How can an introvert Asian engineer like me make friends?

I had to use Google Docs because my text exceeded 2000 characters. I apologize.

The one thing that helped me the most when I just finished university and lived alone in a foreign country without any friends was to take a look at activities and clubs nearby and become a member. Since I was shy and found it hard to express myself, I decided to force myself to join an improvisation theater group. This really helped me a lot to meet people I wouldn't have otherwise met and to be in situation where it's much easier to communicate because you have some shared interest which isn't work.

This may sound trite but I think that this really helped. My choice of doing theater was also great to improve language skills and confidence I think (my english wasn't that great either then).

I recommend clubs where there are activities because if you just go to meetups, it's often very hard as the new guy to approach people. Social activities like improv theater or sports or board games or anything like this creates a basis of interaction with the people around you making it much easier to meet.

1. Why haven't you been social in school? Too much pressure to get good grades? Fear of being rejected?

2. Why do you live alone? I'm 26 years old guy living in a foreign country and I live with a flatmate. I'd hate living alone.

I had a friend in a similar situation as you (a young Japanese guy with basic english living in Poland). My friends make him to go out. It took a while to him to get comfortable.

The Bay Area has a strong "rationalist" community (lesswrong.com, CFAR, MIRI, etc.) which has tons of people like you. They have meetups all the time and are generally welcoming, I've had a lot of fun hanging out with them. You don't have to buy into the ideas, and you'll get to meet some interesting characters, to say the least.

Making friends is incredibly difficult once one is an adult, so I won't offer advice on that. But you mention that your English is not at conversational level. Therefore any attempt to make friends will be doomed before you evrn start. You need to take English classes.