when i grow up i'm planning to visit japan and korea, any of u guys have any cool foreign travel experiences u wanna share? also i wanna learn a bit of japan and korean later on to show some respect to their culture when i go there, but one thing i worry about is looking dumb ngl with bad pronunciation or something of their language
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The biggest problem will be language barriers. The portrayal of East-Asian countries by westerners in terms of how approachable the country is EXTREMELY unrealistic. Don't expect to go in there without a mapped out idea of what you are going to do because its unlikely any Japanese or Korean person will understand English (I'm from Taiwan and the best move was to literally write in fkin Chinese to get anything across; english didn't cut it).
Respectful people (for the most part) but if you want to order something at the restaurant, pointing at parts of the menu would be the easiest + using basic connector words from the menu to order (if they have some english on the menu, just say that). Asking for directions probably won't work out so have a plan of what you'll do.
You would expect English to be solid enough for day-day communication but its really not.
The reality for Asian countries (not just Japan + Korea) is that despite the education system requiring English, most of them can only understand bits and pieces of broken english. If you write down the English however, that'll be slightly different and they'll probably be far more proficient in that aspect.
Just have a mapped out plan of what you'll do. Don't expect to improvise the mother language on the spot or use English to get around. It'll be quite frustrating and its no ones fault really for that.
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