Can i learn Japanese?

Question

Ok, I'm fascinated by computers and everything electronic. So who has all the best computers and gadgets......Japan of course. So i want to learn the Japanese language along side studying to be a Computer hardware engineer so i can move to Japan and live there and even become a citizen. But my question is it possible for me a average student to succeed my goal. And is my goals unrealistic.

Also how many course does it approximately take to have a decent understanding of Japanese. Strong enough to work and live.

Answer 1

Well it might take a few years to strongly speak fluent in Japanese.  I'd plan about 5 years to take these courses to learn Japanese but the best way to learn the most to speak well of Japanese is to go and live in Japan after you have some knowledge about the language and can speak some Japanese.  

Answer 2

Japanese is difficult to learn, but perhaps not as difficult as you would think. Whilst it may take a while to come to terms with the huge differences between Japanese and English, the spoken language is actually pretty simple, and the written language can be learned very successfully with a little hard work and logical planning. Obviously more difficult than most European languages, but probably easier than other exotic languages, the lack of tones is a blessing for westerners.

Japanese pronunciation is dead easy, all the sounds are perfectly natural for the native English speaker, the only new sound is the Japanese R which is nothing like an English R and involves tapping your tongue just behind your teeth, similar to the English L.

Japanese grammar is not particularly complicated, but the sheer differences of the language compared to English can cause problems. An agglutinative language, you will need some time to organize your thought "backward" unless you already speak Turkish or Korean who are organized similarly. Japanese verbs always go at the end of the sentence, hence the language sounds back to front to the English speaker. Japanese is very well structured and once you know the speech patterns, irregularities are rare. Japanese has only three irregular verbs!

One year of hard study should see you speaking the language well in most situations. The written language will inevitably take longer but it is genuinely possible to learn the 1945 characters you need in less than six months, and be relatively fluent within two years.

Answer 3

Of course you can, pure3363-san. There is nothing but good motivation that can make you learn anything. If you're already familiar and a little interested with Japanese culture, it won't be hard at all.

Ganbatte, pure3363-chan!! May Kami-sama bless you!

Answer 4

No.  You can't.

Answer 5

Jump in !

Within 6 month, you can see the goal.

"Slow and steady win the race".

Answer 6

After one year at SFSU taking Japanese, my brother went to Japan and could work around the language barrier fairly well.

I say think about what you are interested in. If you really want to, then yes: any language can be made easy, depending on how much effort you are willing to put into it. I will say: Kanji is hard. Very hard.

Good luck.

P.S.- as with everything in life, have a backup plan!