Remarks on learning Japanese in Japan

1) One thing that makes it easy to learn Japanese while in Japan is that everyone is so kind and friendly in their conduct that you don't feel discouraged from trying.

2) For learning languages in another country, I love using ChatGPT as a life hack. It's like having a friend who's available to whisper in your ear what to say, right in the moment, and also give you the English syllable breakdown so you can get close enough to enunciating it. Not to mention that if you improve you can have convos with ChatGPT in the language or have it help you fix your grammar or word usage. It's way faster than Google Translate or Google search. Frankly, googling "survival language X" on Google search and then scrolling through the content of an article is painful.

3) It's also easy to start a conversation with a Japanese person because in Japan, everyone has so much unique clothing you can compliment them on their shirt, just like in America. This is different from other parts of the world where people are all wearing the exact same thing, or perhaps nothing creative in particular.

4) After being in Asia for 4 months and especially Japan, I bow a lot now and hand items with two hands, and am more comfortable using chopsticks that sometimes I completely ditch the fork for a chopstick because it feels better. I wonder how many of these habits will stick around, and whether it'll be weird if they half-stick and I'm in the U.S.

5) Special thanks to my mom for basically 100% coordinating this Japan trip and encouraging me to push onward to Japan when I was already ready to end my Asia trip. Although it's never good to rank countries, I honestly think Japan tops all the countries I visited (though Vietnam and Japan cannot be compared, because Vietnam has a special place in my heart). I think Japan is such a special place and has such rich culture and artistic creativity. It's enough to incentivize me to keep learning the language and adopt it as my 4th language, even if only to be able to continue to sip from the vast artistic and design depth of Japan over the rest of my life.