Quote:
Originally Posted by GTJ
Isn't that kind of low? Like Nagoyankee said, that's less than middle schoolers, and those finishing Japanese 412L are full-grown adults (taking into consideration the few choices for internalizing kanji as well as time constrants and the fact that the Japanese kids learn them for years and years and see them every day)
Seriously? Jeez... I make the assumption based on an Australian I knew who was ridiculous at Japanese and had never even been to the country before. He was at my university and of course got all the girls... he was kind of a prick about his Japanese, actually, but still. I know that Japanese is a widely-offered subject down under from at least high school (certainly not in the States), so that's the basis for my assumption. Guess it was wrong!
I'm also blown away that the "asian" states would have the weakest Japanese speakers. There are far more opportunities to actually speak to natives and practice. I know in my state there are probably a total of TEN Japanese. There's about a million "Japanese" restaraunts, but when I was there I'd go in and ask right away if anyone there was Japanese and they'd admit no. Absolutely no place to practice. >_<
@MMM: Yeah, it's like trying to pick up an armful of wet bars of soap sometimes. I can't seem to remember some kanji past the span of ten minutes @_@
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To be fair, it could be because those who "need" to be in Japan the most (i.e., those who don't have a lot of Japanese people in their states) go abroad, while those who already speak it well stay behind.
But that would imply a different approach to Japanese, then, between those in "flyover country" and those on the Pacific.
I don't think 5–700 is low for someone having studied 2 years. Japanese high school students learn about 1000 during high school for college entrance exams, I think (having learned 1000 up through eighth grade, this makes 2000-ish). This would be 1000 in four years, or 250/yr. And then when you consider that a few weeks at the very beginning of your freshman year in the US is spent learning kana, that leaves about 1.75 years for 5–700 kanji, which puts you on an even or faster pace for kanji than even people living in Japan go through.