/English ones (ex. Harry Potter, 60-70's Adult Videos...). In general it's really boring and you're way better off if you're watching anime/dramas on your computer or something.
4. You do NOT learn very much from "just being in Japan". You do improve your speaking and listening, but your reading only improves if you go out on your own and read books (otherwise you're only reading street signs, receipts etc — stuff without much text at all). If you're in class your handwriting will improve; in my case we're allowed to write everything in hiragana if we want. Otherwise you'll only need to handwrite to fill out stuff like library card or store point card forms, and there you really just have to know how to handwrite the kanji in your address... which you can simply copy off a paper or your health insurance card.
At any rate, reading is far more important than people give it credit for — you need to be able to read stuff like what a shop is, when is it open, is crossing the street or drinking tea here banned, festival announcements, blah blah. Even if you're in what's supposedly a bilingual LINE group (which I'm in for my part-time job) or something like that, it's most likely actually only in Japanese. I often can't read simply because I'm almost blind and the font is too small, not because I can't literally read the kanji, and I'm already getting a lot of problems from it because people assume you "already know all the info"...
5. At least in Sendai, there's such a lack of workers that they'll take anyone and there's absolutely zero experience needed. My classmate even walked into IKEA when they WEREN'T hiring, asked for a job and got one. But these are mostly all part-time jobs, and so far that I've seen they usually pay 800 yen an hour with shifts of 4 hours each. People also advertise part-time jobs at cultural festivals held at schools and things like that, that's how I got mine (making and selling food out of one of those mini van things) which is 900 an hour with shifts of 3 hours. There was no interview, no resume/CV, just "show up to the info meeting" then "show up to work training".
I was told that if you want a full-time job you should try "big American companies in Tokyo", but I've met a LOT of foreigners who work full-time teaching English to Japanese people and yet don't have anywhere near native-level English.
6. The average Japanese person really does not know English, as in they know "Hello! How are you? I'm fine! Sorry! Bye bye!" and that's it. If they know any more than that, they're usually super proud of it and think they know a lot. Other than that I've been meeting a surprising amount of people who travelled, studied or lived abroad when they were younger so their English is (relatively speaking) really good.
7. Contrary to popular belief, people do actually speak in dialect even to foreigners and strangers. But that's not most people, and it's more likely to happen when you're actually outside the city.
8. If you're out long enough you'll see at least one person in full kimono or kimono + apron every day. No idea what they're wearing them to though. During festivals, everyone who's dancing / playing music (and there's a LOT LOT of dancing groups) wears crazy fantasy anime-like kimono, and apparently you can order your own custom-made yukata and stuff really easily, but I have no idea where.
9. One person can live off 5,000 yen a week if they eat as cheap as possible (and have a kitchen/stovetop burner at home). As soon as you're not buying "raw goods" (ex. raw sweet potatoes, boiled squid, sashimi fish, uncooked rice) and start buying "pre-prepared goods" (baked/dried sweet potatoes, dried squid, sushi, onigiri) the price jumps up 3x as much. Bus + subway pass with a student discount is around 11,000 a month, internet is 4,000, the cheapest electronics and cookware (phone, pressure cooker etc) you have to buy from yahoo auctions, amazon etc because everything in shops is TONS more expensive.
10. Traditional clothes, kimono etc isn't "our special clothing" in Japan, it's just plain "fancy clothing". Like wearing a suit (or costume). So if a foreigner wears a kimono it's not "omg our clothes!!" it's "wow they look so fancy and nice!!". I see this misunderstanding a whole ton online so I wanted to write it.
On a similar vein, if you ex. go to a traditional inn and have no clue what to do or how to eat the food etc... there are also plenty of Japanese people who don't know (I saw them myself when I went to one with a large group). If you can't read the rules you can always get them explained to you, but ignoring that there are Japanese people who simply DON'T read the rules and accidentally break them.
11. The stereotype about Japanese people never touching / hugging / etc each other (especially in public)? A lie. It's less than in Europe/America but you do see same-sex friends hugging or giving each other piggyback rides at school, or a couple holding hands on the weekend, or you might have a Japanese friend who's really touchy-feely in general...
1. No one (and I really mean NO ONE) cares if you mess up on politeness levels, if you say something completely wrong, etc. It could be a kid or a 90 year old grandpa, but no one cares if you forget "masu", I even forgot an honorific on my friend's name once and he didn't say anything. None of the teachers at my school or the receptionists at my apartment care, etc. My teacher said that politeness levels aren't actually "politeness", instead it's showing your "level of education": if you can't use polite language it doesn't mean you're rude, it just means you're like a country bumpkin. Yes there are certain Japanese people who never use any form of polite language no matter who it's to, and I've met a few already.
