i want to become a shinkansen driver

Hello My Name Is Luke and im 11 years old

When im older i want to become a Japanese Shinkansen Driver But my Mothers Japanese and ive almost learnt my hiragana ive been to japan for 6 months Elementry School Yr 4 and im wanting to move and become one when im older do you think ill have a chance of being a Shinkansen driver? and stuff i should learn before moving into japan and any tips and how i can do this
Thanks! PS if im half japanese do i have to still pay for visa? in japan i live in Australia

Sure you have a chance, why not? Your Japanese will probably need to be perfect, though, to understand for example radio communication (which can be very distorted) or technical terms.

When you are in high school, you should choose one which has exchange programs with a Japanese high school (those are fairly common since Australia is the nearest English-speaking country to Japan). In addition to giving you more experience of living in Japan, it will allow you to attend job fairs where you can find people from JR to advise you on what you should study at university (at this point, your Japanese will probably have to be pretty good already). The Japanese embassy in Australia should be able to give you information about the available exchange programs.

As a Japanese citizen, you are normally not required (indeed, unable) to obtain a visa to enter Japan. You must enter Japan on your Japanese passport.

I don't have any advice but just want to say that I think this is a really cool post! It is an interesting job choice and I think it's great that you're studying hard and already know what you want to do when you're older. Good luck for the future! がんばって

This brings back memories of one of my students I taught in Japan last year. He was half Japanese, half American.

Because you are half Japanese, you have a much bigger advantage than non-Japanese people.

What is very common in Japan is to get a job with JR (Japan Rail) and then work your way up over time.

Very few people tend to become Shinkansen Drivers as their first job. The people that do tend to go to one of the few specific Japanese technical high schools. The best students may then be picked to become Shinkansen drivers (from memory).

However - I believe that most Shinkansen drivers get their job in another way. First, they work on the train platforms as an attendant which helps them know about how to run a station.

Then, station attendants can then sit a test to become a driver for a normal train in Japan. This can either be with JR (Japan Rail) or a private train company (there are many of them here).

As you get more experience, you can sit more exams and get trained to become a driver for more complex and faster travelling trains. This will eventually lead up to the Shinkansen - which is an amazing piece of equipment.

Being able to speak and read Japanese well is a must. It's good that you know your Hiragana - but you might also want to start learning your Chinese characters (ask your parent who is Japanese what this is - they will know!).

As such - the best thing you can do at the moment is probably work hard on your Japanese (reading and writing) which should at least make your parents happy.

Thank you for asking this question and you are much more likely to become a Shinkansen driver than me - or most other people in the world!!

Good luck.

mfedley - an Australian teacher who used to teach in Japan.

Well Does anyone know a good website to learn japanese quick and easy and fun? - Luke (ルーク)

Sorry Luke,

I'm not aware of many Japanese websites out there which are quick, easy and fun. For many of us - we find Japanese quite hard to learn. This is especially true for the alphabet.

Probably the best thing to do is to get your mother to help you.

oh well then i just told my mum and she dropped 500 japanese books on me XD oh well thx guys ill start learning and achieve my dream

Don't forget that you still have the whole of Grade 5/6 and high school to learn Japanese.

So - take a breath and remember that it will take a long time to learn what you need to know.

Even if your dream changes in the future to another job - I doubt that you will regret learning one of your native languages. At least it will probably make your mother very proud. It sounds strange - but this will be a big thing as you become older.

And yeah - parents are like that with giving you lots of work. It's also how your mother learnt Japanese writing and the students in Japan learn it too!

頑張って!

Check out the Youtube channel JapanSocietyNYC, they have lots of Japanese videos. Another fun way to practice listening to Japanese is to watch anime movies.

https://www.youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC