How long does it take to learn fluent Japanese?

[vexx]

Anyone can learn how to speak/read any language at quite a high level (being able to travel independently and communicate with ease) with intensive study of anywhere from 3months-12months. Though to be 'fluency' you need far longer than this, most people can be good at a language and claim it to be fluency, there is a big difference as you really need to live in the country for a long time to be considered fluent. Unless you have studied chinese or know chinese, japanese will be towards the other side of this purely due to it's written language being very difficult.
Romantic languages are far easier and it's possible to be speaking one of the easier ones like Spanish or Italian with a high level in a few months depending on your willingness to work.

[Cthulhu]

I only know one Japanese word besides SEPPUKU.
Hādosekkusudezāto and even then I think its a non-word.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

If I was only born as chinese. Funny thing is, I'm 1/3 Japanese but I don't know how to speak in the language. That's why I'm having a self study, but I might try learning it in uni if i can.

Although it's not that hard for me in regards of the pronunciation. I'm only learning it since May (I've been stopping every once in awhile due to overload of school works), once I get used to it and actually used them whilst talking to my friend, It tends to get easier except for the writing. It's also helps when you watch animes, and listening to music.  :smitten:

That's awesome good luck

The thing with Kanji is, the more you know, the easier it becomes to learn more, because the components of radicals that make up the Kanji come up again and again, so you get used to seeing them.

What resources are you mainly using to learn Jap? Self learning a language is a hard road, but it's so much easier these days with the internet I was self learning Mandarin during VCE, but damn SACs and study kept getting in the way =[

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Anyone can learn how to speak/read any language at quite a high level (being able to travel independently and communicate with ease) with intensive study of anywhere from 3months-12months. Though to be 'fluency' you need far longer than this, most people can be good at a language and claim it to be fluency, there is a big difference as you really need to live in the country for a long time to be considered fluent. Unless you have studied chinese or know chinese, japanese will be towards the other side of this purely due to it's written language being very difficult.
Romantic languages are far easier and it's possible to be speaking one of the easier ones like Spanish or Italian with a high level in a few months depending on your willingness to work.

This is very true. As native English speakers the Romantic languages are 10 times easier than Japanese =[

Of course when you become pro at Japanese, Chinese and Korean become much easier

[vexx]

^ Yep, Japanese aids Other asian languages, but English aids some parts of Romantic+Germanic languages
Haha i'm like you, trying to self-study a language, mine is probably appeared due to the boredom of all my subjects, but i try not to do anything but it's difficult to resist >_> But i'll self-study over summer as ill have so much time!
There are sooo many resources out there to learn languages, and you just have to find the right one for you and then a few months is so realistic to obtain a high level in anything! (maybe not written for asian languages if you've never done them hehe)

I really want to learn Japanese, but it is so difficult to learn the written that i'll wait for a couple of years;)

[Fyrefly]

I only know one Japanese word besides SEPPUKU.
Hādosekkusudezāto and even then I think its a non-word.

That is *not* a word... we've had this discussion... -.-"

And you do know other Japanese words!

Sushi, karate, judo, kendo, sumo, aikido, jujitsu, tsunami, tycoon, konnichiwa, sayounara, anime, manga, teriyaki... uh... wasabi... kamikaze, haiku, futon, origami, karaoke... samurai, sudoku... umm... bonsai, kimono, miso, sake, sashimi... udon, tempura, koi, geisha... hmm... hentai, sensei...

NINJA!!!

[IntoTheNewWorld]

hentai

lulz.

[Furbob]

speaking of learning Kanji, I really dont like my Japanese teacher's approach when it comes to me writing non-prescribed VCE kanji and sometimes having a small stroke or wrong radical, she tells me to just stick to "the VCE kanji so you don't penalize yourself for this"

The thing is, she herself is native Japanese but I kinda feel shut down that she doesn't realize my efforts with learning-kanji-in-my-spare-time-like-a-nut but instead just telling me to follow the VCE kanji list 

Anyway, off-topic-rant out of the way, Japanese = super fun happy Kanji time, seriously writing an article in Japanese with kanji does look more pro than a article with Romantic letters 

[IntoTheNewWorld]

speaking of learning Kanji, I really dont like my Japanese teacher's approach when it comes to me writing non-prescribed VCE kanji and sometimes having a small stroke or wrong radical, she tells me to just stick to "the VCE kanji so you don't penalize yourself for this"

But it's true XD

That's why VCE Jap sucks =[

(who the hell came up with the idea that 200 Kanji is useful?)

