Warning: wall of text.
Quote:
Originally Posted by baddadan
SO i am 28 and now starting out, does that make my chances less than his.
|
Yes. There is a combination of factors making this so.
First is the obvious "life" factors. You likely have a real job now, might have a wife and kids, and the likelihood of you packing up to move to Japan is probably almost zero if you do have a family or a steady job at this point.
The biggest one is the fact that there are two points in your life called "critical periods" for language. The first is about your first year of life, and after that you start categorizing sounds. Take, for instance, the "p" in "happen" and the "p" in "partner." To a native English speaker, they are the same sound. But to a Spanish or Hindi speaker, they are not the same sound.
This is because English treats an "non-aspirated" (haPPen) and "aspirated" p (Partner) as the same sound. But Spanish has
only a non-aspirated p (and the use of non-aspirated p in Spanish is a dead giveaway that the speaker is a gringo), and in Hindi, the aspirated and non-aspirated p sounds actually change the meaning f the word.
If you're curious as to the difference, put your hand about two in front of your mouth and say the two words. Feel the air difference? That is the difference between aspirated and non-aspirated p. Now try and switch the sounds. First, it's probably tough for you to do. Second, "partner" probably sounds like "bartner" to you.
The second critical period happens about when you're in high school. After this period, it becomes exponentially more difficult to learn a language because you just don't absorb vocab and grammar like a kid anymore.
So when I talked about the best years being behind someone, I mean it's just going to be outrageously difficult, if not impossible, to ever achieve native fluency. I figure if you're 28 and just starting out with Japanese, you should know the likelihood of you ever achieving fluency is almost zero. I would be surprised if you could ever watch a Japanese TV show without subtitles and understand it all. Biology is acting against you.
That being said, there are exceptions. I just met a 40-something year old guy who is learning Chinese right now, and his accent is
really good—granted, he did just get back from a month-long vacation in Taiwan with his family, and he has enrolled himself in Chinese school here in Texas with his kids.
When was the last time you learned a language? How are you with learning them? You may already have a feel for how to learn one, and this will go a long way toward being good in Japanese.
Executive summary: If you're 20+ years old, learning a language to fluency is really, really hard if you've never learned any language before. It's biology. But there are exceptions (I've met them, and I am one, too), and your brain may be one.
Quote:
|
Also when you say use skype, how would i use skype to just talk to meet, and get to talk to them to help me in learning this language?
|
Get Skype. Search for users who speak Japanese. Send a message to one of them introducing yourself. See if they're willing. Do a regular chat a few times, then maybe try voice chat if you think your Japanese is up to it. Be prepared to do a language exchange, where you do 20 minutes of English and 20 minutes of Japanese. There are a lot of Japanese people (or there were 5 years ago when I did this) willing to do this. One of my American friends (classmate in Tokyo with me at the time) actually met his wife this way—she messaged him looking to practice her English. The funny thing is that I actually met her first, so one day I meet my friend's new girlfriend, and she starts laughing and tells me that she's the girl I've chatted with on Skype.
Right now, you should (1) order a copy of Kanji in Context (out of print, so be prepared to pay 30-50 USD for it on Amazon IIRC); (2) study Tae Kim's guide to Japanese grammar (free website); and (3) learn hiragana and katakana now. Once you have a foundation of grammar, use Skype.
And you'll never feel "ready" for Skype. Another reason kids are better than adults at languages is because adults are too chicken to give it a go because of the risk of embarrassment. So drink some whisky and try. You'll be surprised how much better your Japanese is. Another of my American classmates in Tokyo sucked while sober, but he got drunk with his Japanese friends and became semi-fluent. Just because he was afraid of making mistakes while sober, so he overthought things.