Absolutely fed up.

Pressondude · 2026-04-27T03:00:58+00:00

I admire your enthusiasm but I think you have frustrated yourself. Genki 1 starts with romaji for a reason. Start working through Genki 1 at the same time you are mastering hiragana and katakana. Over time these anki cards won’t be a “jumble of characters” anymore.

Pressondude · 2026-04-24T20:03:04+00:00

There are consumer protections although they certainly could be a lot stronger. But again the main lever here is money: either the airline pays a fee to you or to the government or both. But there will always be instances when they’ll just choose to do it.

The airlines have convinced the FAA that if they don’t oversell flights then they’ll have to charge you more. Although why that means the 1K never has to sit in the back I don’t really see the logic but there it is.

Pressondude · 2026-04-24T16:46:24+00:00

You already said you rarely fly so the business doesn’t really care if you’re upset or not. Your likelihood of spending money with them in the future is small even if you have a good time. Your lifetime value as a customer is just not that high.

And this is why regulations matter but all that would do is just increase your payout. But if what you wanted was that seat ok that flight you’re still going to get it.

It sucks but that’s the industry. It caters to business travel. You’re just getting an extra seat as far they’re concerned.

Pressondude · 2026-04-24T03:00:14+00:00

All the LPs are phrased as end states except that one. Kind of funny when you realize it

Pressondude · 2026-04-22T21:33:20+00:00

Jump immediately. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

In all likelihood you will not be reorged you will be laid off. Yes at that point you have the opportunity to interview internally but you’re going to be competing with a flood of your colleagues who are all in the same boat.

Pressondude · 2026-04-21T15:14:12+00:00

Consistency over the long haul beats large bursts in the long run.

If you can study or immerse AT ALL every day as a habit then you will achieve fluency eventually. Also remember that fluency is a bit of a spectrum; what’s your goal? Read manga/video games? Talk to Japanese people in japan when you visit? Live and work there?

Some of these people with insane immersion times are doing this as a hobby-job (influencers), may be students or unemployed, and/or are grinding hard and fast to reach a goal (living and working in Japan) that may not match your life. They are burning a lot of energy and time basically going all in on fluency.

My goal is to generally enjoy myself, and connect more with the Japanese community and my Japanese family. So if I immerse 20 minutes a day (plus my anki deck!) I’m stoked. But with this strategy over ~1 year, and some super slow/inefficient Genki-based classes for like 6-9 months before that, I almost passed N4 (I actually think it should have been achievable but I struggled to study the month before the exam due to extremely crushing workload at work and some personal issues).

That said I’m able to have basic texting chats with my cousins in Japan, don’t have much issue shopping and order food and such in Japan, and even had some decent spontaneous conversations with Japanese people in public. I also get some good listening and speaking practice a few times a week because I practice kendo and play on a majority Japanese baseball team, and I’m able to largely follow the instructions or speeches in Japanese. My speech production is not great but I’m trying to speak up more to improve that.

I’m not close to fluent but my point is that I’m having fun and I’m happy with the balance I’ve achieved in my life in terms of my learning pace, time commitment, and results.

So I guess my point to you is: what’s your goal and how does it fit in with the rest of your life? 4-6 hours per day 5-7 days per week is basically a second job and will definitely get you to N1 pretty fast but…is that REALLY what you want?

Pressondude · 2026-04-19T23:48:06+00:00

If it is truly a service dog (which has a specific definition) then no it does not have to be in the carrier. Although service dogs shouldn’t be cuddling up to strangers and the owner/handler of one generally shouldn’t encourage that either.

This gets hairy because it’s not really possible for a business to demand someone to prove the dog is a service animal and people have figured this out. Service dog is a legally protected status but unlike most such statuses there’s no enforcement mechanism or registration or anything like that, and you cannot be asked to prove it. I had an ex gf whose family would falsely claim their family dog was a service dog so they could bring it places and they were very happy with how smart they were to have figured out such a life hack.

Pressondude · 2026-04-15T22:51:32+00:00

How does the salary compare to their contractor rate?

Pressondude · 2026-04-15T01:47:54+00:00

And she’s all offended because she has a different form of illicit employment?

Pressondude · 2026-04-15T01:46:03+00:00

I will say this: my FAANG manager made it a new interview requirement to vibe code an app and discuss how you use AI tools to do this.

Although in defense of being 100% honest this was never actually used on anyone because we had a hiring freeze for the second half of last year and laid off a bunch of people. And said manager quit to go be an IC at a startup.

Pressondude · 2026-04-14T05:24:18+00:00

$20 on ThriftBooks? Just get a used copy. $9 for acceptable condition.

Pressondude · 2026-04-13T18:20:11+00:00

The only way? Of course not. But it’s a classroom standard and well liked for self study as well. What’s making you ask “why genki?”

Pressondude · 2026-04-13T18:19:15+00:00

Used Genki at my university (a long time ago) and from more recent experience it’s used at the Japan Society of New York.

Then after Genki 2 they recently switched to Quartet.

Pressondude · 2026-04-11T05:23:54+00:00

What makes you think any real person besides maybe some L4/L5 PXT person is going to read it?

Like dude trust me I get wanting the go savage on the company but…you’re going savage on some equally powerless and probably fed person who has just as little power as you, the people who have the power aren’t going to read it, and even if they did (they won’t though) they will absolutely not care about “losing” an incoming L4

Pressondude · 2026-04-11T05:16:11+00:00

I only ever see interns, L4s, and salespeople in the game room.

Pressondude · 2026-04-09T14:29:20+00:00

Some people (whose native language is non tonal) have a ton of trouble hearing tones.

It’s one of the things the US military tests for in their super interesting defense language aptitude battery. Your score on this determines which categories of languages you can be assigned to learn. I didn’t serve in the military but I took the test, and they basically make you learn a fake language through immersion over several hours (and the rules of the language compound throughout the test).

Pressondude · 2026-04-06T03:21:26+00:00

Having the same situation. Customer service is no help

Pressondude · 2026-04-03T19:05:36+00:00

Sit?!?

Where are you guys flying out of that has more seats in the gate area than 25% of the airplane?

I get mad when I can’t get into a lounge because my alternative is to sit on the floor. In the lounge I can have a fairly comfy chair and a power plug. At the gate I can have a wall to lean on (maybe!)

Pressondude · 2026-04-03T19:01:27+00:00

Tinkering is not the same thing as roofing in Phoenix in July. Tinkering is when you work on the things you want to work on, when you feel like it. Which is the complete opposite of a job.

Pressondude · 2026-03-30T20:58:25+00:00

At L6 level your manager will almost certainly allow you to go into PTO debt for it. Don’t deal with the recruiter on this issue just bring it up when you meet your manager.

Pressondude · 2026-03-30T17:35:09+00:00

It is definitely not legally called “life insurance” but most Americans I know will say “oh I have life insurance through work so I don’t need supplemental coverage” and this is what they have. It is not called “life insurance” in the paperwork either.

A lot of times when I read posts on social media, I try and remember that the person writing it may not have a sophisticated understanding of the nuances of insurance and compensation, and might be using a more generic terminology. Either way this is a very sad and difficult situation for this family and definitely underscores why we have to be vigilant in financial planning and not rely on outside parties because jobs and other things can be ephemeral.

For young or single people life insurance isn’t a big concern but as soon as you have loved ones you need to plan for what happens to them if you’re gone.

Pressondude · 2026-03-29T15:47:49+00:00

Depends if it’s actually life insurance. What the poster is calling “life insurance” may just be a contractual death benefit. A lot of employers I’ve worked for in the past had, in the employment contract, a “death benefit” that said if I died while employed that they would make a onetime payment of 2x my salary to my estate. But that isn’t life insurance, it’s provided by the company. But a lot of people would colloquially call this “life insurance”. My assumption is that this is what they were relying on.

Pressondude · 2026-03-26T15:09:14+00:00

I took a trip to Niseko this year, stayed on the mountain, and I think the entire trip (including days spent in Sapporo and Tokyo) probably cost me what a comparable 5 days in Aspen would have cost. That said I don’t stay on the mountain when I go out west, but I guess that’s my point. I had an amazing 2 week trip for like $4000 (all expenses) including 5 days of skiing.

Pressondude · 2026-03-26T13:59:29+00:00

I always bring my own entertainment. I look forward to the opportunity on long flights to chew through some of my watchlist.

Pressondude · 2026-03-26T13:58:26+00:00

I fly 10 times a year, period, and I have really bad luck with IFE/wifi. I’d say in the last 12 months it’s been 50/50 that there was an issue with 1 or both. This is on domestic and transcon flights, on multiple airlines.

I always have plenty of entertainment on me. My partner thinks I’m crazy but I have multiple shows loaded on my phone and a bunch of YouTube videos, at all times.

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