Is it possible to become fluent in Japanese in 4 years?

Question

I want to study in Japan when I'm old enough. I've read the lectures are in Japanese so I'm going to have to learn it. I already am and have a small understanding of symbols and speech but it's not that great. There are no classes where I live, I've checked, but next year I might be able to study it once I've finished with german. Would it be possible to learn it in 4 years, mostly on my own, and how hard would I have to study and what else could I do to help? thanks=]

Answer 1

I wouldn't know if you're a fast learner or not or if you can apply yourself easily. Some people are better at it than others. But I think that if you cover everything from reading to hearing to writing at least an hour or more everyday you might be able to converse well in Japanese. It's hard to say "fluent" because my Japanese teacher from when I was in high school said that you'd always want to learn the polite form first before learning the informal form and for most Japanese they speak in an informal form. But If i was learning Japanese I wouldn't want to learn Japanese in the informal form (without the desu and masu at the end). I took it four years, an hour each day for five days but because I didn't really concentrate I ended up forgetting alot. I suggest you watch shows in Japanese once you learn the conversational speech so that you can keep up your ability.And yea in the fourth year my sensei started lecturing to us in Japanese but i never seriously tried to understand what she said. Fortunately she'd always write the assignments on the board using the kanjis we'd already know. The hardest thing for me was grammar, learning how to use the sentence structure. They are a pain in the butt because they vary ever so slight and the meanings sometimes are pretty much the same. Like they have several ways to use "....but....." or "....only..." sentences. Yea it drove me crazy.

Answer 2

Not all of it, you wouldn't be 'fluent' persay, but you'd know a lot more.  The only way for someone to become truly fluent is to live in a country/area where only that language is spoke for a number of years.

Answer 3

You could brush up on the basics with http://www.japanesepod101.com/ until you're able to get into a class.  There are a bunch of these 101 sites, Spanish, Korean, etc. and they're really fun and helpful.  Audio lessons are free, 8 bucks/month for basis membership.  I think it's very possible to become fluent in 4 years!  A good example is the Korean band DBSK.  They learned and are now fluent in Japanese, and I don't even think they had 2 years to study...it might have been only one!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMIuvi4Og... (if you're interested)  Good luck learning ^_^  

Answer 4

I'd say pretty close, as long as you study every day at least an hour.  Also you should visit Japan as much as you can..............

Answer 5

Take some classes at your local community college and pick up a copy of Rosetta Stone. It's one of the fastest ways of learning a language and is really natural. I took a semester of Japanese in college and it helped me understand a lot and be able to write 2 of their alphabets (there are 3!)

Immerse yourself. Watch Japanese cartoons with english subtitles, it helps!

Answer 6

i passed 3 levels in learning japanese within the past 3 years which means i 'm able 2 communicate  with a lot of basic words n verbs ....i wasn't that tolerant  comparing to my japanese classmates who have passed  the 6th level by now= they can easily pack their bags n live easily n happily ever-after in japan...

so GANBATTE  learning japanese..but i think it'll be pretty hard to do it completely  on your own..go n get some help!!