Listening Comprehension and Drunk Salarymen Learning a foreign language is tough, and many will say that Japanese is one of the toughest!
One of the hardest things though about learning Japanese for foreigners is that many Japanese are shy, especially towards foreigners.
Most Japanese will only take the initiative to strike up a conversation in the most extreme situations. For example, if your're wearing a giant rucksack, carrying a beat-up map and looking completely lost, or... But probably the most common is when a
Japanese person is completely drunk. They will most definitely want to speak to you then.
Even my foreign friends who are extremely fluent in Japanese tell me they are hard pressed to catch the slurred grumbling of men who randomly approach them in bars, on the street, or in trains. Each question is delivered with the volume turned way up, and followed by a gust of stinky laughter and flying spit!
[In Japanese] "ARE YOU AMERICAN? HAHAHA... TEACH ME ENGLISH. HAHAHA... YOU LIKE JAPAN? YOU LIKE SUSHI? HAHAHA!!"
Listening to this each night on my way home from teaching is enough to drive me to drink. I'm now seriously considering buying a pair of dark sunnies, a huge hat and hiding myself on the way home from now on.
Harvey
(English Teacher - Tokyo, Japan)