JapanForum.com - Moving to Kyoto next April

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMM (Post 868801)

I have been a student of Japanese for over 20 years, and I doubt I could pass any university exam worth its beans.

It takes approximately three times as long for an English speaker to learn Japanese as it does another romance language. Could you realistically learn enough French in 6 months, starting from scratch, to enter a university?

If someone told me they could teach me enough Japanese in 1.5 years to be not only fluent, but intelligent enough to pass a university exam, I would be very suspicious. Why does it take Japanese natives 12 years of education to get to that level, if Nippon Center can do it in 18 months?

Well, it depends on the school, I was between the old 2 and 1 kyuu after 1.5 year of private school in Tokyo, but you need to work your butt off every day. After 2 years we were ready for 1 kyuu. Also depends on personal language learning ability (I have friends married to Japanese girls for 7 years or more and they can barely say good morning), I was soaking it like a sponge. On the other hand, send me to a math class where my absent-mindedness kicks in, and suddenly 2+2 is 5 because it looks more artisctic lol.

Anyways, we learned in Japanese from day 0, from the text books only in Japanese, and the teachers were really good. So yeah, it all depends on how you study and who teaches you.