I work in a Japanese company here in Singapore in a middle management position and there are a mix of maybe 50% Japanese expats and 50% locals.
I think it would probably improve my career prospects within the organisation if I speak Japanese, although it is not a necessity and 100% of the local senior staff speak no Japanese at all, despite working here decades. I don't really need to learn to read/write Japanese, as documentation is all in English, but my long term goal would be to effectively explain complex concepts/ideas in Japanese, for the expats who are not fluent in English. It doesn't have to be elegant Japanese, just effective and clear.
The problem is other than this, I have no interest in Japanese (other than Japanese food) and the sole reason why I am doing this is because of career enhancement. So I suspect motivation might be a problem if I embark on this journey.
Having said that, any thoughts on how to keep motivated to learn Japanese despite a full work day?
Also I think that it would be better if I start with a business Japanese course to get me going as quickly as possible so that I can engage in some basic conversations with the Japanese colleagues here to find motivation and improve my spoken Japanese, rather than focus on the holistic reading/writing/speaking approach.
Certification is not really a goal for me.
Would appreciate all view points.
Hi, am a private Japanese teacher teaching for the past 7 yrs and have seen a fair share of students like yourself.
You are right to say that motivation may be a problem and you mentioned that you are doing this for career advancement, which makes it another problem.
I think firstly, you need a good teacher to motivate you to study. Secondly, you need to tell yourself you want to do well and identify what is your goal (e.g to effectively explain complex concepts/ideas in Japanese), usually that will take about 3-4 yrs of study.
You can start to watch some Japanese dramas like Legal High/Legal High 2/Boku no Ita Jikan just to stimulate your interest level...
Lastly read success stories of people who have done well learning Japanese. =)
For your info, a fast track in Japanese also requires you to work hard (e.g 2 hours of self study + 2 hours of class) a week...
Take a weekend class instead of a weekday class. =)