Speaking Japanese

[AUTO_]

I've decided I'm going to TRY to learn Japanese, and I have some questions for those who do speak it.

Ballpark figure...how long you think it would take someone to be fluent in japanese if they worked at it every day?

Does anyone have any good FREE SITES to learn japanese with an easy interface, etc?

I'm taking up Japanese simply to "pump-up" my PSO experience (not kidding), as I think it would add a lot to the game...for me.

[Atax]

http://www.japanese-online.com/

There are 5 experience levels in Japanese:

Minimal

Daily Conversation

Business (Nihongo Kentei 2-kyu)

Fluent (Nihongo Kentei 1-kyu)

Native

[AUTO_]

On 2003-08-25 01:01, Atax wrote:
http://www.japanese-online.com/

There are 5 experience levels in Japanese:

Minimal

Daily Conversation

Business (Nihongo Kentei 2-kyu)

Fluent (Nihongo Kentei 1-kyu)

Native

Thanks atax

How long would it take someone to be considered native if they work at it everyday (assuming they are fast learners, etc)?

[Atax]

I'm fairly sure it's determined by the number of Kanji you know.

[Inu_Ranma]

Hm...

The citizenship test of Japan requires working knowledge 10,000 Kan'ji. I have a pal who passed it

For the sake of speaking on PSO? I'd say working knowledge of anywhere between 200-500 Kan'ji should suit you very well. That takes, at college pace, approximately 15 months.

[Nazo]

Dude, two words.

Be around them. OK, so that's 3, but that's not the point. I was in Japan 1st~6th grade, and eventually worked up the ladder from there, since I heard Japanese everywhere. I'm not saying that u should jump into a Japanese server and attempt to talk with them, but try to get around some people that may be able to help, online or in real life. I myself learned from playing video games *hint hint, nudge nudge*, such as Pokemon and Mario. Don't laugh, because list-requiring games such as pokemon have a variety of hiragana and katakana use, and in coerce with the syllables, I managed to learn to speak and write and recognize both the Hira/Katakana alphabet.

As for Kanji, I can't really tell you much. If you can get a tutor or something, that'd be great. Get one of those Learn to Speak Japanese! books off a bookstore and hit the books. Learning kanji can be tuff stuff, but once u get the basic ones (like mountain, water, tree, etc.) you should be able to climb up the ladder.... slowlllly....



Which brought attention to me... I was cleaning my room out since I'm moving to another house like 10 minutes from here, cuz its newer... And I found my old Japanese tests. And wow, there were a whole bunch of JR (Japanese Railway) stations that I didn't recognize!!! My Jap is slooooowly slipping...

[Captain_Dude]

Meh, if ya really wanna learn japanese goto a class or get a tutor or something.
All those teach yourself japanese things I found to be pretty useless (up until I gave up really wanting to learn japanese as I would have no practical use for it, unless I got a job fansubbing japanese movies, anime, etc).
They're basically electronic flash cards. You'd get the same affect from read a Japanese to English dictionary (if such a thing is made) and trying to form sentances...


Meh, I could be wrong, but whatever. I know all the programs I tried didn't teach me anything other than how to say "Young Boy and a dog" ^.^;


Bah, I find Patois to be a more interesting language anyway.

[brillyfresh]

actually, Joyo Kanji, or everyday-use kanji, consists of 1,945 characters, that should be learned to be fluent in reading Japanese, and that is on top of the phonetic 46 hiragana characters and 46 katakana characters

and speaking, realistically, would probably take a few years to master and be fluent, although exposure to Japanese-speaking people accelerates that to maybe only a couple years

[Kadavreski]

hogohashira oosugiru

[Kent]

Kore wa amerika-go de nan desu ka.