Rezz

Can anyone answer the poor guys request about the radio frequencies? Because I can't...

Swan Valley ha inaka mitai na... demo honto ni kirei to omou. Tokoro de kakkoi kuruma yo

Ashiya no tenki ha kumori yo... chotto samui kedo daijyoubu.

Hai sou yo.

'Engineer wa nani desu ka?' sounds like 'Whats an engineer?'... Actually 'Donna enjinia desu ka?' would be better.

Hehe topi kun honto ni nani wo iitai no?

I'm not studying as such... more just practicing conversation now. Yeah, I live in Ashiya in Hyogo. I don't think it's strange speaking to other gaijin in Japanese *if* you want to practice... such as what we're trying to do in this thread

Ohayo Maiku san. Ima shigoto chuu yo. Kyou shigoto ha 8 ji made yo... mou sude ni tsukareta...

Oooooooi!

Hehehe if that were my car it wouldn't be covered in stickers... although the rest of the car is just about perfect... all I can say is: www.7tuned.com , in February, read all about it and much much more from Japan. Now you why I've been quiet on here recently...

Hmmmm, I think enthusiastic hand gestures are offensive to some Japanese, as is a too strong personality. Not being flexible and wanting thing done 'the western way' is also a major piss off... especially with our Japanese staff! Theres heaps but thats about all that spring to mind now.

Scared... me? lolI basically found all my private students by word of mouth. I never got business cards and handed them out... I always felt that was a bit dodgy. Needless to say at any one time I only had about 6 -7 privates a week, so I had to choose whether to continue with the privates or just give up and join a school... I joined a school (I've met *so* many more people and had so many more offers since I joined the school I work at now).

I haven't had any 1st hand experience with Yakuza... but I've been told many a story about them. In fact, Kobe (where I used to live) is home to the biggest Yakuza clan in Japan - the Yamaguchi-Gumi. They literally 'run' things in Kobe from top level business dealings to low level intimidation.

But as for the general population, getting caught hardly even registers. You just *be careful*, don't go being stupid with it. DaiOni I'm quite suprised you know of English teachers that have been caught... could you tell us what happened? Or how?

Not going against what IG and 'Oni said, but fear of being caught by the authorities just doesn't really bother any of the (Dj's, club owners) guys that I know who regularly smoke. Yes the penalties are harsh, but the chances of getting caught are pretty slim... well unless the club you're at gets randomly raided (which is rare - but happened to 'The Underlounge' here in Osaka just 2 months ago, multiple arrests for possesion) or you're noticebly smoking weed outside or in public view. I'm not saying "it's ok!!!", but just saying that more people talk about the dangers of getting caught with weed than people actually getting caught... or maybe my mates are just really clever about it?

I can... I can pretty much do whatever , whenever on that salary.

Ok I get A$45,000 after tax.

I did a 6 month course in basic Japanese grammar before I came, and a further 3 months doing private classes with a really cool divorced 50 year old lady... she was tops, she bought ME lunch after she taught me! Before I came to Japan I was probably Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4, now I could probably study for Level 2. I think Japanese is quite hard to learn, but anything can be learn with the right positive frame of mind. You don't need a degree to teach (been covered many times before in the Japan forum), but it would definately make things easier especially if you were after a proper work visa. As for working as a hired hand in Japan... I have no idea. 'topi' on these forums did work experience with 'JUN Auto Mechanic', so he might be able to point you in the right direction? Btw, don't believe what people say about ganja being scarce in Japan... it's who you know not what you know... I can sort anyone out with some green if they want it.

Does anyone else want to answer that question?

They say Spring 2005 (northern hemisphere) which could be anytime until May... and I seached all over Sonys Japanese site for any mention of GT4 on PSP with no luck. I know how Sony put back release dates like it's going out of fashion... hell even with the PS2 release of GT4 they put back the release date 1 month at the 11th hour. But yeah, the only mention of PSP GT4 right now is on the hardcore gamers sites... when I said there was no mention of it I meant 'official release date'... your right though it's definately on the cards.

No, I haven't personally worked for *any* of the 'corporate' schools BUT my boss has, as have 4 of our current teachers (plus many more who are either friends, aquaintences or past employees). I wouldn't really want to work for the big corporates anyway... I get more salary than them, I can take (paid) holidays, I can nominate the time of my holidays, heck I can even negotiate my working schedule within reason on a weekly basis... but then again I'm equal 2nd in command (with another guy) at our small chain of schools, so I guess I have a better than average working situation. The guys that are or have worked for Nova, GEOS, Berlitz etc have basically said it's not what it's cracked up to be... they all seem to complain about what they could or couldn't do in class ie: they had to act a certain way, and they couldn't talk to the students outside of class. Berlitz even videotapes classes for 'performance evaluation' (not sure if they still do that). All this came about a while back when teachers took it upon themselves to pick up students from the schools directly, as in getting their email addy's or phone numbers in class. It was such a problem that the 'corporate' schools had to do something or the whole English Teaching industry in Japan would forever be branded as a foreigners pick up service... or so the tale goes. Having said that, we just last year sacked a teacher because he *cough* *COUGH!* unbelievable KISSED a girl in class (he was a French guy - haha say no 'a-more'! hahaha). That guy TRULY though he was Gods gift to Japanese women... what a tosser... he brought a bad name to that particular school (we have 5 schools in total). So the issue is very real, and theres nothing some horny little guys won't try in order to score. I could go on for aaaaaaages with stories like this...

Racing games for PSP only include 'Ridge Racer' at the moment. 'NFSU Rivals' is due out in mid-Feb. No mention of GT4 being released on PSP in Japan.

Hehehe... they were probably taking bets to see who would have enough guts to go up to you and try out their English skills. Because thats all it is really, practicing English. I hate it how some guys who come here thing they are 'Gods gift to J-girls' ... of course there are 1,000's of girls here who *direly* want a foreign guy but thats only 0.04% of the whole population... and some of those are quite neurotic. Most of them either want to learn more English (for whatever purpose: higher TOEIC score, become a flight attendant, get a promotion etc) or just meet someone more interesting (in their eyes) than the average Japanese... classed as 'foreigners'. I've been teaching 100's of J-girls a week in their 20's and 30's for 4.5 years... and this is the impression I get.

Hmmmmm... :confused: Route K's

Lol How many of you internet geeks read that???