Hi there,

I am Daniel. I have been living in Japan for the past 7 years. I don’t speak Japanese.

Well, I know Hiragana, Katakana and can recognize most kanji from the 1st and 2nd grades. I am not a total beginner per se, but I heard that it’s better to take baby steps and start from the beginning on japanese, that is why I searched a bit around the web and eventually found out about TextFugu on Reddit (/r/learnjapanese).

“HOW COME YOU LIVE HERE 7 YEARS AN DON’T KNOW HOW TO SPEAK?!” you will ask, and here is my answer:

I have come here through an employer from Brazil. They employ foreigners that are descendant of japanese (so they can get the long stay visa) and bring us to the country of the rising sun to work.

I work at SONY, my position is “operator” but I don’t operate any big machines. I actually assemble lenses for the Alpha model (the semi-pro/pro series) of digital cameras.

Where I work they put us together with other foreigners, so contact with japanese people is really limited, hence why in these 7 years I didn’t learn to speak.

The situation for foreigners who don’t speak and/or don’t have a major is kinda dark. We have a low pay, we work from 45 to 75+ hours per week, staying inside the factory, just producing stuff – the employers don’t encourage japanese learning because the manpower is already low as it is because if they learn, the will leave the factory for better jobs, and as the taxes rise, more and more people leave Japan to go back to their country, returning bare-handed after 5, 10, or even 30 years after arriving here.

My uncle came here 20 years ago, he used to earn around $59,400/year he said. I work as hard as he did and I don’t earn as half as he did.

Japan is a beautiful place, a fading beauty amongst the globalization era. As their factories run at full power, they just produce the things we wanted 20 years ago– the little mp3 players, the portable headphones, the digital camera.

Japan is dying a lonely and slow death, and I believe that by connecting us, foreigners, more into the community there is a glimpse of hope for this country– full of beauty, full of nature, full of good manners.

Japan is totally worth saving.

I want to quit my job. I want to construct my own way. I want to be independent.

“Why are you learning japanese?” TextFugu asked. And this, is my answer:

I want to work here;
I want to live and meet new people, new friends;
I want to be respected;
I want to experience japan as much as possible before I fade out;
I want to help people, to enbrighten their eyes, to show them hospitality and comfort.

• This topic was modified 10 years ago by  Daniel Harada.