Quote:
Originally Posted by Iffy
I'm heading off to bed now, but just so I have some way to compare our experiences: How did you learn Japanese, how long did it take you, and how well do you know it now? Did you take four years of classes? How long did it take you to be able to converse in Japanese, at least on a basic level? Is this something that is likely to take six or more years, or is this something I can learn fairly fluently by the time I graduate from school (assuming I put in the extra out-of-class study/practice)?
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I speak Japanese, but not at a native level. I studied on my own off and on through junior high and high school, but this is negligible. In fact, it is so negligible in its effects that I completely forgot that I studied on my own in junior high until a friend from that time brought it up in a conversation recently!
When I got to university, I took one class each semester for two years. The class was about 5–6 hours per week of class time. I also attended a Japanese conversation club for about 4 hours per week, where I chatted with native speakers.
I moved to Japan and lived there a year while studying at a university there.
I moved back to the US and continued one more year of classes before I graduated. My studies have been very infrequent since then, and my ability to speak has dropped a bit in the past three years. However, I'm working on improving my vocabulary and reading ability to compensate until I find the time again to meet with natives (maybe I'll have to move to a new city to do so; I don't exactly live near Little Tokyo right now).