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| Gen 930th Post
 
Red Carpet Regular Member++
    
    
    
|  "Re(1):Q for non-native Japanese speakers"
, posted Tue 12 Nov 20:38
quote:
Hey all,
My question is how many years or semesters of Japanese does it take for your Japanese to become useful.
I'm sure you can guess what my goal is for learning Japanese. Watching anime and reading manga/video game guides.
Anyway, thanks all. I hope I can devote some time to learning it.
I can tell you that I know people who took 10 years of Spanish, and can't communicate with Mexicans. I don't know about this, but I wonder if they teach continental Spanish in class and it doesn't jive with Mexican Spanish. The other possible reason is they were grade mongers, who just memorized and studied for tests, and didn't 'actually learn'.
However, as just an anime fan, I can tell you that I felt like I was learning rapidly from the one semster of Japanese that I took. I know a guy that took 1-2 semesters and he brags years later that he is surprised that he remembers so much when he's watching anime.
Well basically, you'd want to do both regular studying and try practicing Japanese to learn it. A Japanese lady I knew said that if I tried learning from movies, I might be using outdated vocabulary.
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| Gen 931th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member++
| "Re(3):Q for non-native Japanese speakers" , posted Tue 12 Nov 21:02
quote:
hmmm, i'd also like to know from those specific non-native Japanese speakers. that's one of my goals in life ...
about Spanish, i know exactly what you mean. i've taken at least 6 years of Spanish in my life (granted, i slept through most of those classes) but i can only understand very little. anyways, my friends, fluent in Spanish, tell me that they use a "weird" version of Spanish on those classes, or the "Spain" version (kinda like how the British speak differently from Americans). i do watch Spanish regularly on tv though, which helps a bit. i can get the gist of what's going on sometimes. Spanish channels are great. there's a hot chick on the screen 50% of the time and they show things that censors wouldn't let come anywhere close to English channels
That's what I like about those Spanish shows. I think by contrast U.S. shows have abandoned standards of female beauty in favor of political correctness, and it makes me sad. I also think the scenery is nicer in those Spanish shows.
Emersion is good for learning a language. Living among people who speak the language seems to work better than classes. Probably a combination is the best.
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| OYashiroForever
48th Post
Rare Customer
| "Re(5):Q for non-native Japanese speakers" , posted Tue 12 Nov 22:58
quote:
It was two years of college japanese before I could confidently speak with japanese natives. but I did have a bit of japanese in highschool as a base for this.
I'm in my third year at the moment, but I SUCK at reading it. This is my own fault though.
Lastly, after abut 3 years of honors spanish I became near fluent and could speak with ANYONE in spanish. It's the easiest language to learn after knowing english.
but Japanese is not that tough once you get the sentence structure.
Hmmm... well, mileage may vary. Obviously, the younger you are, the better off you'll be, so get crackin' now! I myself took 2 years of japanese in high school and am currently in my 5th semester of it in college. While I can certainly speak, read, and write with a fair degree of competence at this point, I won't really know dick until I go to Japan (hopefully during the summer).
Like all languages, Japanese is an entirely different language when spoken by natives. Between their knack for word contractions, alternate verb tenses and forms, and an entire new languages' worth of slang, the Japanese almost give Americans speaking English a run for their money for pure linguistic creativity.
Bottom Line: If you seriously wanna be able to watch non-subtitled anime or read manga from the source, you're going to need a couple years' worth of training and then an extended trip to Japan (or at least a native speaker to talk with on a daily basis).
"I haven't slept for 10 days because that would be too long."
"Your denial is beneath you and thanks to the use of hallucinogenic drugs I see through you."
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| Tashoku Kisune 1286th Post
Red Carpet Executive Member
  
| "Re(3):Q for non-native Japanese speakers" , posted Wed 13 Nov 05:46
quote:
hmmm, i'd also like to know from those specific non-native Japanese speakers. that's one of my goals in life ...
about Spanish, i know exactly what you mean. i've taken at least 6 years of Spanish in my life (granted, i slept through most of those classes) but i can only understand very little. anyways, my friends, fluent in Spanish, tell me that they use a "weird" version of Spanish on those classes, or the "Spain" version (kinda like how the British speak differently from Americans). i do watch Spanish regularly on tv though, which helps a bit. i can get the gist of what's going on sometimes. Spanish channels are great. there's a hot chick on the screen 50% of the time and they show things that censors wouldn't let come anywhere close to English channels
Hey, JJJ.. I LOVE the avatar. ^_~
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| Maou
22th Post
New Customer
| "Re(4):Q for non-native Japanese speakers" , posted Wed 13 Nov 10:29
Long, but hopefully semi-useful: It really will depend a lot on the level of conversation you want, though if your purpose is for reading the like of games and watching movies, you'll be somewhat frustrated if you only study for two years. Intro Japanese tends to focus a lot on getting the speakers to be able to read the basic scripts (let alone kanji), and drills in the everpresent -masu polite form of verbs, despite the fact that it would be far easier if they started you with plain form. As a result, students are often more uncomfortable with the ever-present plain form of talking, and as thus will be at a complete disadvantage in their attempts to converse with friends and of course deal with pop culture works like you're interested in.
"Learning from anime and games," the classic otaku student other Japanese students fear, can be somewhat helpful in getting you used to the TONE of sentences so that the language sounds natural to you at fast speeds. On the other hand, they tend to pick up lots of useless words and worse, very very cliched ways of talking. That kind of thing will at least train your ear.
More useful may be an RPG or comic, sheerly for the repition of the writing you will see. Even those with less understanding of what they are reading should at least be getting the practice of reading the hiragana "letters"; this will help your reading speed immensely later on. I remember playing through FF V in Japanese with M. Rosa's decent script alongside, and it did get me used to reading, though I had already been in Japanese for a couple of years. Not very helpful too early on.
Feasibly, three years of high school Japanese, or two of college should put you on a level where you can semi-competantly talk with people, but you still won't deeply understand the books or games you read. What's absolutely key on any level is exposure. Keep listening to the Japanese music you like, keep watching movies, keep listening to the intonation and pronounciation and your accent improves tenfold, which in turn will help you stop "thinking in English." Once you can think coherently in another language and talk without translating in your mind, you'll be able to understand much more. A year abroad will be very helpful for that, too.
That's just my experience and impression from my studies and from looking at others I see trying out the language.
Maou
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"Re(2):Q for non-native Japanese speakers" 
Heart of Sword
