Language
I arrived here from New Zealand with next to no Japanese (one year at High school & one year of university Japanese to be exact.) I went through culture shock, homesickness and basically felt like an idiot at times because of the mistakes I had made. But I didnft mind so much because I had come to Japan to become fluent in the language, making mistakes was just a part of the learning process.
Many of us tend to think of Japan as being a very high-tech, well-advanced country. Along with this scenario we also assume that we can survive in Japan on a mixture of English, body language & basic Japanese. Itfs true, to a certain extent, but if you want to stay any longer than a week or two & you would like to get more out of your time here I strongly recommend that you donft just expect to rely on your native tongue alone.
(In reality, Japanfs technology is second to none, with new breakthroughs occurring regularly. However Japan does not need the English language as much as one would think. All of the Education system is in Japanese, and because their main market is their home market Japanese alone is sufficient to build a business on.)
Learning the language
If you are determined to study Japanese while you are here the biggest piece of advice I can offer you is to not live with other foreigners, and if it is at all possible, to try to pick up jobs that do not require the use of English.
There are some schools that offer Japanese lessons to foreigners in the Kansai area. The schools will invariably teach you hyoujungo (every day Tokyo dialect) which I believe is the best for foreigners to use. It is understood in all areas of Japan and has an air of politeness to it when spoken. However if you are interested in learning the Kansai dialect I suggest you buy a book on it. However even if you donft make a point of studying Kansaiben (Kansai dialect) you will soon become accustomed to it as that is what everyone speaks here, in and around Osaka.
The schools also offer preparation courses for the Japanese Proficiency Tests.
Here is a quick list of schools advertised regularly in the Kansai Time Out magazine.
Osaka YWCA
Marga Language Service
Kyoto Language School
Although there are many others, I chose the 3 that had a web page.
The schools are aimed at foreign students so they run classes to suit those who work during the day to. Hopefully you will learn some Japanese and make some good friends in the process.
Another thing you may find interesting is that the Japanese I now speak has not only helped me in communicating with the locals, it is also a very useful tool for communicating with other non-English speaking foreigners. I have spoken to French people, Russian people, Korean people and others using Japanese as our common language.
