[The Gaijin]

Thanks guys, great input. Talking to myself in Hindi or Mandarin in the subway would keep the weirdos away!

I got home from Japan after my first year and thought I had done pretty well..then I met an old boy at the local coffee shop who went through a DOD Japanese program in WWII. THAT was an intensive program! The thing was - the better you did - the longer you stayed in school and the higher up you went in the chain of command. The guys that tested out or dropped out of the program went right to the front, to put to good use what they had learned... Talk about an incentive to study!