 Hey guys, it's Zenaike, the Zina girl, and today we're gonna be talking about how you can convince your parents to let you go to Japan So let's get right into it If you're new to my channel, my name is Senna. I'm an African-American girl who's been living in Japan for four years now I moved here when I was 18 years old and I'm now 22. I'm a fashion student and I love living here I absolutely adore my life in Japan But before I could start this amazing journey that I did living here I first had to have a conversation with my parents being like, hey Can I go to Japan? Is that cool? And I'm sure if you guys are in high school or if you're young and you know, you're still living with your parents You're gonna have to have that conversation with them at some point like hey, listen have this plan I want to go to Japan. What do you think about it? And I think most parents when they hear that they're like No, but I think there are ways that you can convince your parents and of course it depends like I know some parents are more strict than others But these are rules that I still use to convince my parents and to show them that I was really serious about moving to Japan So I just want to show them with you guys All right So the first thing that you guys have to do is you're gonna have to list the reasons why you want to move to Japan now Some reasons are a little bit better at convincing parents than others if you're like mom I absolutely love anime and honestly like I really just want to check out this anime cafe Like I heard about from Instagram and honestly like my friends will be that it's really awesome And if I go it's gonna be really great And I promise you it's gonna be like honestly the best experience of my life. I'm like, yeah Your parents are gonna be like sis. You're gonna stay right here, okay? So when you're making this list of reasons why you want to move to Japan Yes, maybe you can have the anime cafe that you've always wanted to check out at the back of your mind But the reasons that you want to list out that you're gonna give to your parents have to be things that they can get behind You know reasons like I want to study in Japan. I want to do a year a gap year in Japan I want to get some work experience in Japan Or I really like Japanese culture or get some language skills I think your parents can get behind an idea like that because it's uh a little bit more. How do you say? Mature so make sure you're making lists of reasons that make sense To your parents, you know, I mean So now that you've made a list of reasons why you want to move to Japan The next step is to have a plan in place Okay, you can't just be going to Japan with no plan like what's your japan plan? Come on write it down, honey Your japan plan could be anything like okay. I want to study for a semester Or it can be I want to study for a year or I want to come to japan for three years I want to get this much experience. I want to work in this kind of company If you have like a plan of some kind It's honestly gonna go a long way in convincing your parents your parents are gonna be like, okay All right, I see you you're trying to organize yourself. I can appreciate that All right, so once you have a plan in place The next thing you're gonna want to do is make a list of all the things you're going to need to pay for Obviously if you want to move to japan the first thing you're gonna need is a plane ticket You're also going to need to figure out your rent situation You're gonna have to figure out how much you're going to pay for tuition if you're coming here for school Maybe your visa requires you to have a certain amount of money in your bank So you got to do some research and find out about that and just you know plan ahead Like if you know that for the first couple months, maybe you're not going to be able to get a job Then plan out the amount of money you're going to need for the first maybe three months For just like living expenses, you know and I plan on making a video about this a little bit in the future But yeah, if you guys are interested in seeing something like that, make sure you let me know in the comments below I think it's really important to list out the things you're going to need financially So that you can start to plan out how much money you're going to need And that actually leads me to my next point, which is you're going to need to save money on your own Okay, you can't expect your parents to save money for you if you're not even saving for yourself You know what I mean like honey, please get to work put that money in your bank Now I know when you're younger, you're like my mom's got this. My dad's got this. My parents don't pay for me It's cool. No no no no no sis if you want to convince your parents to let you go abroad You're going to need to start saving up money by yourself And I know a lot of you guys watching maybe you're like, you know, not the legal working age in your country Maybe you still can't get a job yet, but honestly just do whatever it takes Ask your uncle sister's brother's cousin's girlfriend's nieces auntie's wife To just give you a job watching the dog mowing the lawn Washing cars do whatever it is that you can do to legally make money legally All right, don't be doing illegal stuff. That's not cute. Your parents might go like that Well, if you are like just being a hustler saving whatever money that you possibly can I'm sure your parents will appreciate it and they'll see that. Wow You're really working hard to make this dream of yours come true And of course they'll want to support you now the next step is learn the language So obviously if you're planning to move to japan, learn japanese Go online look up some japanese lessons start learning hiragana start learning katagana start learning a little kanji And if you can you can also maybe look up in your neighborhood if you know, they're maybe offering some japanese lessons Like when I was um back in canada I actually found out that the embassy nearby was offering japanese lessons to people who were interested And so I took those classes and I did that for like about six months and that was great It was really great way to help convince my parents to see how serious I was and to tell them like hey listen Not only am I planning this out? But like I actually do want to learn the language so that when I get there I can you know figure things out on my own two feet. I can talk to people. I can communicate I can ask questions and yeah, that'll go a long way to prove that you're really serious about this plan of yours So now you've learned japanese you're saving up money You've got a plan in place the next step that you're going to want to do Is you're going to want to pick a date as to when you're going to move to japan now when you're picking a date be patient Don't rush. You don't have to move to japan tomorrow. Japan does not go anywhere. The island is still going to be here, honey Okay, just make sure you're picking a date that makes sense for you a date that's going to allow you to save up enough money A