Lemma Soft Forums

Hey guys,

I've been considering moving to Japan.

However... I'm a little nervous to be moving to a completely new country where I'm pretty much illiterate and can only string together cave-man like sentences when talking to people (though I'm working on that & have been studying Japanese for the last year but it takes time).

I'm American and also a bit of an oddball. Though I'm introverted I usually don't have trouble making friends with people. But I feel like it is SO HARD trying to make friends as an adult out of school! And that's without any kind of language barrier and in a culture I understand with people I have tons in common with.

Does anyone here live(d) in Japan (or abroad) & have advice on how to make friends (and just tips on living in Japan in general)?

Thanks for reading

This might be a bit late of a response (and also maybe not super helpful) but I recently studied abroad in Spain for a month. It's not the same as a permanent move, and Europe I think is probably a lot more similar to the U.S. in terms of culture & customs, but the best advice that I have for anyone visiting or living somewhere with a different language than your native one is to get out wherever you can in order to both practice the language and try and find some friends. The best people to make friends with are those who are eager to share their home with you and will be patient as you learn their language (I promise, you'll find people like that even if it takes a while).

The language will get easier with time, maybe a lot of time, but the important thing is that you keep going out and practicing so that you can get that immersion. Staying in all the time won't make you any friends or help you learn the language. Although, if you do have to be inside, watching programs on TV can be super helpful, especially if you can find something like a Japanese dub over an American show or movie that you're already familiar with. I don't know if that's common in Japan, but in Spain there was a channel totally dedicated to showing various movies from all over the world dubbed in Spanish, including Sully, a movie that I was somewhat familiar with and thus was able to follow in Spanish.

Lastly, my earlier advice is important when it comes to learning the language and making friends, but also make sure you have time to de-stress and speak your native language (because translating back-and-forth in your head all day is super hard!)! I'm assuming you'll be able to do this with your husband so it shouldn't be too difficult for you to be able to do this. For me, I studied abroad with a university program where I didn't know anyone, and no one in our host family spoke English, but my roommate and I quickly became super close with each other because of it. We were both decently proficient in Spanish to the point where we were able to converse with our host family and with people on the street, but as soon as we returned to our room for the day we would immediately go right back into English and it was such a relief to be able to do that.

Best of luck to both of you! (: