Jason Mortimer, Merrill Lynch Japan Securities, Tokyo

With the help of the Bridging and Morgan Stanley Scholarships, I had the opportunity to study abroad at Keio University in Tokyo for a year during college. My goal at the time was to reach a level of Japanese fluency where I could seamlessly experience my host country and its people: converse and express myself about any topic, read and comprehend anything that interested me, and be confident enough to travel anywhere. Having found a method of study that worked for me, I was largely able to meet my goals, and the language skills I developed in Japan have certainly opened up unique opportunities for me both professionally and personally. Possibly even more than the actual language skill itself was the broader worldview the study abroad experience gained me. Besides learning up close about a foreign country’s society, leaving America to study abroad gave me the perspective to think more deeply about the society and culture in my own country. To understand yourself and where you come from, you have to step outside your own familiar environment and look at it from the outside, in relation to completely different traditions and ways of thinking.

In a concrete sense, studying Japanese or any Asian language can open professional opportunities, although not necessarily in the way you might expect. I’ve come to believe that technical fluency in the language is a paradox: it’s both a precondition and non-essential for getting gainful employment in Japan. One the one hand, without prior experience, it’s difficult to be considered for a position in any foreign country without first demonstrating some level of commitment to working abroad – usually measured in terms of language ability. At the same time, most positions that are economically viable for foreigners to perform usually entail working with bilingual colleagues in an English-dominated workplace. As such, the requirement/opportunity (depending on how you look at it) to actually use language skills in a profession is less than most people think. For example in the Tokyo office of my organization, there are many foreign workers and English is the default business language in most departments. At the same time, almost all of the foreigners working there have Japanese language skills, many at a very advanced level.

In this sense it is difficult to draw a direct relationship between the ability to speak Japanese and the ability to work in Japan (although working at a domestic Japanese firm may be different.) What is perhaps most important in the long-term for an international career is the recognition that when working across cultures some aspects of human interaction are universal, and others simply are not. Technical fluency in a foreign language is important, but so is recognizing and accepting that living and working with people of a different culture will be a source of enlightenment and frustration, causing you sometimes to appreciate difference and sometimes to long for familiarity. Study abroad affords an excellent chance to develop the skills needed for dealing with the inevitable difficulties of a career abroad, not just in the aspect of language acquisition.

Giving advice to people thinking about studying Japanese is somewhat complicated by the fact that in terms of economic opportunity and geopolitical influence, Japan’s best days are probably behind it. From the standpoint of pure economic rationality, my advice to someone considering learning Japanese would be to consider learning Chinese first. In a greater sense, however, Japan is one of the best choices for foreign language learning. Japan deserves recognition as a uniquely beautiful, welcoming, culturally rich country blessed with amazing people, traditions, and nature, but it only truly starts to open itself once you have some perspective of understanding in the language and culture. In a sense, the ratio of effort to potential reward for learning a particular language is probably higher in Japan than any other developed western country. As an example, it’s quite possible to travel extensively in Europe with relatively little language preparation thanks to the prevalence of English and relative accessibility for foreigners, but penetrating and appreciating Japan beyond the usual tourist spots in Tokyo and Kyoto is quite difficult without serious study beforehand. If you do make the effort, however, you’ll find Japan to be accessible and uniquely rewarding for living, traveling, and working.

As for the best methods to actually learn the Japanese language, there are several key points. First, if you are serious about becoming fluent, you must spend time in the country itself. There is really no alternative. In my experience, just two weeks of Japanese study onshore is about equivalent to a semester of college study in America. The advantage to studying in the home country is not limited to the chance to use it in everyday practice, but also because of the peculiar insistence of most teachers on limiting students’ exposure to the colloquial and informal forms of Japanese language. In practice the difference between formal and informal Japanese is much greater than in English, so the inevitable focus on only the first of these aspects puts a student without in-country experience at an even further disadvantage. “Broken” Japanese is where much of the richest communication can take place, and the ability to know how and when to switch between the two is best learned from experience.

Second, an American coming to Japan for organized study abroad should be prepared to enter a learning environment with teaching methods that are quite different from what they have experienced at home. Japanese language instruction, like much formal education there, is intensive in memorization and repetition. This learning approach may or may not work for you. I myself had great difficulty accepting and adjusting to a teaching style that I considered old-fashioned and ineffective. When I brought this up with my teacher, she gave me some good advice, though it was hard to accept at the time: Japanese is not really a rational language, so trying to analyze it is not effective for learning how to speak it. When studying this language everything simply becomes easier when you stop trying to understand the “why” and focus on the “what”. This means that while it may seem mindless, repetition and memorization is actually an effective approach. Rationalizing this against my own preferences and background in a Western learning environment was one of the most difficult aspects of my study abroad, but once I accepted it my progress became much smoother and faster.

Third, if you do have the opportunity to study abroad in Japan and are serious about becoming fluent, resist the temptation to spend too much time hanging out with other foreigners. This is because your uptake of the language will be considerably reduced if you limit your study to formal classroom time, and then retreat to speaking English with the other foreign exchange students outside of school. This may sound strange, but you are guaranteed to have periods when everything is just too different, too foreign, and too inscrutable and you’ll desperately want to fall back on something familiar for language and companionship. You’ll need to find a balance that works for you: getting out with the locals and immersing yourself in the language and culture against sticking with the familiar and staying encapsulated within the foreigner community.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to make mistakes on your way to Japanese fluency. If you happen to study in a large city like Tokyo or Osaka you’ll doubtless meet many people who speak English much better than you can speak Japanese, especially at the beginning. It may be intimidating, and just easier to let the conversation flow in the language most easily used by all parties, but be aggressive. Try to reply back in Japanese as much as possible, as in many cases the other party will simply be relieved and appreciative (although sometimes it’s best to reciprocate and let the other person practice their English with a native speaker).

Good luck, and feel free to contact me for advice about study, travel, or careers in Japan.

Jason Mortimer
jason_mortimer@mac.com

(February 2010)