date that's going to allow you to just be comfortable when you arrive Because you don't want to like rush and you're okay. If mama dad I'm moving to japan in three months and then in three months you don't have enough money saved up You don't know what you're doing and then you arrive and you're like, oh my god. What have I done? I'm moving to a whole new country. I have no money. I have no one to help me. I don't speak the language I don't know what I'm doing. Don't let it get to that point. Okay. Just don't do it And another thing I actually have to suggest um when you're picking a date to come to japan Make sure you give yourself a little bit of leeway Okay, so that you can arrive get comfortable and then start your like You know everyday life and get into your routine So for the first two weeks I was just walking around getting used to the train system figuring out how to get to shibuya How to go to harajuku how to recharge my past mo how to you know go to the convenient and like, you know buy snacks How to just navigate japan as a country, you know So I think it's really important for you guys to give yourself that little bit of leeway Uh, and yeah, that's a little bonus tip for you now that you've planned it out You've picked a date to make sense You've talked to your parents about it. You saved some money. You've done all the steps The next thing you're going to want to do is contact anyone who lives in japan So if you have a friend or maybe a friend of a friend an acquaintance somebody who you know of Who lives in japan try your best to reach out to them and ask them as many questions as possible Find out what the experience is going to be like so you can be as prepared as you possibly can So for me actually that person was um a friend of our families who basically had already gone to japan several times She already spoke japanese. She had japanese textbooks too and she gave me so many tips She just told me what it's like to go to japan what it's like to live here Also, she was just talking to be a black girl as well So I was like, okay, like what's it like being a black girl in japan? Like can you give me tips? Am I gonna have to deal with racist ends? Do I have to like prepare myself to You know get into some fist fights? Of course. She said no and guess what guys If you don't know anyone who lives in japan, you know me send me a little dm Text me your you know concerns your inquiries the things you want to find out I always love to answer you guys's questions and I already get dms from a lot of you guys And I think that's great You guys are already taking really big steps to like, you know make your dreams come true But the one thing you have to keep in mind though is that everybody's experience is different And you are definitely going to learn more from your own personal experience than you are from someone else's experience So just take everything that people tell you with a grain of salt because your experience is going to be different Just keep that in mind. Okay. The next thing is be consistent Okay, if you're saying today you want to go to japan and then tomorrow you want to go to timbuk too Your parents gonna be like, what's going on sis? You gotta get together. You know, you gotta be consistent It's gonna make it so much easier for you to be consistent if you've done all the steps that we've talked about so far Because obviously if you have a planning place, you're gonna want to go through with it all the way But make sure that you're constantly talking about japan. You're telling them Hey mom and dad, have you heard that like this article that I read about this thing that you're interested in? That's a great way to get your parents to be on board by the way Make sure you like slip them things that you know they would be interested in about your panel And if you're like learning japanese for three months and then you give up after two months and then you're like, you know I forget this. I'm not really into learning japanese. Your parents can be like, um What happened with japanese? I thought you said you were going to japan So let's say you've done all these steps You planned you saved you've contacted people you've decided a date that makes sense and your parents are still Not down to let you come to japan This is kind of like a last resort This is something actually that I used as well and it's a technique that I think might work for you guys So maybe you're asking your parents to move to japan for a year. You're like, hey mom and dad I want to do this course. It's a year long. What do you think and they're like a year And no never I would never let you do that I think in that case the best thing you can do is say, okay, how about instead of a year Is it okay if I go for three months or is it okay if I go for just one month or even one week? Convince your parents that you come for a very short amount of time and after they've let you go for a little bit Maybe they'll ease up to the idea of letting you go a little bit longer, you know And that's what I did I actually asked my parents to just let me come here for three months first And I got the chance to see what japan was like for myself And it really helped me also get a real sense of whether or not japan was the country for me Because some people do come to japan thinking like this is gonna be great. I'm gonna have a great time. Yeah And then they get here and they don't have a great time and they end up going back to their home country way sooner than they expected You don't want that to be the case for you So try that out. It might work for you and that brings me to my last point, which is let some time pass I think if your parents see you for like two straight years Just constantly gathering information about japan saving up money for japan getting as much contact with people who live in japan as possible Your parents eventually are going to have to warm up to the idea that this is something that you've always wanted to do This is a dream of yours and even if they never really warm up to that idea Letting time pass is going to allow you to also get older to be more mature And guess what the more time passes by the more money you'll have saved up The more japanese you'll have learned the more information you'll have the more you'll be able to just really be completely Kind of independent and you'll be able to prove to them that listen This is something I want to do and now that i'm old enough to do it. Can I? So yeah, I hope it works out for all of you guys I hope that you know your relationship with your parents gets better as time goes by that you just keep earning their trust And yeah, let me know in the comments below what your parents reaction was when you told them you wanted to go to japan I'd love to hear what your experiences were so let me know in the comments below And i'm going to link two videos here um that I made in the past talking about japan So make sure you check those out too because they're very interesting and i'm sure they'll be helpful to you So yeah, see you in the next video. Bye