[Furbob]

inoerite.

I swear 200 kanji is really nothing, I mean they could introduce more adjectives/verbs or just opposite meanings
eg. (強い－弱い、広いー狭い、長いー短い） not only does it look sexier but it saves a lot of boxes in the Genkoyooshi considering the limit is quite short, hence you can pack more content in~!

but yeah, I dont really like VCE Japanese as it doesn't leave much space for creativeness since it is quite linear in a way

[IntoTheNewWorld]

but yeah, I dont really like VCE Japanese as it doesn't leave much space for creativeness since it is quite linear in a way

I think the creative writing prompts are a bit um, too creative though. When I saw the dolphin topic last year I was like wtfffff.

But yeah, apart from that studying VCE Jap really stifles learning =[

[nabbiechan]

Anyone can learn how to speak/read any language at quite a high level (being able to travel independently and communicate with ease) with intensive study of anywhere from 3months-12months. Though to be 'fluency' you need far longer than this, most people can be good at a language and claim it to be fluency, there is a big difference as you really need to live in the country for a long time to be considered fluent. Unless you have studied chinese or know chinese, japanese will be towards the other side of this purely due to it's written language being very difficult.
Romantic languages are far easier and it's possible to be speaking one of the easier ones like Spanish or Italian with a high level in a few months depending on your willingness to work.

I agree. I've been told to learn Chinese/Spanish in uni but it's hard to learn chinese especially when you're not willing to learn

Spanish may be okay, after all, I'm also 1/3 spanish and filipino (which has a lot of words that is similar to spanish) -- But it still takes some time to actually become fluent with it.

If I was only born as chinese. Funny thing is, I'm 1/3 Japanese but I don't know how to speak in the language. That's why I'm having a self study, but I might try learning it in uni if i can.

Although it's not that hard for me in regards of the pronunciation. I'm only learning it since May (I've been stopping every once in awhile due to overload of school works), once I get used to it and actually used them whilst talking to my friend, It tends to get easier except for the writing. It's also helps when you watch animes, and listening to music.  :smitten:

That's awesome good luck

The thing with Kanji is, the more you know, the easier it becomes to learn more, because the components of radicals that make up the Kanji come up again and again, so you get used to seeing them.

What resources are you mainly using to learn Jap? Self learning a language is a hard road, but it's so much easier these days with the internet I was self learning Mandarin during VCE, but damn SACs and study kept getting in the way =[

I thought Kanji tends to be repetitive but has alot of meanings (or was that just me? I haven't properly started learning it because of my school :buck2:)

I knew someone who self-learned japanese and is now a chief editor of her manga scanlation group. Although she's still has difficulties with kanji. Nevertheless, she's a typical example of the phrase: "if there's a will, there's a way."

http://coscom.co.jp/learnjapanese201/index.html
http://japaneseclass.jp/
http://www.livemocha.com/
http://koukeisha.net/nihongo-bin/

my friends recommended this sites for me -- I refer back to them when I have my free time. I also take some free japanese apps on my ipod for a quick look as well.

The most useful one I've had so far was the one that my dad gave me, an ebook compilation of "Japanese for busy people" and "Japanese is possible". I can also upload it here although, not really sure where  :buck2:.

[Cthulhu]

I only know one Japanese word besides SEPPUKU.
Hādosekkusudezāto and even then I think its a non-word.

That is *not* a word... we've had this discussion... -.-"

And you do know other Japanese words!

Sushi, karate, judo, kendo, sumo, aikido, jujitsu, tsunami, tycoon, konnichiwa, sayounara, anime, manga, teriyaki... uh... wasabi... kamikaze, haiku, futon, origami, karaoke... samurai, sudoku... umm... bonsai, kimono, miso, sake, sashimi... udon, tempura, koi, geisha... hmm... hentai, sensei...

NINJA!!!

Wtf is a ninja? I think you might be a bit loopy, miss.

[Furbob]

Whaaaat. You dont know what a ninja is?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwXjynpy8Ew  :coolsmiley:

[Fyrefly]

speaking of learning Kanji, I really dont like my Japanese teacher's approach when it comes to me writing non-prescribed VCE kanji and sometimes having a small stroke or wrong radical, she tells me to just stick to "the VCE kanji so you don't penalize yourself for this"

But it's true XD

That's why VCE Jap sucks =[

(who the hell came up with the idea that 200 Kanji is useful?)

200?!?

Is that all you learn?!??

WTFFFFFF