Quote:
Originally Posted by Lonewolf
Hi Nyororin. I was just wandering how long it took you to learn Japanese? I am just wandering because I want to go to Japan next year, and my Japanese is not very good at all. I will probarly study the language for a year or so first, because I don't realy want to work as an English teacher, more like a regular job, for which I will need fluent or near fluent Japanese. I will probarly have to work as an English teacher till I get settled, but I will start learning Japanese there as soon as I arrive. So how hard is it to learn Japanese and how long do you think it will take me?
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I was able to manage life after around 2 or 3 months, but it took me around 6 months to reach reasonable *fluency*. I didn`t actually take any exams in Japanese until much later, but I would guess that I could have passed the JLPT 2 after around 9 months or so, and the JLPT 1 after a little over a year... However, I never actually studied, so I`m sure it could be done in a shorter time period if you`re actually working toward a goal.
I think it really all depends on what you choose to do once you`re here. If you avoid Japanese-only situations because they`re stressful (which they are if you don`t understand what`s going on) then it may take a very very long time. I`ve seen exchange students, who were relatively immersed in Japanese high schools, who were still only at a very basic level when they went home a year later - mainly because they used English whenever they had the chance.
So, it really depends upon you yourself. If you teach English and hang out with the fellow English teachers, you may still have trouble putting together 2 words after a whole year.