How Long Does It Take To Learn Japanese?

How much time will it take learn to speak Japanese fluently? When a lot of people first start out with Japanese, they wish to master the language as fast as possible. To answer the question, it really depends on how determined you are about learning Japanese.

People really do not worry about how long it will take to learn Japanese.  In most cases, they really want to know how hard they will have to work. And clearly, there is no clear-cut way to tell someone exactly how long or how much effort it will take to master the language. The most important aspect though, is how badly you want to learn Japanese.

You can realistically learn spoken Japanese pretty quickly if you are serious about it. With the right drive and motivation, there are people that will master Japanese in under a year, while there are also people that actually move to Japan and live there for quite some time that can barely say the word sushi.

Though often quite expense, you’ll find that the best way to learn Japanese is with personal instruction or language classes. Most people can’t afford classes, though, and so the next best step is to get some instructional books or software programs that will show you how to speak Japanese. These are all excellent ways to get a good understanding of the Japanese language and kick-start your studying.

The best way to become conversationally fluent very fast is to apply what you learn at every opportunity.  It’s an excellent strategy to practice your Japanese with native speakers and friends from your Japanese classes too. When you start putting the Japanese you learn in the classroom into action, you will be shocked at how quickly you can take your Japanese to a higher level. Talking to native speakers gives you the opportunity to learn some useful slang that you won’t learn in the textbooks.

A lot of people think that it is extremely hard to learn to speak Japanese, however this is just a misconception.  I mean, how difficult can it be?  You barely have to conjugate any verbs at all (unlike Spanish). However, I must confess, that learning to read and write Japanese, is probably going to be more of a task.

Learning all those new characters is going to be tricky at first if you’ve only ever used the English alphabet. Hiragana and Katakana probably won’t take you more than a few weeks to learn, but things start getting hairy when you dive into the Kanji.  Are you ready to confront your fears and memorize nearly two thousand characters?

Before you get frustrated and give up, though, remind yourself that this is the same as learning to speak the language. It simply requires continual practice and application. Avoid relying on Romaji when you’re learning to make things even faster. Try to come up with little strategies to remembering what each character means. For example, the Kanji character for “me” (meaning “eye”) looks like an eye with two eyelids. Let the creativity flow and you’ll find that it is pretty simple to create ways to memorize the Kanji.

So how much time is it going to take to learn Japanese? It is going to take you just as long as you need. Of course some people will needless to say learn faster than others, but the most important factor to consider is your level of commitment. Don’t give up and take things one day at a time.