Retain Japanese

[GnosisExchange]

Hi! 

 

I write because I will be graduating college in a little less than a month (it went by much too quickly!) and am concerned about retaining my language skills.

 

I started taking Japanese as a freshman and have continued to do so since, but don't know how I should self-study after graduation. I received a Fulbright ETA grant to Korea and my Japanese professor said it would be good because since the two have similar grammatical structures learning Korean wouldn't cause me to forget Japanese. 

 

Does anyone have any advice on the topic? Any tips on how I can retain my Japanese?

 

Thanks,

GE

[Munashi]

Do your best to find a conversation partner.  Finding people online willing to help you practice once in a while is an easy way to do this if you can't find anyone in-person (hooray skype).  Also, consume media - movies, tv dramas, even anime if you enjoy that.

[hj2012]

There's always a ton of incoming Korea ETAs with a background in Japanese, so you could likely find a language partner that way. Consuming media is another great way to keep up your language skills (reading a newspaper article a day, for example).

My only note of caution is that you are coming to KOREA, not Japan, and I encourage you to devote yourself wholeheartedly to acquiring Korean. It always makes me sad to meet ETAs who make it obvious that their first and foremost interest is in Japan, and if Japan had an ETA program they would be there instead. It's a touchy subject among Koreans as well, considering the history of colonialism, so you will want to be careful with your language study in the homestay context as well.

Good luck!