How long do you need to take on average to learn japanese?

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Adam

If you go to Japan, you can learn it quicker. You can get by within a few months.

If you study from another country, and you study a lot, then I'd say a year or more.

Spanglish McWhirter

It took me a year just to learn *how* to learn Japanese - if you catch my drift. It's difficult as far as reading and writing goes. Pronunciation isn't hard though. Grammar is different but logical and understandable.

Carl_the_Truth

It will take years to learn it well...And you need to use it everyday, or you'll lose it. It's best if you have a Japanese friend to practice with.

Falcon Driver

I'm finally fluent in Japanese after 18 years of constant study and over a decade of living in Japan.

Selena

Thanh is almost right...count 20 years for Japanese studying every day at least 3 hours! The basic level is not that hard, you can do it in 2 years if you study every day! The advanced grammar gets very difficult to remember and well the kanjis, repeat, repeat and repeat every day!

errol J

I'm American and I live in Japan and I'll tell you the easy way is to get a Japanese friend because going to school takes years. If you just talk to people you will pick it up fast.I never went to school and it took me 3 years to read ,write ,and speak japanese

hello

get a japanese friend

Thanh

It take 9 years to be fluent in any language.

sellatieeat

uh.. i'm in the process of learning right now.
writing is pretty hard.
but learning how to speak is okay.
the grammar isn't very difficult.
i would say that english is harder.

iseedeadpickles10391

Depends on a lot of things. How smart you are. If you have a good teacher. If you teach yourself. How much you study. Even if you study for a long time, hearing it spoken normally is not nearly the same as book work. I took a 6 month course and learned to read a little bit. Speaking? Hardly. When I was in Japan I could catch a few things here and there. If people talked SLOWLY maybe a little more. I did have a really bad teacher though.

amor

i love japan very much i learned its language in 3 months only
good morning (ohayo gozaimasu)
good night (oyasominasaii)
hello(konichiwa)
bye(konichiwa)

cali23baby@yahoo.com

comichiua

BG 313

It's different for everybody.

I lived in Japan for two years, and was able to get by with no problems. I had very little trouble understanding people, could read the scripts, and knew enough Kanji not to get lost.

I picked up some books here and there, but never really did much studying.

I knew others who studied for an hour everyday, and after a year passed the JLPT Level 3.

Still, others had been there 5, 6, 7+ years and would be confused if you said, "Ohayo."

It all depends on your efforts.

angelsilverstar

Depends on the aspect of Japanese. I have been learning it for years at Uni and at school but I would not say that I am fluent or anything. This would require time in Japan. The main problem is Kanji, this takes many years to learn as there are so many characters and combinations, even Japanese people do not know them all! As with anything, keep at it and you will find that things become easier.

hailstorm2007

The answer really depends on your learning environment. If you come to Japan and enter an intensive emersive training program, you can be communicating within three months, and near fluent in close to a year. If you're in America reading "Japanese For Busy People" once a week, it's likely to take you several years just to master the two alphabet systems.

In the case of an average person who is able to study with a teacher several times a week such as in a college course, I think that basic communication skills can be learned within a year, with fluency obtained with three to four years of uninterrupted study.

Princess Kushinada

It depends on your language background.
Chinese don't put as much effort on Kanji as Europeans, so they can concentrate on their reading , listening and grammar skills. Korean vocabulary and grammar are similar, so they learn very very fast!
You can never say you've learned a language because the more you learn the more you understand there's much more to learn. But well, it took me 4 years to cover 1st level of JLPT , studying almost alone and in my home country.

ajal

Ofcourse depends on your time and ability....japanese isnt hard to learn but you need a good teacher and suitable books and if you HAVE a good reason to learn you will study faster and you gotta decide if you only wanna study basic conversation but how about characters in writing,I think most important is ability to LISTEN and being able to understand what Japanese is all about and being able to understand their way of life,its REALLY different.I live in Japan over 12 years and still dont understand and speak well,just because im too busy working and raising my kid but if you really focus it still will take up to 2 or 3 years and experience LIVING HERE,that is BEST lesson.take care

Riven Liether

lol, Well, if you mean fluently, a number of years, just like with any language. I only took one year of Japanese at my university, since that was all it was offerring at the time. I really miss it. T_T

One year is enough to get the basics (pronunciation, phrasology, hiragana, katakana, some kanji) down. But if you don't use them regularly, you're lost.

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