So you wanna learn Japanese, huh? It's a daunting task, but one David McNeill of Expat Empire tackled quite effectively. If you're looking for language learning resources specifically for Japanese, this episode of Alone with Peter is chalk full of them.

On season 2, episode 19 of Alone with Peter David McNeill of Expat Empire talks about his journey towards mastering the Japanese language, how he moved to Japan, and some of the struggles he encountered living in a foreign culture as an expat.

Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Listen on Stitcher Listen on Podchaser Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Listen on Stitcher Listen on Podchaser

Enjoying the show? Follow us on Instagram!

Be sure to follow Alone with Peter on Instagram for highlight clips of the latest episodes, previews of upcoming guests, and more. Follow along, and send me a DM to let me know what you think of the show!

David McNeill Founder of Expat Empire

If you want to get in touch with David McNeill or learn more about what Expat Empire has to offer your move abroad check out the links below.

Website: https://expatempire.com

Podcast: https://expatempire.com/podcast-overview/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/expatempire

Instagram: https://instagram.com/expatempire

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/expatempire/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ExpatEmpire

Japanese Language Resources Mentioned in this episode

Here are some Japanese resources mentioned in the podcast episode. Happy language learning!

Genki - https://genki.japantimes.co.jp/index_en

Japanese Pod 101 - https://www.japanesepod101.com/

Anki - https://apps.ankiweb.net/

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar - https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic-Japanese-Grammar/dp/4789004546

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar - https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Intermediate-Japanese-Grammar/dp/4789007758

A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar - https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Advanced-Japanese-Grammar-English/dp/4789012956

Please enjoy part 2 of our interview with David McNeill, Founder of Expat Empire

*Transcripts may contain a few typos. With interviews ranging from 1-2 hours, it can be difficult to catch minor errors.

Peter Kersting: Welcome to Alone with Peter, a podcast for entrepreneurs, artists, digital nomads, and people seeking personal growth. We're back for part two of our interview with David McNeil, the founder of Expat Empire. What is Expat Empire? Well, you'll have to stay tuned to find out.

Peter Kersting: Right now. We're talking with David about Japan because surprise, surprise. David is fluent in Japanese, and if you looking at him, you would never guess it because he is the wightest Mofo I've ever seen he's from the Bay Area, fluent in Japanese. So tell me about that. How did that get started for you because obviously in the previous episode, if you wanna hear about it, you guys go back. David has family who have had interesting ties to Japan and it's kind of sparked an interest for you, but how did the study of the language start? That is a whole other ball of yarn.

David McNeill: Yeah, absolutely. I got interested as we talked about through, honestly at least on a personal level, obviously there was the, there was the, you know, family elements and things like that that were always in the background, but also just getting into the Japanese culture through the anime, the manga, the video games, the stuff that's been popular over the years. And at least for me, the gateway, the entry was, Dragonball Z which I think was popular for a lot of kids of my generation. And I think what it was though was that I saw it and I was like, this is so cool. And I love this, but then it also was me in the back of my mind thinking, you know, it'd be really way cooler would be to watch this without subtitles or to watch it in Japanese.

David McNeill: I guess I was watching it in English at the time. Of course. And I think that just was one of the things that sparked the interest. There were a few other things like, I, I don't know, it was just something in the back of my mind and I kept, it's one of those things where if you have it in the back of your mind, you keep seeing it pop up here and there. And it just kind of grew into something that I was actually kind of interested in pursuing.

David McNeill: It was around those years where at least my dad was like, you should get a hobby, you should like develop a skill on something. And I was like, yeah, that's a good idea. , sure, dad. I tried, you know, playing music and I couldn't really stick with that. And I've tried sports over the years and I mean, I did stick with some of those over a couple years, but it just wasn't my passion.

David McNeill: And so I was like, okay, language. And I was just never that drawn to learning Spanish or French or German, like most, you know, a lot of kids do in school, in the us. And anyway, Japanese was kind of sitting there in the background. And, um, my mom was working also on the side for a book selling company at the time. And there was a discount, uh, some promotion going on for the sellers. And I looked through there and I'm like, oh, a Japanese book and cassette tape set. That sounds pretty good. Get me that. And then it took a couple months and a couple tries for me to stick with it. But then it became a thing where every day, honestly, every day for 30 minutes a day, I sat down and did it. And then I did that every single day at 12 years old,

Peter Kersting: Every day for 30 minutes a day. Hang on before you keep going, because we're gonna talk about this for a second here. Okay. I'm sure the listeners may know, but if they don't Japanese, at least for a native English speaker is probably one of the most challenging languages you picked one of the hardest ones you could do because there's three different alphabets, right? It's character based. There's not, it's definitely not. It's definitely not Roman stuff and the pronunciation and everything else is gonna be as foreign to you as possible. Did you realize how much you were getting yourself into when you chose Japanese?

David McNeill: So not no, no. I just thought it would be cool.

Peter Kersting: Does anyone ever,

David McNeill: I think, I think it's one of those things that maybe if you have the, the perspective, if you're, I don't know if you've learned languages before or you're older and have more demands on your time, then maybe there's that point where you're like, oh, you know what? I don't know if I just, I don't know if I want to go down this path and I'm glad that I did, but it was one of those things where, I mean, again, I was truly, tr...