We haven't interacted much so you may know this or not, but I have lived in the USA, Scotland, Australia & Japan (at least I will be soon)
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ichigohon
ichigohon
I did not unfortunately, I lived in Brisbane specifically in the CBD & I will be in Japanese language school for two years then sit uni admissions tests or go to vocational school in an engineering field most likely. We'll see in 2 years but COVID kind of wrecked my whole life trajectory up alongside my own negligence and I'm struggling to get back on my feet. I started studying Japanese while in Australia and figured out I loved it, so I figured why am I staying in a place I am miserable in when I can be somewhere I probably will not be miserable ?
ichigohon
Columbus, GA orignally then to very rural South Georgia and I found Australia to be even more expensive than larger cities and the quality of the products I felt were lower and the selection was even worse than the UK as well as the car-centric culture and overall isolation and I had already visited Sydney and Melbourne & realised I didn't like those cities any better and they were equally as expensive as Brissy. Also, the intense isolation I felt from the world and socially when I arrived as I really struggled to make even 1 friend and I'm quite an outgoing person and had several large friend groups in the UK of 10-20 people each so that made me feel even more isolated once I got to Australia. I managed through and got over it, and finally started making friends with my flatmates and classmates by May-ish.
My mom works for a large company that earns 80% of its revenue from Japan so she had a lot of Japanese coworkers that I would hang around with when I was quite younger and growing up in America in the early 00s there were a lot of fusion Japanese-American TV shows & tbh Americans only view Japan as the sole country equal to us on the world stage as well. I've always wanted to learn a language but have stopped and started with so many (Czech, German, French, Afrikaans, Russian, Hebrew), but the more I was learning Japanese the more I found it to be complex, but not necessarily harder than those languages and in many instances actually easier to me. I originally only wanted to do it because I was so isolated and lonely that doing Japanese lessons would help me get out more and I found some offered by a Tenrikyo church for only $7 an hour so I knew I'd be an idiot not to take them for that cheap. The more I went the more I felt more comfortable around Japanese culture and traditions as I found them a lot more similar to Southern culture than American, British, or Australian culture to me. I was making plans in August to go during summer break to Sapporo for language school then during a test is when I had the epiphany to just go to Japan since that is clearly where I was being pulled to and found the most enjoyment out of living in Australia.
Also, if things for some reason don't work out with my visa I'd think I'd be just as happy in Taiwan or Hong Kong as I would be in Japan and those are my backup plans currently as most of my flatmates were from Chinese (1 Mainlander, 2 Hong Kongers, 1 Macanese) & my boyfriend was Taiwanese, so I got to experience a lot of Chinese culture in Australia that I never experienced before which was exciting.
Thank you <3
My mom works for a large company that earns 80% of its revenue from Japan so she had a lot of Japanese coworkers that I would hang around with when I was quite younger and growing up in America in the early 00s there were a lot of fusion Japanese-American TV shows & tbh Americans only view Japan as the sole country equal to us on the world stage as well. I've always wanted to learn a language but have stopped and started with so many (Czech, German, French, Afrikaans, Russian, Hebrew), but the more I was learning Japanese the more I found it to be complex, but not necessarily harder than those languages and in many instances actually easier to me. I originally only wanted to do it because I was so isolated and lonely that doing Japanese lessons would help me get out more and I found some offered by a Tenrikyo church for only $7 an hour so I knew I'd be an idiot not to take them for that cheap. The more I went the more I felt more comfortable around Japanese culture and traditions as I found them a lot more similar to Southern culture than American, British, or Australian culture to me. I was making plans in August to go during summer break to Sapporo for language school then during a test is when I had the epiphany to just go to Japan since that is clearly where I was being pulled to and found the most enjoyment out of living in Australia.
Also, if things for some reason don't work out with my visa I'd think I'd be just as happy in Taiwan or Hong Kong as I would be in Japan and those are my backup plans currently as most of my flatmates were from Chinese (1 Mainlander, 2 Hong Kongers, 1 Macanese) & my boyfriend was Taiwanese, so I got to experience a lot of Chinese culture in Australia that I never experienced before which was exciting.
Thank you <3