how long?(japanese)?

Question

how long does it take to learn fluent japanese with using romanji?

Answer 1

If you were living day in and day out with Japanese and using the language; studying it too; then it would be an easier matter to speak passable Japanese -- not fluent by any means. And, to think that you could be fluent in Japanese without knowing its other forms of writing is ludicrous. Language uses its method of writing as metaphor for its philosophy. You would be missing the point of much of what you hear. For example, word, omoshiroi, "interesting" is written with the characters 'surface' and 'white.' In the end it would only make it harder for you. The written language is so tied up with the grammar as well.
You could learn all the basics of Japanese within a short amount of time. But, it would still take years of practice to get up to speed speaking. I would say like about 10 years. About 3 to be able to function on a minimal level. I don't know about being able to read and write. I think it would help you in the long run more than it would hurt. And, also Japanese don't like to read romaji if they can help it.
You can learn Japanese well enough in two or three years that people who don't speak it will think that you are good at speaking it. I lived in Japan for 3 years. I had a existance here that was a subculture of Japanese living abroad for another seven. I have taken a number of classes on the college level and so on and I feel that I am able to speak it at the level of a school child.

Answer 2

That depends on how hard you study as well as how badly you want to learn, but if you want to be fluent, then I recommend you to learn hiragana, katakana and kanji as well. It is probably not impossible to be able to speak by learning romaji only, but since that is not what actually used in Japanese language, even if you are fluent you are still illiterate. That is not very good. I am Japanese, and I tell you, learning Japanese with romaji only is like me trying to learn English with katakana only. That is useless, I know, because I have tried when I started learning it.
I wish you good luck learning Japanese, but my advice is, if you want to be fluent quickly, then learn hiragana, katakana and kanji. As you may know, there are so many words in Japanese with the same pronunciations but with different kanjis, and I think that is particularly hard to understand if you only know romaji. And since romaji is not used in everyday life in Japan, some people find it confusing to read, so you would be better off being able to write Japanese letters.

Answer 3

I'm Japanese and I don't really like to hear that you want to learn only Romaji to communicate with Japanese people. Romaji is not really Japanese language, you know. I can tell that you really don't want to learn Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji probably because it's too hard for you to learn them, but if you want to really communicate with Japanese people, you need to learn Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

I've never heard that people want to be fluent in Japanese by using only Romaji. Anyway, I don't think there would be an answer for your question. Who knows how long it will take to be fluent in Japanese w/o learning real Japanese language!?

Answer 4

That depends entirely on your time and devotion. Standard phrases can be learned rather quickly, but give it at least a couple of years to be fully conversant - and remember that Romaji is just a helping tool. To thoroughly understand the language, you should learn to read/write Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji as well.

Answer 5

It depends, really. It could take years! But if I were you, I'd learn Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji or else what's the point?

Answer 6

depends how you go about learning it.. if you go live in japan, you could probably become fluent in a year or two.. but if you just work on it occationally like I do, it could take many years..

Answer 7

eight letters.