2. Japanese people (by default) do not laugh at you or make fun of you for any of your mistakes, or if you're slow etc. Certain people rush you if you're slow to talk but the majority just wait. Contrary to popular belief, they do actually expect you to be able to read kanji (but not to write them) and if you can't, as in the case of my wife, they'll just constantly forget you can't.
3. No subs on Japanese TV for the majority of shows, and there doesn't seem to be a subtitle button on the remote control, but the news has subs with furigana on every single kanji. On basic TV (not having bought special channels) it's mostly news, sports, game shows; occasionally they just go around and film totally random stuff (ex. grandmas working on farms in the middle of nowhere; a random oden shop in tokyo) or show movies. They're almost never showing dramas, movies etc and when they do it's often American/English ones (ex. Harry Potter, 60-70's Adult Videos...). In general it's really boring and you're way better off if you're watching anime/dramas on your computer or something.
4. You do NOT learn very much from "just being in Japan". You do improve your speaking and listening, but your reading only improves if you go out on your own and read books (otherwise you're only reading street signs, receipts etc — stuff without much text at all). If you're in class your handwriting will improve; in my case we're allowed to write everything in hiragana if we want. Otherwise you'll only need to handwrite to fill out stuff like library card or store point card forms, and there you really just have to know how to handwrite the kanji in your address... which you can simply copy off a paper or your health insurance card.
At any rate, reading is far more important than people give it credit for — you need to be able to read stuff like what a shop is, when is it open, is crossing the street or drinking tea here banned, festival announcements, blah blah. Even if you're in what's supposedly a bilingual LINE group (which I'm in for my part-time job) or something like that, it's most likely actually only in Japanese. I often can't read simply because I'm almost blind and the font is too small, not because I can't literally read the kanji, and I'm already getting a lot of problems from it because people assume you "already know all the info"...
5. At least in Sendai, there's such a lack of workers that they'll take anyone and there's absolutely zero experience needed. My classmate even walked into IKEA when they WEREN'T hiring, asked for a job and got one. But these are mostly all part-time jobs, and so far that I've seen they usually pay 800 yen an hour with shifts of 4 hours each. People also advertise part-time jobs at cultural festivals held at schools and things like that, that's how I got mine (making and selling food out of one of those mini van things) which is 900 an hour with shifts of 3 hours. There was no interview, no resume/CV, just "show up to the info meeting" then "show up to work training".
I was told that if you want a full-time job you should try "big American companies in Tokyo", but I've met a LOT of foreigners who work full-time teaching English to Japanese people and yet don't have anywhere near native-level English.
6. The average Japanese person really does not know English, as in they know "Hello! How are you? I'm fine! Sorry! Bye bye!" and that's it. If they know any more than that, they're usually super proud of it and think they know a lot. Other than that I've been meeting a surprising amount of people who travelled, studied or lived abroad when they were younger so their English is (relatively speaking) really good.
7. Contrary to popular belief, people do actually speak in dialect even to foreigners and strangers. But that's not most people, and it's more likely to happen when you're actually outside the city.
8. If you're out long enough you'll see at least one person in full kimono or kimono + apron every day. No idea what they're wearing them to though. During festivals, everyone who's dancing / playing music (and there's a LOT LOT of dancing groups) wears crazy fantasy anime-like kimono, and apparently you can order your own custom-made yukata and stuff really easily, but I have no idea where.
9. One person can live off 5,000 yen a week if they eat as cheap as possible (and have a kitchen/stovetop burner at home). As soon as you're not buying "raw goods" (ex. raw sweet potatoes, boiled squid, sashimi fish, uncooked rice) and start buying "pre-prepared goods" (baked/dried sweet potatoes, dried squid, sushi, onigiri) the price jumps up 3x as much. Bus + subway pass with a student discount is around 11,000 a month, internet is 4,000, the cheapest electronics and cookware (phone, pressure cooker etc) you have to buy from yahoo auctions, amazon etc because everything in shops is TONS more expensive.
10. Traditional clothes, kimono etc isn't "our special clothing" in Japan, it's just plain "fancy clothing". Like wearing a suit (or costume). So if a foreigner wears a kimono it's not "omg our clothes!!" it's "wow they look so fancy and nice!!". I see this misunderstanding a whole ton online so I wanted to write it.
On a similar vein, if you ex. go to a traditional inn and have no clue what to do or how to eat the food etc... there are also plenty of Japanese people who don't know (I saw them myself when I went to one with a large group). If you can't read the rules you can always get them explained to you, but ignoring that there are Japanese people who simply DON'T read the rules and accidentally break them.
11. The stereotype about Japanese people never touching / hugging / etc each other (especially in public)? A lie. It's less than in Europe/America but you do see same-sex friends hugging or giving each other piggyback rides at school, or a couple holding hands on the weekend, or you might have a Japanese friend who's really touchy-feely in general...
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