Studying abroad in Nagasaki - advice?

Greetings! Anyway, I will be studying abroad in Nagasaki beginning in September and just wanted a little advice.

I will be studying at Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies and I will also be living with a host family (don't know what kind of family though). Just curious what customs and manners I need to be aware of before I go. I already know about no chopsticks in the rice and no eating while walking but what are some other crucial ones. Table manners especially but any others you can think of as well.

Also, what cool things are there to do around the city? I am a 24 year old, 6'3" male and I'm pretty social, but I do not know very much Japanese (I will work on my language skills over the summer). I love going out with friends and enjoy a city with a good nightlife. How is the nightlife in Nagasaki? Any good places I should know of?

Thanks for the input!

-Robbie

You first need a gift for your host family. Small gifts for the kids if any. Handmade stuff from your home area is always appreciated. In my area, I usually check out stores in Mineral Point which have a lot of crafts.

Nagasaki Gaidai is at the top of a hill on the north side of the city so it can be windy. I've seen storms blow through the entryway that accelerate the wind. A good raincoat would help.

The main custom to pay attention to is the shoe/slipper/socks rules, where everyone leaves their shoes at the genkan for slippers. If there is any tatami, you don't wear your slippers while walking on it. If you head to the loo, you swap slippers.

Bath etiquette is "guest goes first." As guest in someone's house, they might say "why don't you take a bath?" This is a message that everyone is waiting for you to get in and out so that they can.

You'll find your own nightlife. There are plenty of students at Gaidai even though most foreign ones are Chinese now. Half the fun is discovering them on your own. However, if you stay with a host family, you have to respect their house rules; someone will probably wait up until you return. There's an Indian Restaurant at the east end of the arcade on the 2nd floor that I like to frequent. It's Mark T's favorite so you can ask him directions.

You can pick up on what's OK by watching the other students. Everybody makes mistakes. Just try not to make the same one twice.

Anaguma gave some really good suggestions.

Gifts for the host family is a good idea for sure. While you will most likely have a few host family issues as time goes on, you will manage. Just try your best to look at things from their point of view.

I also studied abroad at Nagasaki Gaikokugo Daigaku (assuming that is where you are going). I was 24 at the time too. You will most likely be a bit older than most students there.

I tried my best to respect the family I stayed with, but in turn missed out on most of the bar hopping and such that the foreigners did together (I think Sumiyoshi was the popular area).


Probably the best thing you can do is get as good at Japanese as possible, both beforehand and while there. Try to talk with and do things with Japanese people as much as you can.

Strike up conversation with students at the school (In whatever Japanese you can put together). There is a good chance they will be happy to talk (it's a foreign language school...). Having an electronic dictionary like a Canon WordTank is a great thing to have handy for you and whoever you are trying to talk with.

You will probably be getting two conversation partners assigned to you for the first semester.

If you don't have at least hiragana/katakana memorized, do that right now.

Join at least one club and attend regularly.

Thanks a ton for the info guys, its really helpful.

As far as hiragana, katakana and kanji is concerned, what is the best way to learn without the assistance of formal classes? I've heard about a number of computer program aids as well as books and flashcards but are those the way to go?

While I'm not the best person to make suggestions (I'm not very good at Japanese), here it goes...

Don't be too worried about not know knowing much. You will _get by_ ok, but the more you know the better.

Off hand, I can't remember any sites, but you could probably find quite a few that assist the learning process. Just do some Google searching. Like you said, software programs would be good too.

The first thing you should do is memorize the hiragana and katakana to the point where you can pronounce words written in both. Relying on romaji will only hold you back in the long run. If you can find some sites or programs that have audio pronunciations, that would be ideal. The Japanese class books at Gaidai when I was there did not have sentences in romaji. Only kanji, hiragana, and katakana. The kanji usually had small hiragana pronunciations under them called furigana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furigana

From there, start learning grammar so you can piece together sentences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar


Kanji... that's the tough one. I haven't learned much. The more you know, the better though. If you are good at memorization and retention of knowledge, then kanji should be "easy" if not extremely time consuming.


A cool way to practice written Japanese is to attempt to read Japanese websites. Download a copy of the Firefox web browser and install the "rikaichan" addon.

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/

That addon will allow you to hover your mouse over Japanese and it will give you a list of possible definitions.


A japanese dictionary site that's useful:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?...

Yeah, I think I'll try out a few of those computer programs . But I will also use some flash cards both for basic vocab as well as katakana and hiragana. They basically taught me ochem so I don't see why they can't help me learn a new language.

Scott, as far as age was concerned (being 24), did you find that to be a disadvantage at all? I don't see why it would be but just curious.

A good site to learn Japanese is - http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/all-japanese-...
It's very good, motivational, and super good advice. Follow it, even if you don't believe it. I didn't really think it would work, but it does. I'm using the book he recommended, Remembering the Kanji, and so far I've memorized 100 kanji. Memorize means read, write, etc.
Good luck, have fun, and report back because I want to go to Japan in college (hopefully before...).

Meeting people: It's a natural tendency of the exchange students to hang together, which has its good and bad sides. It's easy to settle into a routine with the people you're comfortable with, especially since your classes will mostly be with them, and that's fine, but if you want to meet/make friends with some of the Japanese students joining a club is your best bet, as Scott recommended. If you're interested in an activity they don't offer at Gaidai it's possibly to join a community club or even one at Nagasaki Daigaku (though that's easier if you speak Japanese). For example, I was interested in kyudo so the French teacher introduced my to the city kyudo dojo, where I met students from other Nagasaki schools.

Nightlife: Nagasaki's a pretty small town so the quality of the nightlife depends on what you're used to at home. (If you're from Milwaukee or NYC it'll probably seem pretty restricted; if you're from Platteville or New Paltz not so much.) There are a couple smallish clubs, very friendly to foreigners, plenty of bars and izakaya, and of course the inevitable karaoke.

This article is a little old but will give you a good idea of what type of place you can find where: http://www.sagajet.com/nagasaki-nightlife (I don't know whether the specific places it names are still in operation.)

Etiquette: What Scott and Anaguma said. :) They'll definitely cover this in your orientation, extensively. It depends somewhat on the family, too -- my first family was a pretty young couple and they *encouraged* me to go out and have fun and stay out late, as long as I let them know so they didn't think I was dead in a ditch somewhere. Your host family will undoubtedly tell you about any house rules up front, so it should be pretty easy to respect their position, whatever it is. If you want to stay out late and your family doesn't like that, just arrange to stay somewhere else for the night... and be sure to tell them of course.

That's everything off the top of my head. :)