I live in Japan!

[GhostBlade]

Nyororin, I know you speak Japanese fluently, but how is your reading and writing? Learning to speak a language is much easier than learning to read and write in it so I was just wondering about your situation.

[vulgarshudder]

Originally Posted by GhostBlade

Nyororin, I know you speak Japanese fluently, but how is your reading and writing? Learning to speak a language is much easier than learning to read and write in it so I was just wondering about your situation.

Sorry to jump in but this has been answered. She has JLPT lvl 1, native speaker that includes reading and writing.

[GhostBlade]

Originally Posted by vulgarshudder

Sorry to jump in but this has been answered. She has JLPT lvl 1, native speaker that includes reading and writing.

I see. Damn, she really grasped the language and ran with it. As if she was trying to start a new identity.

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by vulgarshudder

Sorry to jump in but this has been answered. She has JLPT lvl 1, native speaker that includes reading and writing.

Wow, I`m actually amazed that someone read through all the countless pages of this!
Seriously, I don`t mean it in a sarcastic way. I doubt I would have read through all of it.

Anyway, I can`t say that I`m native speaker level. My writing could definitely use some work - It`s not that I *can`t* write, it`s just I tend to get panicky about any kanji I`m not used to writing. (Wait... This looks right, but.... that one stroke might be wrong...... ) So I end up having to check on my cell phone. 9 times out of 10, it`s right.

My reading is pretty close to native level, I would guess. There are some words that I may not know how to read but know the meaning for, or don`t know the meaning for but can read.... Otherwise, I can read most anything. I`ve read quite a few novels, read the news in Japanese, done translation work, and even data entry all in Japanese (data entry REALLY tests your skills because all the original is handwritten.)

As for starting a new identity.... I live here. It would be really hard to go through life without communicating or knowing what was going on around me.

[jasonbvr]

A lot of Japanese are not even able to read every single Kanji, a lot of times they infer the meaning out of context. When I studied in university, our Japanese teachers would attempt to teach us to gleam the meaning of something just by skimming. The same is true with writing. Some kanji is just so complicated it is best forgotten.

[vulgarshudder]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

Wow, I`m actually amazed that someone read through all the countless pages of this!
Seriously, I don`t mean it in a sarcastic way. I doubt I would have read through all of it.

Aaaah I didn't read it all, I got to about page 6 lol.

And lets face it, loooots of Japanese people need to check their kanji with their keitai too lol.

[pixuli]

I would like to ask. Do you regret moving to Japan? Is it good there? Was it hard to find an apartment? How big was the rent? Did you study there? Is it how hard for an foreigner to entry into a high school?
I too, come from a bad family.Actually my dad kicked me out few weeks ago. I think I'll study jr.high school here somehow, but then I will go as an exchange student to somewhere... Just to change my current life for few years. Then I would like to move to Japan. (:

Life goes on. I better start preparing my future in good time.

[jasonbvr]

I don't like bursting bubbles, but it is hard even for a Japanese person to make it to high school. High school in Japan is pretty much the equivalent of the first two years in college anywhere else.

[saikyo]

I don't like bursting bubbles, but it is hard even for a Japanese person to make it to high school. High school in Japan is pretty much the equivalent of the first two years in college anywhere else.

I have to disagree. I have been in Japan for 5 years now, and the only people I know who did not complete high school are now adults, 40-50 years old or so I would say. When these people were growing up Japan was still recovering from the war, so they are a special case.

I tried to find some good data, but the closest I could find is this... from 1999.

International Education Indicators
Figure 1. Upper secondary school graduation rates, by sex and country: 1999

in Japan, the overall graduation rate was 95, but the rate for entry into higher academic education was 69.

Which means that people graduate high school easily, but have trouble getting into college.

This is changing now though, for sure, with the aging society it is easier than ever to get into a university. In fact some universities are going bankrupt because there are not enough young people to fill the seats.

[saikyo]

I just noticed that you were talking about ENTERING high school. Not graduating from high school. My bad! Came up with interesting data nevertheless!