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How long does it take to learn fluent Japanese?

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boysenberry:
I've been told that learning languages is a great way to prevent Alzheimer's disease when you get older. It makes you seem more of an attractive person and increases your job prospects and ability to make friends. And, after watching some anime and other weird stuff on youtube, I've gotten this urge to learn Japanese all of the sudden and just be immersed with its culture. I don't think I'll do it for VCE, I'm a bit late for that but maybe some time in the future, just for fun. So, here's my question, how long does it take to learn fluent Japanese for an adult?

What about other languages? Is the amount of time taken roughly the same?

kyzoo:
Assuming that learning Japanese is similar to learning Chinese, several years (at least 3).

Fyrefly:

Mastering a language is a life-long task... fluency is something that must be maintained.

Initial acquisition is different for everyone.
I'd agree that as a bare minimum, 3 years will be needed.
This would be very intensive, and would almost certainly involve living in Japan.
I think the average length of time is closer to 5 years for most people.

The JLPT is a decent indicator of fluency.
To pass level 1 (the highest level), it is estimated that 900 hours of study are required.
This would mean 50min of study every day for 3 years, or 2.5h of study every day for a year.
Personally though, I think more than 900 hours may be required for most.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Language_Proficiency_Test
http://www.jlpt.jp/e/

boysenberry:

--- Quote from: Fyrefly on February 12, 2010, 11:54:11 pm ---Mastering a language is a life-long task... fluency is something that must be maintained.

Initial acquisition is different for everyone.
I'd agree that as a bare minimum, 3 years will be needed.
This would be very intensive, and would almost certainly involve living in Japan.
I think the average length of time is closer to 5 years for most people.
--- End quote ---

Hmmm...that takes all the fun out of it. Not sure, whether I'd be able to cope doing this while studying at uni or working a full-time job here.

I wonder how people like the pope manage to learn around 7-9 languages.  :P

herzy:
its different in europe - there's a lot of immersion, and some people grow up speaking 3... and learning the other three. for example, in germany all students start learning english in year 4 and have to keep doing it till year 10... like maths in australia. they go on excursions to england, etc., etc.. the italian class goes on excursion to the alps to go skiing etc., . plus some people get foreign language-speaking nannies which helps a lot. my grandfather grew up speaking hungarian (mother tongue) and german completely fluently. in school (like prep) he was taught italian, latin and french, and when he was in POW camp he learnt english (well, the american version of...) fluently by speaking to them constantly. somewhere along the way he learnt rudimentary spanish. but yes that whole thing is very different to the australian idea of just picking up a language through sheer labour.

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