A question, if I may… my family is looking to travel to Japan. How necessary is it to be fluent in the language? More from an “I don’t want to be an asshole” standpoint as opposed to a “I’ll be lost forever” standpoint.
It’s not at all necessary. Google Translate works super well, and a lot of Japanese also speak English. Pretty much all the important signs are also in English.
Much more important than learning the language is learning the culture of politeness. I highly recommend looking up non-clickbaity youtube videos that talk about how to behave in Japan for your first trip. The cultural differences are pretty strong.
A question, if I may… my family is looking to travel to Japan. How necessary is it to be fluent in the language? More from an “I don’t want to be an asshole” standpoint as opposed to a “I’ll be lost forever” standpoint.
It’s not at all necessary. Google Translate works super well, and a lot of Japanese also speak English. Pretty much all the important signs are also in English.
That’s good news… I’d love to not be the stereotypical “ugly American”
Much more important than learning the language is learning the culture of politeness. I highly recommend looking up non-clickbaity youtube videos that talk about how to behave in Japan for your first trip. The cultural differences are pretty strong.
That makes sense, we’ve started studying it just a bit along with basic language lessons. Thanks for the advice though!