Does anyone speak JAPANESE fluently as second or third language??

Question

hi, okay im 16 years old and i already speak spanish and english, but i wanna learn japanese now because i plan to go there to study...now wat i need help is to know how u people did it and how long did it take? i know its a very hard language...maybe, but i need some help, did u learn it in school? or books? or something? haha so please help me in any way for those that speak it! thank you!

Answer 1

Hi there! I also already speak English (native) and Spanish (learned in high school) fluently, and right now I'm in my fourth semester of Japanese at college.

It's not really that Japanese is a hard language (the only thing that makes it more complicated is the written language, which has three forms- hiragana, katakana, and the dreaded kanjis). Other than that, it's similarly difficult to other languages, perhaps made a little worse because of its Subject-Object-Verb pattern (versus Spanish and English's Subject-Verb-Object). After three semesters, I'm definitely not fluent, but things are starting to come together. Quite honestly, I think to become really good, you're going to need classes of some sort plus as much supplemental materials (books, manga, anime, etc., etc.) as you can get. Having someone Japanese to chat to is really preferable, too.

I don't know if that helped you, but that's my experience.

Ganbatte! (Good luck!)

Answer 2

I started learning Japanese when I was 17; I am 25 now and am fluent and work at a Japanese company (although I'm leaving my job soon - but that's a different story...). The rules of Japanese are great - verb conjugation, grammatical structure, etc. have very little "exceptions." The way I first started was by the Pimsleur Method. It is by far the easiest and quickest way to pick up a beginner to intermediate level of conversational Japanese. I highly recommend the course. But, the way I learned so fast (I was conversationally fluent within about 2 years) was by having Japanese friends. I almost didn't speak any English my freshman year of college because I was always with my Japanese group of friends. Also, I studied in Japan during my Junior year. I would recommend looking into a college that has a good exchange program where you can take courses in Japan and get credit (all in Japanese - many exchange programs send you to international schools that teach in English - you don't learn as much that way). Obviously, the best way to learn is immersion. Pimsleur will help you get to the point where you can begin conversing - then go use your newly acquired skill! Good luck!

Answer 3

I don't know japanese hardly at all except for a very few words. One of my oldest best friends is taking Japanese at her local community college for some pretty good rates. That's something that you might want to check into. I would also visit your local public library for books. I would say that one of your best bet is to see if there is a book in the "For Dummies" series. I'm not saying that you're not smart, but I have found the collection to be very helpful because it breaks up thinks to a basic level and that's what anyone needs for learning something the first time. After learning all that you can from books when you take a class, you'll be a good jump into it than the other students. It will also help you out that if something was confusing for you, you can ask questions.

Answer 4

There is a "Japanese for Dummies" book, but its probably the worst book in the entire Dummies series. It only uses romanji, and it employs a Japanese style teaching methodology (which includes lots of level innapropriate dialogues, and idiosyncratic vocabulary). Stay away from it. The best Japanese book Ive ever seen is called "Genki". Once you learn Hiragana and Katakana, you can really teach yourself a lot with this book. I live in Japan and teach in a public school, and I find that almost everything I study in Genki is highly relevant, useful, and useable in daily life. The "Rosetta Stone" (computer program) series is also quite good. Switching off between Rosetta and Genki is a good bet. If you use these two tools, it really will be difficult not to learn.