Most jobs are. I only suggested it off-handedly and not seriously, but if you ever wanted to get a job in the industry, I'd recommend moving to Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York. Optionally, you can use a friend or family member's address to fake a local presence (making preparations to be available for an interview, if necessary), and then apply anyway.
You definitely don't need to visit Japan to become fluent. While there, you'll probably run into people who will try to speak in (broken) English to you when they realize you aren't a master of their language, which will complicate matters further. Of course, it's true that being in a country where the primary language is the one you're studying can be helpful, but you're better off enforcing immersion in other ways.Originally Posted by Silenka
You may already know this, but one of the best means of studying language is to do so as naturally as possible. For one, avoid flash cards that have the word in your first language. Instead, look for cards that use pictures and words alone. For example, if you had a Japanese card for "rice," it shouldn't say "rice"—it should say "米" (more info here), or the Romaji version of that, "bei." (As you've studied already, you probably recognized the character, but that's beside the point.)
Secondly, you should immerse yourself. Watch anime without subtitles. Listen to conversations and language instruction audio (that isn't just "Word in English," "Word in Japanese" style) when you're driving to work. Force yourself to read about things you're interested in by reading Japanese articles about it.
Alternatively, you could pay for a full immersion course that requires living on-site. That would be much more effective than a few years of exposure while you're teaching students English all day, as you'll basically be speaking the "wrong language" while at work, and will be tired otherwise.
This video is someone talking about their own immersion experiences, and it provides some reference links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BISS6efQoOo
I can understand and sympathize in relation to all of these things, as I've studied Japanese, French, and German. My knowledge of German is best, though my familiarity with Japanese culture is likely more significant. I don't talk about French, because fuck French.Originally Posted by Silenka
Anyway.
With the sheer excess of online language-studying communities available today, I'd have to completely disagree with your stating that teaching yourself won't work. That isn't true. By using an intelligent approach, I've successfully taught myself a fair amount of German, and have been more successful with that than I was with French at college. (My Japanese studies, which happened about ten years ago, were actually magnificent, but cut short when my private tutor moved away.) It would require a lot of discipline, but there are entire communities dedicated to facilitating language study. There are even many smartphone apps that are completely free and capable of providing a reasonable amount of lessons (Busuu being one of the providers).
Now, teaching yourself to complete fluency isn't as feasible. I wouldn't fault you for being unable to do this. There are a lot of free and/or cheap online resources that can bring you very close, however. Something that's been gaining steam for years are live online teaching offerings, such as LiveMocha's.
Absolutely.Originally Posted by Silenka