Day 7 - My Plans for Japan

I would be lying if I said I only liked japan, its number 1 on my list but there are two more countries I like,  first its Japan then South Korea then China yeah I know all Asian countries but I like the culture, language, food, people (i mean girls :P).

漫画 (manga), 漫畫 (manhua), and 만화 (漫畫 manhwa) all mean comics in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean respectively. All 3 countries I like have the art I like and they all have their own martial arts which is awesome because I love martial arts and they have cute girls which are my type :P

uhmhummm.... Let's get back to topic.

As you all by know that there no way I cant go to Kyoto Seika University to study manga for 4 years because it costs a lot and I cant pay it on my own. So I have decided instead of going to manga school I will go to language school for 2 years and I know I have cleared N4 JLPT but I will start from the beginning again. The language school I have decided to go to is "Akamonkai" in Nippori, Tokyo. You must be confused that why I dropped from manga school to language school, I just want to go to Japan as fast as possible and going to Akamonkai will cost less even if I want to go to manga school I will still need JLPT N2 to take admission so I will need to study, language in japan for a year or a year and a half. Studying in Akamonkai for 2 years will cost at least $20,000-$25,000 (tuition fee + dormitory) and money for other utilities which you can earn from part time jobs.

Why am I choosing Akamonkai Language School?

Reasons :

01. Close to Tokyo's main cities like Akihbara, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya
02. They have their own dormitory which is very cheap compared to others.
03. They have 2 campus.
04. Nippori is on Yamnote line which is very convenient.
05. You can choose if you want morning or afternoon classes.
06. 24 hour study room, LOL I wont be studying for 24 hours but it is good to know that when ever I want to study I can go there.
07. They have a Manga library which has over 2,000 manga.
08. They have courses from beginner to intermediate like you can go their even if you cant speak any japanese but for people from China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka must have a certificate proving they have taken at least 150 hours of Japanese language instruction.
09. Akamonkai has the highest population of Chinese and Korean people. Hi-fi on that ;)

All in all I like the school, there are many other schools find the one that suits you some of you might like quite and uncrowded places, some like beach find the one where you feel will comfortable. Research before deciding.

So that's how I plan to enter japan. Then I have to study hard and be fluent so I can go to Companies, talk to editors and submit my work.

Then make great manga then find a nice japanese/korean/chinese girl then blah blah blah I dont know and I don't care. All I know is I want is to go to Japan and become a Mangaka. Rest of it I can figure out later.

These plans wont be executed anytime soon, It will take time for me to earn $30,000, lets hope I can collect it in time.

Day 6 - Language & Culture

Well most of you reading this post will be a がいこくじん (ga-i-go-ku-jin : foreigner) in Japan so definitely there will be language and cultural differences. For some the cultural differences will be more and for some it will be less. For me as an Indian (South Asian) there aren't many cultural difference there are but not a lot but for some one from a western country the cultural difference will be more which is awesome because its fun to learn something new and we will be excused if we make any mistakes.

You would want to be a mangaka in Japan so you definitely need very high language skills to communicate with your editor, assistant and obviously to write manga.

I am not the best person to learn Japanese Language and culture from :P but I can tell you the best places to learn them.

To work or study in Japan you at least need to clear JLPT N2, without it forget about getting a decent pay job or enrolling into a college. JLPT conducts exams from N5 to N1 5 levels N5 being the lowest and easiest. It is to test your reading, writing and listening skills so that the people know that you can work and study with them efficiently.

Official Website of JLPT - http://www.jlpt.jp/e/

I have cleared JLPT N4, but I plan to study from N5 again in Japan (more on that in my upcoming blog "My plans for Japan")

Best places to learn Japanese languages are :


01. Japanesepod101 - They have many videos about basic Japanese, greetings, holidays and many more interesting stuff. Now they have a started a really creative way of teaching by animation, I personally likes it it's cool watch it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6lXlpf-n6k

02. Givemeaflakeman - This guy is funny you wont get bored watching his videos, he also does video on language, greetings, holidays with tomoko-san but he makes other type of videos too like interviews, current events in japan, videos with gopro, debates and a ton of more stuff, I have learned a lot about japan from him and am still learning.

For culture I would suggest watching j-drama, j-movies, anime or read manga and I suppose almost everyone reading this post is doing that already. But check this out

01. Culture Japan - A site run by Danny Choo I wont ruin it for you, there is a lot of stuff on his sites, its very helpful.

Then there are site like Japan guide,  Gaijinpot. You can find many more sites for it, good luck

がんばろう