Japan in 2012

[Toastyzeus]

Hello, I'm a student in Australia studying Japanese. . .

If I study for the rest of this year and next year I will be going on an all paid trip to Japan in 2012 (Well, besides spending money... food, travel and accommodation are provided as I will be staying with a Japanese family)


So I was wondering...
I study Japanese twice a week for a total of 4 hours each week and do additional study at home (occasionally :P, done 3 hours of Japanese work tonight), how advanced would I be in that time period?

Advanced enough to be able to get my point across to a family of natives?

Keep in mind I live in Australia and use minimal Japanese (if any) on a day to day basis...


Anybody with a basic understanding of Japanese feel free to help :P

~Thanks

[yuriyuri]

You should be able to get your thoughts across to them fairly well.
You will have trouble occasionally of course, but a year is a long time and you can learn a lot if you don't stop.

Of course having said that, if you can't/don't practise speaking Japanese then it doesn't matter how much you know, you will have trouble speaking.

It all just boils down to how you use your time.

If you practise speaking a lot but never read, then you will be able to speak but not read.
If you spend a lot of time studying grammar but not much vocab, then you may be able to put a sentence together well, but you will be limited in what you can talk about.
etc.

Anyway, the point is, if you study and practise a lot you should be able to have a basic conversation and you should be able to understand enough to get by.

From my experience I was able to have conversations over IM programs like MSN after a couple of months of study (I studied for at least 6 hours a day without fail to start with)
But I still suck at speaking even (roughly) 2 years on from starting my Japanese study, because I never really get to practise it.
(I mainly just have to read stuff out aloud to myself to practise my speaking at the moment... Which isn't ideal but it's better than nothing)

[Toastyzeus]

I see.. I wish I had a chance to practice my speaking too! There is nobody for me to talk to =.= (I can read a LOT better than I can speak, I think... I can't do either very well right now lol..)

[Qayin]

Wow, I wish I will have chance like this someday. Good luck!

[Toastyzeus]

Thanks, its still a few years away though.. and I need to practice up ^_^

[ParaPara]

Toastyzeus, when you say that you study twice a week, are you referring to a formal class?

[Toastyzeus]

Yes, alongside homework every night, hehe.

[kareemjojohn]

Originally Posted by Toastyzeus

Hello, I'm a student in Australia studying Japanese. . .

If I study for the rest of this year and next year I will be going on an all paid trip to Japan in 2012 (Well, besides spending money... food, travel and accommodation are provided as I will be staying with a Japanese family)


So I was wondering...
I study Japanese twice a week for a total of 4 hours each week and do additional study at home (occasionally :P, done 3 hours of Japanese work tonight), how advanced would I be in that time period?

Advanced enough to be able to get my point across to a family of natives?

Keep in mind I live in Australia and use minimal Japanese (if any) on a day to day basis...


Anybody with a basic understanding of Japanese feel free to help :P

~Thanks

I am also thinking for go Japan and live there.. I am trying my best to learn Japanese language by myself but its not really easy! I can speak a little bit. You should talk to someone in Japanese regularly which can help you to improve your speaking power..

Wish you best of luck dear